During our discussion the other day on Crysis 2's ashen New York City in the context of the attack earlier this decade, Modern Warfare 2 and its imagery -- however nonspecific it aims to be -- of a fresher conflict came up. No, the Modern Warfare games are not explicitly "about" nor are they set in the real Iraq and Afghan wars, but to say that absolves them from a relationship to current events gives them too easy a pass. They are a reflection of our times.
Because of its ability to make me think about real soldiers, real foreign combatants and real war, I've never enjoyed the Modern Warfare games' campaigns. Regardless of political stance, to "enjoy" war or think of it as something to "play" is anathema to me. The franchise's success is primarily attributable to its multiplayer, of course, but its spirit isn't something I think can be so easily divorced from it no matter what mode you're playing. Imagery's imagery and association is association.
As the game is apparently quite decisively the "biggest entertainment launch of all time," or so says the Guinness Book of World Records today, the things about it that bother me clearly don't bother an unprecedentedly large portion of the global population. Either that, or it does bother them, and they like to be bothered.
I strongly believe the thing about the Modern Warfare games that nobody ever admits is that they must be for many people -- consciously or subconsciously -- an outlet for common feelings like anxiety about the global environment, or nationalism; in some cases they must be outlets for darker feelings, like revenge fantasies, xenophobia or political supremacy. Frankly, it creeps me out, but not as much as the fact that it's never discussed.
Real-world soldiers must take a very specific psychological approach to a job where they daily know they may end up losing their own lives or needing to end someone else's. They tend to be cavalier or even upbeat about it probably by personal necessity. They are allowed to cheer and fistbump when they blow up a helicopter. Gamers doing that is a different matter to me.
I've added a new poll to the SVGL sidebar: Does Modern Warfare make you uncomfortable, or is it "just a game?
