Task 1





In this particular video in which I had found I had realised that at 3.20 minutes the clip from Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 has the level ‘ No Russian’

This particular clip begins with captions of Russian terrorists that are being taken down by American ‘Heroes’ suggesting that the Russians are ‘others’ in any narrative role. This has lead the video to show the next few scenes of an American soldiers point of view, showing the darkness in which they go through in order to take down each Russian spy/terrorist.

The scene in this video in which I will speak mostly about is the level ‘No Russian’ this particular level in the game of call of duty has shown a lot of controversy as the gaming institution have allowed there to be a very violent scene within the game that shows terrorists walking into an airport and shooting each passenger and civilian in which they can see. This clip begins at 3 minutes and 20 seconds.

They begin this level early in the game entitled "No Russian". The player assumes control of a undercover CIA agent, joining a group of Russian terrorists in an airport massacre. The name comes from a briefing from the terrorist leader, Vladimir Makarov, telling the player's character and the other gunmen not to speak any Russian throughout the scene. Although the player is not forced to kill any of the civilians themselves, they must keep pace with the terrorists as they commit this act. Civilians scream and run in terror, the injured crawl away leaving a trail of blood, and some try to drag others to safety, only to be shot with bloody results. The player also cannot kill the terrorists themselves which would result in failure of the mission. The player is warned prior to starting the single player campaign of the mission's "disturbing content", and can choose to skip the mission in advance, at no penalty. If the player chooses not to skip the mission in advance, they are still given the option to skip the level at any point. The end of the level, Makarov, knowing the identity of the Joseph Allen, confronts and executes him before escaping.

This controversial mission was removed from the Russian PC version of the game. It was originally reported that sales of the console editions of Modern Warfare 2 were delayed in Russia due to an ordered recall, but Activision has called this report erroneous. Activision stated that they made the decision to remove the "No Russian" mission from the game prior to the game.

This type of narrative role has increasingly occurred in games such as the Call of duty franchise as they have continued to make Russians and Muslims as terrorist acting with high levels of violence for no apparent reason. This is a factor in which I have been looking at when doing my own study as it suggests that these cultures are seen as villains or the ‘other’ whereas American soldier have ALWAYS been seen as the hero and would be the character in the game who does nothing but the right thing. This game and franchise continues to carry the same trend of narrative role throughout its game play allowing its audience to believe that the villains in war games will never be American soldier/ loyal soldiers and any other culture against them would be automatically seen as villains. This can be because the call of duty franchise had been successful showing its audience exactly what they want to see meaning that if they have been successful with this type of representation of Russian/Muslim terrorist in their narrative role, they will continue to show it as it will deem to show an easy success rate.

This had created moral panics in the uk alone as it had shown Russians and other typed of terrorist according to this game being able to access larger populated areas such as airports and using acts of violence. This was seen as a realistic issue in which had caused audiences to be very afraid. As this was post 9/11 it has also been a very touchy situation and using acts of violence through terrorism and narrative roles had allowed many of its audiences to be intrigued and also frightened of the possibility of this occurring.

Censorship had also been a factor when this had been released and complaints had begun as this controversial mission was removed from the Russian PC version of the game. It was originally reported that sales of the console editions of Modern Warfare 2 were delayed in Russia due to an ordered recall, but Activision has called this report erroneous. Activision stated that they made the decision to remove the "No Russian" mission from the game prior to the game.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYZ3SmVTfGc&feature=related

Another video from the same franchise but challenges the general narrative role in which the audience are used to seeing in war games.

This particular scene shows American soldier (spetnaz) to be interrogating a Russian doctor who is already forces to work when he does not want to. This leads the innocent character on the doctor getting beaten up whilst tied to a chair by the American soldier in a very violent and gory way.

The level takes place in Kowloon, Hong Kong. It involves torturing Dr. Daniel Clarke, a prisoner, as Hudson along with Grigori Weaver, something the player does himself with context-sensitive commands. When torturing Clarke, the player will smash a glass window, place a shard from it in the mouth of Clarke, and proceed to punch his jaw twice.

After the torture scene, the Spetsnaz discover their positions and the player will have to escape the area through apartment buildings and across rooftops. One part in the mission, the protagonists come across a weapons cache behind a fridge after Weaver and Clarke push it out of the way. Raining and lightning from a thunderstorm set for the mood of this mission.

This particular video also shows a lot of violence in narrative roles showing the American soldier to be the violent character terrorising the Russian victim which challenges the ideology of the gaming narrative of the war genre. This is a good research video as it has shown there to be change in the recurrent status of the call of duty narrative role and how characters are portrayed





This video however helps challenge the narrative roles in which you see in contemporary games. this is because it is a audience based game in which he has created for online purposes allowing the narrative role to be switched around, having the american as the villan 'other' and the muslim terrorists seen as the higher character 'hero'. The game had obviously caused alot of issues with governmental heads in both Britain and America, causing them to threaten prison sentences and bans of the original american dominant game.