Representations of War/Conflict
Many issues have been raised with how Call of Duty represents conflict in it's series, many critics accuse it of glorifying war, fear mongering and demonising countries such as Russia.
The Modern Warfare series has come under the most scrutiny for this, as its story is based around a group of Russian terrorists conspiring to take over their country and then invade the US. This involves a level in which a CIA agent takes part in a massacre in an airport.
Levels in both MW and MW2 feature scenes of terror attacks and eventually a full scale attack on America (in one level the player must retake the Whitehouse)'. For this Call of Duty has been accused feeding Americans’ “fears, anxieties, and insecurities” of post 9/11 America but also old fears such as a Russian invasion on the US mainland. More Recent titles such as Ghosts occur after a successful invasion of the US by an imaginary South American super power.
This had lead to many critics accusing COD of desensitizing the audience and selling war as a good or 'fun' ordeal. They say that due to a lack of unrealistic representations of conflict e.g players take more damage, health regeneration and absurdly high kill counts the game sells war as entertainment. Some critics have gone as far to say the Call of Duty promotes the military and considers video games as Western Propaganda used for normalizing war.
Stereotypes:
Critics have also accused Call of Duty of enforcing negative stereotypes on specific nationalities, races or governments. Middle eastern culture is also a common target as many games feature conflicts that represent current wars e.g Iraq and Ahfganistan. Critics worry this could have negative effects on the games player base.
Muslims are also a common target, as many enemies featured are islamic extremists such as those seen in the real world, many muslims have taken offense to this saying it reflects poorly on their religion and culture.
Muslims have also had content removed from the game since one user found a painting hung in a bathroom of one of the multiplayer maps that quoted allah, this is apparently offensive to muslims.
(source: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/call-of-duty-map-removed-at-request-of-muslim-gamers/1100-6397842/ )
Female Characters:
For the first time in it's history CoD has introduced playable female characters into it's multiplayer mode in CoD Ghosts. In the past CoD's female characters have been very rare the main two being a Tanya Pavelovna and Sarah Michelle Geller (yes the actor) who are playable in the solo campaign and the zombies mode.
In the past women have not featured in the game for multiple reasons, the main being technological restraints. Modelling the female body is much more complex than the male, due to the hair and general shape. However with Ghosts new engine these are no longer an issue. According to the developers the introduction of female characters has been very highly requested by fans.
Levels in both MW and MW2 feature scenes of terror attacks and eventually a full scale attack on America (in one level the player must retake the Whitehouse)'. For this Call of Duty has been accused feeding Americans’ “fears, anxieties, and insecurities” of post 9/11 America but also old fears such as a Russian invasion on the US mainland. More Recent titles such as Ghosts occur after a successful invasion of the US by an imaginary South American super power.
This had lead to many critics accusing COD of desensitizing the audience and selling war as a good or 'fun' ordeal. They say that due to a lack of unrealistic representations of conflict e.g players take more damage, health regeneration and absurdly high kill counts the game sells war as entertainment. Some critics have gone as far to say the Call of Duty promotes the military and considers video games as Western Propaganda used for normalizing war.
Stereotypes:
Critics have also accused Call of Duty of enforcing negative stereotypes on specific nationalities, races or governments. Middle eastern culture is also a common target as many games feature conflicts that represent current wars e.g Iraq and Ahfganistan. Critics worry this could have negative effects on the games player base.
Muslims have also had content removed from the game since one user found a painting hung in a bathroom of one of the multiplayer maps that quoted allah, this is apparently offensive to muslims.
(source: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/call-of-duty-map-removed-at-request-of-muslim-gamers/1100-6397842/ )
Female Characters:
For the first time in it's history CoD has introduced playable female characters into it's multiplayer mode in CoD Ghosts. In the past CoD's female characters have been very rare the main two being a Tanya Pavelovna and Sarah Michelle Geller (yes the actor) who are playable in the solo campaign and the zombies mode.
In the past women have not featured in the game for multiple reasons, the main being technological restraints. Modelling the female body is much more complex than the male, due to the hair and general shape. However with Ghosts new engine these are no longer an issue. According to the developers the introduction of female characters has been very highly requested by fans.
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