Legal and Ethical Issues P5 (c)

Call of Duty is one of the most popular video game franchises in history, breaking sales records with every new game. However as a game that depicts violence, full scale war and terrorist acts the series has not gone unnoticed and has caused a range of controversies, some of which have been raised in the house of commons.

Legal Issues;

In 2009, the year Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was released, Activision Blizzard made $4.28 billion, with $1.56 billion of that cash coming in the quarter in which Modern Warfare 2 was released. In November 2009, Activision said it had made $3 billion from Call of Duty games, originally created by developer Infinity Ward. Activision helped fund Infinity Ward in its early days, buying up 30 percent of the company. The studio's first game, World War II shooter Call of Duty, was released on PCs in 2003. The day after the game was released, Activision said it had snapped up the rest of Infinity Ward, signing employees to long term contracts.

Infinity Ward later went on to make Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for Activision. The latter was touted as "the biggest launch in history across all forms of entertainment." However friction between the heads of each company lead to the firing of Infinity Ward studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella. Activision notes in a filing with the SEC on the same day that it is "concluding an internal human resources inquiry into breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward."

On March 1, 2010, Infinity Ward studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella are fired. Activision notes in a filing with the SEC on the same day that it is "concluding an internal human resources inquiry into breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward."

The following day, West and Zampella sue Activision, filing a $36 million lawsuit that claims "Orwellian" moves as part of a "pre-ordained" investigation designed to "manufacture a basis to fire" them in order to avoid paying out bonuses.

The end result of this lawsuit was Activision filing a counter suit against West and Zampella and also EA who helped them to fund their new studio respawn entertainment, that took many employees from IW.

Ethical Issues;

Use of WMD's (Nuclear Weapons): Many of the Call of Duty games feature storylines that make reference to the use of Nuclear bombs, however in one mission in Call of Duty Modern Warfare there is a cut scene that shows one detonating in a city and killing everyone in it, including 30,000 US Marines.

Killing of Animals: Animals have been featured in many CoD titles usually as friendly AI companions. However in CoD WAW 'attack dogs' were a kill streak reward that could be called in to attack the enemy, forcing them to kill the dogs. This lead to many upset animal lovers protesting the inclusion of the animals and PETA issuing a statement that called the game 'barbaric'.

Promotion of Terrorist Acts: Call of Duty has infamously featured levels that show acts of terrorism and in some cases allow the player to take part in these acts. Modern Warfare 2's 'No Russia' level caused international uproar as the player would take part in gunning down innocent civillians in an airport. Another level in Modern Warfare 3 showed a cutscene in which innocent members of the public are caught up in a '7/7 style bombings attack', this caused fears that the game would inspire potential terrorists to do the same. Both these missions were debated in the House of Commons.

Anders Brevik the Norweign Neo-Nazi that gunned down 77 students said he'd used the game to train with his Holographic sight, and would play up to 16 hours a day.

Re-telling of History: Many of the early COD's were based during WW2 stirring up little controversy as the main enemies were Nazi's, these games plots were based off real battles that happened in real life causing no issues. However CoD Black Ops was based during the cold war and featured a level in which the player assassinates the Cuban Leader Fidel Castro, somewhat a retelling of history. This act was seen as offensive by the Cuban government calling the sequence 'peverse'. Many others see this retelling of history as damaging to younger audiences as it could misinform them.

General Featuring of Violence and Gore: All Call of Duty games feature violent acts, its part of the game. However as graphics have become increasingly realistic many concerned parents and teachers etc.. have expressed their displeasure at the content in these titles. CoD WAW is a perfect example of this as it contains very gritty realistic violence that allows for the loss of limbs from explosions and also exploding heads in the 'zombies' mode.

Online Interactions:

All of the Call of Duty games feature online multiplayer gameplay that allows players to interact with one another, fighting against and with one another. Voice communication is a large aspect of this and allows players to speak in game. The initial idea behind this was to help encourage team play with both strangers and friends, however over the years these interactions have caused controversy as many players use extremely abusive language to one another, sometimes for no reason. These interactions cannot be rated by regulatory bodies so often cause issues.