IW really has losts its professional feeling to it recently. The video recently release entitled “F.A.G.S”, to the apauling letter (since rmoved form 402’s titter) summerising the PC dedicated server announcement, which basically slagged off the entire PC community. Seriously IW, pull your act together.
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Following stern criticism from two games writers yesterday, Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling pulled back a viral video for Modern Warfare 2, couched as a PSA from a group called “Fight Against Grenade Spam” that called the tactic “for pussies.”
Destructoid’s Samit Sarkar, following the event unfold over Twitter, reports that Infinity Ward took fire publicly from Philip Kollar of Game Informer and freelancer Mitchell Dyer over the video’s language, tone and especially, the way the fake interest group’s name formed the acronym “F.A.G.S.” In the video, Philadelphia Phillies pitcher – and Modern Warfare fan – Cole Hamels (pictured, at right), pretends to deliver the public interest message that randomly throwing grenades around in multiplayer is “for pussies,” and throws in an “oh f—k,” at the end when he himself is blown up. “Fight Against Grenade Spam” appeared as a title card introducing Hamels.
In the end, Bowling said he could “appreciate the concerns” although he felt “the core gag is great,” and ultimately, the video was taken down.
Kollar made his feelings known in a long message, broken up into five tweets, to a reader who said he was “overreacting” to the video:
Overreacting how? I’m not organizing a mass boycott or even saying I won’t buy the game. I’m just pointing out that their decision to become complicit in one of their communities most oppressive slurs in a not-terribly-fun ad campaign is stupid and makes me reconsider my purchase more than any other controversy surrounding the game thus far. But it’s an official video released by them that for all intents and purposes says, “Yeah, we think it’s hillarious to use the word FAGS as well! LOLOLOLOL!” Just look at all the YouTube comments saying how totally awesome IW is for that bit. Whether it was their intent or not, that stupid joke condones a part of their community they should be shunning.
Bowling noticed the exchange and replied:
I think it was more of a social commentary joke of that stereotype than it was a fist-bump of acceptance to it.
Dyer replied to that, copying the message to Kollar, with:
The problem is that it was so poorly handled/executed that it looks derogatory. It seems to enforce the asshole-ry.
Finally, Bowling relented in the following tweet:
I agree. I think the core gag is great, the end is a bit too far from the intent of the joke & can appreciate the concerns. Pulled.
And now the withering, scorching comments about political correctness and who has the right to take offense and to what shall begin again, thanks to a video that needlessly took one step over the line. Just a slight tweaking of the PSA group’s title, as one Kotaku reader pointed out, to “Fight Relentlessly Against Grenade Spam,” would have preserved the spirit of this piece and skirted all the outrage, even with the “for pussies” line.
Many gamers, judged largely on what I’ve seen in commenting threads and in behavior online, haven’t expressed a lot of sophistication on this subject or a great willingness to have a mature discussion about it. It tends to break down to “I’m not offended so, no one else can be either,” and accuse anyone who is of politically motivated dishonesty. By no means do I accuse Infinity Ward or Bowling of homophobia or having that same small-minded attitude. But the video was pointlessly provocative, and made not only the studio, but also some of their biggest fans, by their reactions to it, look foolish and reprehensible to the general public. Bowling made the right call in removing it.
Being a gamer in Australia just got a little more nerve racking; The recent controversial footage of Modern Warfare 2’s opening sequences has caused the Australian Council on Children and the Media to call for the Australian Classification Board to rethink the MA 15+ rating which is also the highest rating in the country.
“The consequences of terrorism are just abhorrent in our community and yet here we are with a product that’s meant to be passed off as a leisure time activity, actually promoting what most world leaders speak out publicly against,” said president of the Australian Council on Children and the Media.
Activision noted that putting the player in the controversial situation was “designed to evoke the atrocities of terrorism,” not to “promote” it as Roberts put it.
The media blowout over the matter does seem to have a positive angle. Nicholas Suzor, spokesman for the lobby group Electronic Frontiers Australia, is taking the opportunity to bring up the discussion to introduce a long-overdue MA 18+ rating. “Films often show the villain’s perspective and, by doing that, they get across the character’s story and the heinous nature of people who carry out atrocities. Games, too, are becoming more expressive, and are telling more involved stories,” he explains.
“We may make an argument that these sorts of topics are not suitable for children, but I don’t at all accept that it is unsuitable for adults.”
Activision has just confirmed to VG247 that the leaked of civilians being gunned down in an airport is of real, skippable content from the shooter.
We’ve just been given the following statement in response to a question as to whether or not the scene is from the game. Here’s the full thing:
“Yes it is. 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.”
In an interview with Joystiq, 402 confirmed earlier reports form the leaked videos that 3rd person, is infact part of MW2.
“It’s not something you can toggle on and off in ANY game,” said Bowling. The special mode can only be played in private matches — toggled on or off just like “Hardcore” settings — or in playlists that are designated for third-person play. According to Bowling, everyone playing in a third-person playlist will be restricted to the viewpoint. “This is just another cool way to play the game,” he said, “you obviously will still have the option to play gametypes normal as well.”
Us PC users have been enjoying 3rd person view in mods and singeplayer (dev maps) for years, so it wa sinevitable that IW would exploit this existing feature of the engine into a feature of the game. Source.
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Welcome!
Welcome to ModernWarfare2-pc.com. This site is basically turned into a rant about MW2 from a gamer who plays it on the PC version. I do try and post decent articles from time to time, so its not all me moaning :) - Leetmu
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This site is not intended to mirror all the media crap that comes out of the MW2 hype, but instead be a technical resource base for the PC users of MW2.
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Feb 18th 2010: I have done some theme updating, and now we are running the Pro version of Clean Home theme with a few custom edits. This is now much better looking that the free version we we running. :)
