Modern Warfare 2 goes too far.

October 28th, 2009

Here are several minutes of leaked gameplay from the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. In the scene, the player takes the role of a terrorist as he and his crew invade and wreak havoc upon a civilian airport, callously killing waiting passengers and their families.

Disclaimer: No one outside of Activision has seen what happens before and after the scene, but I do believe that enough is shown to make some initial conjectures about the content.

Most of us at the studio recoiled and winced in disbelief when we watched this. If we were so affected, what the hell is mom going to think when she sees her kid gunning down innocents in an airport? What is the press going to think? Christ, Jack Thompson is going to have a field day with this.

From the official statement in response to the footage:

The scene establishes the depth of evil and the cold bloodedness of a rogue Russian villain and his unit. By establishing that evil, it adds to the urgency of the player’s mission to stop them.

Players have the option of skipping over the scene. At the beginning of the game, there are two ‘checkpoints’ where the player is advised that some people may find an upcoming segment disturbing. These checkpoints can’t be disabled.

Modern Warfare 2 is a fantasy action game designed for intense, realistic game play that mirrors real life conflicts, much like epic, action movies. It is appropriately rated 18 for violent scenes, which means it is intended for those who are 18 and older.

If the goal was to establish the depth of evil and cold bloodedness of the villain, Activision has failed sorely. By having the player assume the role of the villain taking part in these horrific acts, they’ve consequently freed the conceptual villain of a portion of the blame, because now the murdered civilians are the result of direct actions taken by the player.

That’s an important distinction.

If the goal was to establish the depth of evil and cold bloodedness of the villain, why not remove the player’s ability to dictate or control the scene in any way? Activision could’ve easily used the very successful opening of the first Modern Warfare as an example, throwing the player into the role of the terrorist, allowing, at the most, the ability to look around the scene helplessly with the right stick as your avatar and his buddies lay waste to the innocents. That would’ve been horrifying to experience.

Or hell, place the player in the role of a civilian. Establish a scene — hugging your wife and children goodbye, tossing a soda into the bin, turning back to the flight status board — when WHAM, gunfire erupts. Do you run towards your family, unable to do a thing as they are gunned down, or do you duck behind barriers, scrambling for safety among the crowds, amidst the screams and the panic, as the terrorists nonchalantly walk though the terminal, killing all in sight? That would’ve been horrifying to experience.

The scene in the video? 100% gratuitous.

Update!

From the ESRB Rating Information:

The most intense depiction of violence occurs during a “No Russian” mission where players take on the role of an undercover Ranger: Several civilians are gunned down at an airport as players are given a choice to participate in the killings (e.g., players can shoot a wounded civilian that is crawling on the ground), or walk by and observe without opening fire.

The above quote certainly changes the circumstances. Rather than putting the player in the role of the evil villain, the player is undercover and along for the ride, accompanied by the villain, who is demonstratively evil. Whether the player chooses to follow along or resist the killings is entirely up to the player.

I like this scenario much better.

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link love 092209

September 22nd, 2009

Classic gaming edition.

A gallery of photos from GCC, the company responsible for Ms. PacMan, Food Fight, and a slew of home console titles for Atari (they’ve since moved on to the printer business).

The 30-year invasion: The making of Space Invaders Infinity Gene.

The latest from Ben Heck: A new Atari 800 laptop mod. I’d love to score one of these.

The Best of CGE ‘03 DVD set, featuring Nolen Bushnell’s Atari Story panel, arcade designer highlights, and more, is now available. In related news, the latest word is that Classing Gaming Expo 2010 is a go, and will be taking place here in Las Vegas.

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Big changes to the IGDA Board of Directors.

August 31st, 2009

From Friday…

Dear IGDA Member,
A Special Meeting of the membership of IGDA will be held on October 3rd, 2009. The sole purpose of the meeting is to vote on whether IGDA Board of Directors member Tim Langdell (a) should serve the remainder of this term, or (b) should have his term concluded early (effective October 3rd, 2009). Mr. Langdell was elected by the membership on March 1st of 2009, and his term is scheduled to expire on March 1st of 2012; or (c) abstain from this vote.

A Special Meeting is intended to allow the membership to make a decision and requires a quorum of half the membership to participate in order to carry the outcome. I highly encourage all members to participate so that quorum can be reached.

Further information as to the background of these two outcomes will be posted to the members-only section of the IGDA website as of September 2009, and a second reminder email will be sent at that time. In addition, an electronic proxy ballot will be provided to each member at that time, with which they may cast their vote. The voting period will extend through the end of September, approximately 30 days.

While process requires there will be a “physical meeting”, which will be at IGDA headquarters offices (19 Mantua Road, Mt. Royal, NJ 08061) at 10:00AM eastern time, and members may attend in person, such presence is not required or even anticipated. The meeting itself likely will take only a few minutes and consist primarily of announcing the results of the voting. No other business will be conducted.

Again, more information will be forthcoming in early September, and we ask that you withhold any questions until that time if at all possible.

Thank you for your attention and cooperation as we move through this process together.

Tobi Saulnier, Co-Chair
Date: August 28, 2009

…and now this morning:

IGDA Announces Dr. Tim Langdell has stepped down from IGDA Board

Monday Aug. 31st, Mt. Royal, NJ: The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) today announced that Tim Langdell has resigned from the IGDA Board of Directors, effective immediately. Dr Langdell had served on the Board since March 2009.

The resignation means that Dr Langdell’s seat on the Board is vacated, and will be up for election in early 2010. The special meeting called for the membership in Oct. on this matter will no longer take place.

Oh yeah, and…
Full story, after the jump »

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Call to remove Tim Langdell from the IGDA board.

August 4th, 2009

[Updates below]

Continuing the latest bit of industry drama, here’s the missive that is making the membership rounds today, courtesy of the Concerned Members of the IGDA:

The actions of IGDA board member Tim Langdell since his election in March 2009 have raised questions regarding his suitability as our elected representative. As you no doubt know, the IGDA’s mission is: To advance the careers and enhance the lives of game developers by connecting members with their peers, promoting professional development, and advocating on issues that affect the developer community.

Tim Langdell’s company, Edge Games, has trademarked the word “edge” and they leverage this trademark against any media that contains this word–threatening legal action should their target not enter into a licensing arrangement with the studio. Such targets have included David Mamet’s film The Edge, Marvel’s comic book Edge, EA’s Mirror’s Edge, and Namco’s Soul Edge, which was released as Soul Blade and later, Soulcalibur in the west as a direct result of Edge Games’ actions. Most recently their actions have resulted in the removal of the indie game hit, Edge, from the iPhone app store.

Meanwhile, Edge Games has not been associated with the direct production of an original video game in the last fifteen years.

After his election to the IGDA board, in a lawsuit against Cybernet regarding Edge of Extinction, Tim Langdell presented himself to the court like this: “Dr. Tim Langdell is considered to be a pioneer in the field of computer gaming and is widely publicized on the Internet and has been engaged as a legal expert in the field of computer gamin.” He adds “He presently serves on the Board of Directors of the International Game Developers Association, which is the largest game association worldwide”.

Many of us believe that this is a gross misrepresentation and feel that Tim Langdell is able to use his position on the board of the IGDA to work directly against the mission of the organization. As IGDA members with voting rights, it is our responsibility to elect a board that we can trust to represent us. But no election system is perfect and sometimes corrections need to be made.

We are asking that you take some time to consider this issue, do a little research online, make up your mind how you feel about it, and take action.

Under the IGDA bylaws [located here], we are able to call for a special meeting of the membership to vote on the removal of Tim Langdell from the board of directors. In order to do this, we need 10% of the membership to request the board call the special meeting. We are hosting a petition to this effect here:

SurveyMonkey link

Thank you for your consideration,
Concerned Members of the IGDA

If you are an IGDA member, go vote! If you’re a game developer and you’re not an IGDA member, go sign up, and then go vote!

Update 080509: Tim responds (and is followed by all sorts of rebuttals).

Joshua Caulfield follows up regarding the above notice:

Dear Members,

Recently an email went out that appeared to have originated from IGDA. The return address of this email appeared as: “Concerned_Members_of_the_IGDA@IGDA.org.”
That email address was spoofed and the communication was not an official IGDA communication. We are currently reviewing the methods by which it was sent to see if this was sent out by people ignorant of proper use of the IGDA website or if there was malicious actions involved. We are also reviewing the method by which your email addresses were obtained and if that was done ethically or not. It is my hope that this was done by someone simply overzealous about their cause and not for destructive reasons.

Please be aware IGDA was not responsible for this email and does not have anything to do with the content or the links provided. You should read and use such links at your own risk.

We will investigate this issue and provide you with information on our findings as they are confirmed.

Thank you,

Joshua Caulfield
Executive Director
IGDA