Violence stepping up a level

Well as I'm sure you are aware, the new Call of Duty Modern warfare has been released and has had record breaking sales. However, one area of the game has been highly scrutinized and has resulted in the game being taken off the shelf in countries such as Russia and Germany. This is the part where you are undercover as a Russian terrorist. You are sent to an airport and told to kill every innocent civilian you see. Now, there are many other games out there where you can kill as many random people as you wish, Grand Theft Auto being the obvious one, but in that you have the choice to do so. In this situation, you are forced to. If you don’t then the terrorists become suspicious and if you fight back, then you fail the mission. You do have the option of skipping the level in the first place, but then why put the level in the game in the first place, if you know that it will be looked down upon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NMnnMRWJ-0&feature=related

I think one of the main reasons it makes people shiver is the fact that you know that you are the good guy, but you have to act like a bad guy. When it comes to moral gaming, people will choose what they feel is right. For example, i have been playing a bit of Dragon Age Origins lately, in where you can decide how to respond in conversations. You can be a decent person, being kind and helpful, or you can be a complete arse. Now when i see some of the responses you can see which is the mean response, they do me me laugh a bit, but i still go with the kind option simply because that's who i am, and i will feel bad afterwards. People can argue that it is only a game, its not real, unfortunately it can affect some people and has done, kids acting out games which results in serious injuries or even death.

Of course the game does have an age rating of 18 and only suitable for adults, but this wont stop 10 year olds from playing it. At a younger age games can have a strong affect on children's minds, making them believe that because its only a game it makes it ok to carry out such acts. Personally i don’t see why people complain about the amount of violence or swearing in games, the age rating is there for a reason and the same can be said about films and even music. I guess what separates the games from the films and music is the fact that you actually control what happens, where as in a film it is already been done and is displayed to you, where you have no interaction whatsoever.

Anyway, gone off at a slight tangent. Usually, games such as GTA don't bother me at all when you can drive around knocking people down at you own will, shooting endless cops knowing you are in the wrong, but for some reason it doesn't affect people as much as CoD:MW2 has. I suspect it is partly due to the realism of the event. The animations and the screams and cries of innocent people, its something that looks like it could actually happen.

Infinity Ward, the makers of MW2 are in the process of making a patch that will remove the mission altogether, until then, it wont be available in Russia. This could be a valuable lesson for game developers, they may think that with the technology available they can create ultra realistic games, but sometimes people can go too far.