On Controversy and Courageousness

Among the many debates I am reluctant to participate in is the “Are games art?” conundrum. It’s one of those debates that I don’t feel well enough equipped to engage, in part because I don’t feel like there are enough examples. Art, in its various forms, makes you think, can challenge what you know and introduce questions you never thought to ask. Sure, I’m romanticizing it a bit, but my point is that video games haven’t reached that level yet, and I’m not sure if they ever will. But the only way to find out is to push the boundaries of what we know about video games and what they are capable of — not on a graphical or interactive level, but on an intellectual one. With that being said, the rest of this post is going to be about Modern Warfare 2. And there will be spoilers immediately after the break. If you are unaware of the campaign footage that leaked earlier this week, I’ll understand if you avoid the rest of my text. If not, prepare yourself.

SPOILER. Earlier this week, footage of Modern Warfare 2′s campaign found its way to the Internet. To attempt to put these 3 minutes in the context of what we know, recall one of the first teasers for the game, specifically the terrorists in an elevator, then moving into an airport. We don’t see much, but we hear lots of screaming and gunfire. The controllable character in this leaked footage is one of these terrorists. You shoot helpless civilians. You walk over hundreds of dead bodies. It’s pretty brutal stuff. END SPOILER

For what it’s worth, Activision quickly issued a statement saying that players will have the opportunity to skip this particularly graphic scene. According to some investigation into the ESRB rating of the game, “skip” simply means the player has the option to kill civilians during that part of the level. One way or another, you will experience first hand what these terrorists are capable of, the choice is up to the gamer. I think the leaked footage and resulting scenario that gamers can play through raises a few questions. Can a game cross “the line” without being over-the-top gratuitous? How much is too much? How close can you get to reality before “We the Gamer” turn away? Based on what little I’ve seen, it looks like Activision and Infinity Ward are prepared to test our tolerances.

Speaking specifically on Modern Warfare 1 and 2, these games are grounded in a sense of reality without having to be too factual. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare involved American and British soldiers, Russian terrorists and an unspecified, yet war-torn, area in the Middle East, but was never exact. Take the reality of the time and put a creative spin on it — that’s the job of these developers, right? Putting the game in that scenario gave it just enough realism to have impact during the most meaningful moments of the campaign. And while “the bomb” was certainly powerful and shocking, I would assert that the moments just after the bomb were the most graphic. Trying to crawl away was one of the most visceral moments I have ever experienced in a video game. Yet despite the implied graphic nature and severity of that moment, this is nothing compared to what is possibly on the horizon for Modern Warfare 2.

Taking a unique perspective like the one I potentially spoiled is not new for our forms of media. Books, television and movies have been showing different perspectives and points of view to tell their stories since their inception. It’s nothing new for those forms of entertainment. And, of course, playing as the bad guy in a video game isn’t unheard of, either. Some games go so far as to offer the choice to do good or potentially evil deeds in a given situation, but it’s that choice that drives the story. It’s the choice that elicits any emotion that we will potentially feel. While Infinity Ward does give the player a form of choice, it is only limited to what the player will experience, not how the player experiences it. Taking an interactive role to the atrocities the “good guys” struggle to overcome will certainly be something different, if only because of the context of the real-world setting that this game will be played in. Terrorism is real around the world. Regardless of your beliefs about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the threat is out there. With that backdrop, the choices that we know of for Modern Warfare 2 appear to be a bit risky.

We’ve seen the campaign trailer showing Washington D.C. on fire, the White House under siege. We’ve seen teaser footage of a massacre at an airport. While these scenarios are rather far-fetched, there is enough plausibility to them that we have to question whether it is too much. A CNN report on a bombing at a hotel and other public setting is one thing, but carrying out that act within the game, as one of the lead contributors to the slaughter, is another.

Obviously, the game will speak for itself. We do not know the full context of what we have seen or what has been rumored. But if Modern Warfare 2 is willing to push the limits of in-game violence we can tolerate in a “realistic” setting, then more power to them. Assuming that Modern Warfare 2 does not cross the metaphorical line, I applaud the attempt. The only way to know how far games can go is to try, and Infinity Ward clearly has the chutzpah to try. If we are presented with a tasteful and thoughtful story then we will have a new standard for storytelling in our video games. If Infinity Ward succeeds, maybe that will give implicit permission to other developers to try to test our limits. As long as what we experience is handled thoughtfully and tastefully, I am all for testing the limits of what video games are capable of. And maybe we’ll have a new example to point to in that fabled “Are games art?” debate. Maybe.

If Modern Warfare 2 succeeds in its storytelling, I can only wonder, what could possibly be next? If what has been shown, leaked and eventually will be consumed doesn’t offend and is widely accepted, where will games go to one-up the narrative of Modern Warfare 2? Will we ever find that line that crosses the threshold of what we are willing to tolerate as gamers?

I’m including a couple of links to articles that address this point slightly more eloquently than I can. There is, and will be, a lot of coverage about this topic. It is my hope that you all take a genuine interest in this.

http://gamepolitics.com/2009/10/29/modern-warfare-2-footage-winds-australian-kid’s-group

http://shawnelliott.blogspot.com/2009/10/modern-warfare-2-controversy-to-come.html

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