Why does that XM8 have an M16 front sight and not really a rear sight?
@Kierkegaard said:
@MarkWahlberg said:
@Kierkegaard said:
I like that breakdown of Treyarch's approach. Although they play around with some rank shit, Treyarch seem like they are having so much more fun with storytelling. IW proper is gone, but the self-seriousness that worked okay in the dramatic COD4 became self-indulgence in MW2.
I haven't played one of these damn games since COD4, so color me impressed that I'm even interested. Still, I don't like the imagery of non-western people in these games. People of color are usually bad guys at the end of a gun. I hope this game changes that and, even as its having future fun, crafts a more equitable interpretation of society. Big bad China and a dude with a Latino-sounding name seem like more of the same jingoism from here....
Still, those gameplay changes and the desire to go on a more meaningful adventure make me intrigued. Good job at least doing that, Treyarch. And good writing, Jeff.
Modern Warfare and BLOPS had kind of interesting takes on jingoism, though. BLOPS was less subtle about it (the final shot is so ironic it borders on satire), although it had a better story, but what made those games so bizarre was the quiet reminders in the background that you're not good, you're just less evil than the guys you're shooting. Woods' line in the trailer about 'we who can do what others cannot' is overtly jingoistic, and in with any other game I'd be put off by it; but he's actually just the continuation of what these games have been doing with Capt. Price and Reznov (and yes I know they're from different creators, it still holds). I don't want to turn this into a big long thing, but if they can continue with that same crazy take on anti-war, anti-patriotism stuff, I'm totally fine with whatever else they do.
They take a shaky line on it, though. For all the oooh the military white guy you're working for is actually evil stuff, there's still Price hanging a dude through a glass ceiling and the continual appearance of "enemies" as dudes of Russian, Middle Eastern, or, now, Chinese appearance. It seems like they're trying to be anti-war while using all the 'hoo-rah I hate foreigners' imagery, too. It seems like a cynical way to win middle America's money rather than have a consistent tone.
When your game becomes "killing is cool!" but, "sometimes it leads to eternal warfare, which is bad, but here's more killing, so yay!" I get skeptical.
I'm just gunna quote the whole block because I don't feel lick looking for the original, but I'll say this. Most conflicts right now have Africans killing Africans, Middle Eastern folks killing Middle Eastern and Western folks (which btw are generally pretty diverse, plenty of folks in American branches are of all sorts of origins. Some even joined the Military just to become a citizen. CoD is focusing on looking at real conflicts and potential near future conflicts. Most of the time, the bad guys aren't really westerners, because the west has little reason to start wars, especially with each other.
And I think when you look at the psyche of actual serving soldiers, you'll notice that there is a lot of "Fuck war, but fuck yeah war." They hate it in a lot of ways, they lose people they love, they lose brothers closer than most have every known, they are miserable, in an unusual place. But they still find themselves pulled into it, wanting more, wanting to come back. A lot of guys come back injured, and half the reason they hate their injury is because it prevents them from continuing to serve in the same role they served before. War isn't black and white, especially for the ones actively engaged in it. I don't think anyone really wants constant warfare but there are certainly those that want to "go where the guns are", and there always will be.
Sure, you could make a game that was hard set on saying "Man fuck war" or "fuck yeah lets kill shit", and sure you could make America the bad guys. But it wouldn't have much staying power. Say all you want about America's involvement in foreign conflicts, they are just that, foreign conflicts. It's not like Afghanistan was a peaceful state before American forces entered there, and it's not like there aren't soldiers and Marines and Corpsmen and Airmen out there that have compassion for the people there, who want to help them, but that doesn't mean they don't get a thrill from combat or take some measure of joy in killing the son of a bitch that killed a brother in arms or shot at him. No matter how miserable a war is, there will be those who want to go back. Not because "fuck yeah killing" but because it's what they do, it's who they are. It shouldn't be much of a surprise that the career that requires 4-5 months of pure training, no real outside activity, attracts people like that. It requires an intensity, and that intensity doesn't usually go away because they had a miserable experience in a war.
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