He Shoots, He Scores! Modern Warfare 2 a Bloody Hit
Video game sets new standard for violence
By ARI ODZER
Updated 10:11 AM EDT, Wed, Nov 18, 2009
Do you want to know what it feels like to be a terrorist? To fire an assault rifle at every single person you see in an airport? Hear the screams and see the blood spurt? Modern Warfare 2 is fun for the whole family!
Well, maybe not the whole family. The latest release from video game maker Activision is rated M for Mature. You're supposed to be 17 years old to play the hottest game around, which is also, perhaps, the most shockingly violent release ever.
Unlike other war games, instead of shooting at soldiers, in one part of MW2 you shoot at civilians. Players can choose to avoid this part, which is fast becoming notorious among gamers.
You as the player are a CIA agent who has infiltrated a fictional Russian ultra-nationalist terrorist group whose leader is trying to spark a world war. You're trying to prevent it, so you have to go along as they massacre civilians in the Moscow airport. It looks real, it looks horrifying. Men and women waiting at the security checkpoint are cut down as they stand in line. People running from the chaos are riddled with bullets. One man trying to drag a wounded friend to safety is shot in the head. Blood runs everywhere, as the gunmen nonchalantly walk through it, over the dead and screaming, choosing victims to shoot.
Even hard-core video gamers, like Jason Lopez, have a hard time with this one.
"This one definitely raises the bar as far as what video games have become over the past couple of years," Lopez told us as he showed us how the game is played. "As far as violence, I've never seen anything like that."
Lopez compared playing the airport scene in MW2 to watching a movie, saying he just can't bring himself to shoot civilians. Even virtual civilians.
But the intense violence doesn't appear to be turning too many gamers off. When it was released last week, Modern Warfare 2 set a record for single-day sales, with 4.7 million copies sold. But is it just good clean fun?
"Television violence, movie violence, doesn't hold a candle to video game violence because you're in the role, you can deliver the violence instead of just sitting passively, watching, like you do in a movie theatre," says Dr. Scott Poland, a Nova-Southeastern University professor who's an expert on youth violence.
He said despite what the gaming industry often contends, there's plenty of evidence that video games can make kids more violent. Dr. Poland points to several studies that show a direct link between violent video games and abherrent behavior among juveniles.
"In layman's terms, it definitely has an effect in causing people to be more aggressive and less helping, less caring, less kind to others," the professor said.
Dr. Poland's not saying youth-involved tragedies like the Mikey Brewer burning incident, or the Virginia Tech massacre or even Columbine were directly caused by exposure to video games, but there's no question, he says, that parents need to be vigilant about what they allow their kids to play.
"It's strong images, but this isn't gonna make me want to perform something like this," Lopez said as he watched a security guard blown to shreds.
But Lopez is an adult. "Of course, which is what this game is made for, it's not made for kids," Lopez said.
But with millions of copies floating around, we all know they're playing it. If not at your house, then maybe at their friends' homes.
First Published: Nov 17, 2009 9:20 PM EDT
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