Research

Modern Warfare Franchise

Representations & Sterotyping

Digital Arabs: Representation in Video Games

This article presents the ways in which Muslims and Arabs are represented and represent themselves in video games

How Arabs and Muslims are Portrayed in Western Games

The distortion of the Middle Eastern reality has undergone a watershed change since 9/11,” the columnist says about recent war games:
The player controls American or broad Western coalition forces, while enemy units are controlled by the computer. The ‘enemy’ is portrayed with a set of broad, schematised attributes like head cover, loose clothes and dark skin etc. The narrative links the characters to “international terrorism and/or Islamist extremism.

News Values

Fear of Muslim Other

Call Of Duty Controversy

COD - Airport Scare, Bans In Russia !

Back Ops

"I SOMETIMES play the last Call Of Duty with my godson, who wipes the floor with me, and I was already impressed. But this new game takes it to a new level."

The movement of the characters is spot on.

The way a trained soldier holds and fires a gun is very specific - and they've got the movement right, down to the last detail.

That is exactly the sort of conditions our troops were fighting under in Basra, Iraq.The game really gets across the frantic chaos of a firefight.

Moral Panic

Modern moral panic

The controversy just won’t stop. As has been explained a thousand times before, the airport massacre level in Modern Warfare 2 is skippable and doesn’t involve you having to shoot anyone at all; you can just hang back with the rest of the rabble and follow them through the mayhem. Not that it matters of course, because it’s just a game and no-one actually dies.

Moral Effects

Young People and Violence

Violence in gaming was the other factor in which had been researched and through this I was able to find that younger people use the violence they learn from gaming and apply them to society through ethnic/cultural differences.
“Knowledge about young people’s views on violence and acceptance of violence in different contexts has important implications for violence prevention initiatives, particularly those in schools. If young people’s acceptance of violence is linked to their understandings of appropriate gender behaviour then an inherent aspect of effective violence prevention will also be to destabilise existing gender norms and expectations.”

Effects on violent media on children

Recent research has shown that connections between children playing violent video games can cause later aggressive behavioral problems. In retrospect studies have also shown a twelve percent increase in aggressive behavior after watching violent television as well

Post 9/11

Concerns on violent behaviour due to games

Young children have difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy, which makes them more vulnerable to the effects of media violence. They may become more aggressive and fearful if they are exposed to high levels of violence in video games.

Censorship

Russia Bans

The Russian government pulled Modern Warfare 2 as a response to the Russian airport terror level, which we first revealed a few weeks back. But Russian gamers are also taking to gaming sites to attack developer Infinity Ward for its portrayal of their nation.

Ownership Control

Infinity Ward
Treyarch
Activision

One of the reasons why the owenership vary is because they compete with eachother through the Call Of Duty franchise. This allows them to make one game each year one after another making the next one better through competing. This evidently causes the game to become better which appeals to the Audience.