Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

34° Evanston, IL
Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Barzon: Would you blindly obey order to kill?

Tuesday, Nov. 10 will likely go down in history as a watershed date in the evolution of video games. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the widely anticipated sequel to one of the most popular first-person shooters of all time, was finally released to the adulation of gamers everywhere.

Being a fan of the first game, I was ecstatic when I got to watch a friend play a copy of the sequel Tuesday. The first level was everything I expected: shooting, explosions, ample use of animated blood – the usual. The second level, however, challenged not only our beliefs surrounding censorship but the very essence of our humanity.

It began by presenting the unusual choice to skip the mission. Choosing to accept, my friend was placed in the shoes of a CIA operative charged with the task of gathering intelligence by posing as a Russian terrorist. The terrorists were preparing for an operation to massacre everyone in a Moscow airport. Instead of preventing the attack, you have to go along with it so you don’t break your cover.

The carnage that followed was accompanied by our complete silence. I could tell my friend was uncomfortable, but that didn’t stop him from pulling the trigger or finishing off the wounded.

This isn’t the first time Infinity Ward, the game’s developer, has pushed the envelope of video-game storytelling to such extremes. In the first Modern Warfare, players were forced to experience first-hand a character’s death from radiation poisoning, and much of the game’s weaving narrative took place in real-life conflict zones in the Middle East. However, nothing in the first game could have prepared us for something so unsettling. Being behind the eyes of a mortally wounded soldier – desperately struggling to stagger forward before falling to the ground and dying in the middle of an irradiated wasteland – is still a far cry from mowing down innocent people in an airport.

The slaughter left us both deeply affected. The feeling was strange, considering the massive amount of digitalized gore we’ve both shrugged off and sometimes laughed off since childhood. What I saw on-screen in MW2 that night was something I had already done most likely a thousand times over in Grand Theft Auto. But the key difference was this was presented with such degree of gravitas that I was actually forced to contemplate whether the developers had actually crossed some invisible line of decency. I may have felt somewhat disgusted but I was also impressed, much like how I felt after reading “Lord of the Flies” or watching the final scene of “Soldier Blue.” I essentially felt just as challenged as I would have from experiencing a compelling work of art, and that frightened me.

Infinity Ward may have inadvertently elevated video games to the realm of art, but I doubt many gamers will take notice. Our kill-death ratios in multiplayer deserve far more attention.

Medill junior Carlton Barzon can be reached at [email protected].

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Barzon: Would you blindly obey order to kill?