Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 11/18/09 Section: Opinion

The video game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," a first-person shooter, was released worldwide last week.

Its creators were hoping to ride the success of the first "Modern Warfare" game, which was released in 2007 and sold more than 13 million copies.

According to Kotaku, a gaming blog, Activision said "Modern Warfare 2" sold more than five million units on the first day it was released in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.

People who play the game's campaign story mode will encounter the level, "No Russian," within the first hour of play.

The first time I saw "No Russian" in a video on the Web, when the game was leaked onto the internet, allowing it to be pirated for the Xbox 360.

Someone played through the level and posted a video of it online in late October.

In the level, you play as a CIA undercover agent trying to infiltrate a Russian terrorist ring.

The terrorists are in a Moscow airport, about to come out of an elevator, primed and ready to kill civilians.

I sat uncomfortably watching "No Russian" being played, wondering why this would even be included, and wondering what the developer, Infinity Ward, was trying to tell people who played the game.

The reason the level is called "No Russian" is that before the elevator opens, the Russian terrorist leader warns the player's character to not speak Russian as the terrorists plant false evidence.

The false evidence will make it seem that the U.S. was involved in the terrorist attack.

This would potentially start a global conflict which is the terrorist's goal.

The moment the elevator doors open, the player watches four other terrorists in front of him mow down the first group of victims. The group then proceeds to shoot anyone who gets in its way.

Civilians in the game flee in terror. Those who aren't shot are killed anyway, and the wounded try and crawl to safety, leaving a blood trail behind them.

As the player, you are in control of whether you want to pull the trigger, to choose whether you want to kill civilians or not.

Because the video was shown before the game's release, a spokesperson from Activision stated that players would encounter a checkpoint in the game that asks if they want to skip the "scene of atrocities."

If this scene can be skipped, why should it be in the game at all?

Wouldn't there be another way to show that the incident happened in the game, instead of having to live it so violently?

Continued...

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