Videos
(121)Screenshots
(93)Cheats and Walkthroughs
(112)
Videos
(120)Screenshots
(93)Cheats and Walkthroughs
(119)
Videos
(120)Screenshots
(88)Cheats and Walkthroughs
(116)
Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is quickly gaining pre-release notoriety as a center of controversy. First, there was the "No dedicated servers for PC users" flap (although, truth be told, that's more of an inside-gamer thing, not likely to be of interest to the larger culture), then the leaked video that showed that, for at least one level, you inhabit the body of someone taking part in a terroristic bloodbath in an airport. Today, there's a "viral" style promo video for Modern Warfare 2 that is, at best, in questionable taste.
The video was posted on YouTube over the weekend and stars a digitized version of Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels delivering a mock-PSA about "grenade spam." The ad ends with the phrase "random grenades are for p*ssies." It is followed with a credit message saying the PSA was brought to you by "Fight Against Grenade Spam." You can figure out why the fake organization's name is offensive for yourself.
Infinity Ward pulled the video, and community Manager Robert Bowling tweeted that the ad was "more of a social commentary joke of that stereotype than it was a fist-bump of acceptance to it." Right. So Infinity Ward says it was just mocking the people who hold homophobic views as opposed to actually being homophobic... except I've seen the video, and there's nothing in it to indicate this is the case.
Usually, I leave the soapbox to Adam Sessler, but this time, I'm going to weigh in by pointing out that I spent the weekend playing The Ballad of Gay Tony and was pleased and surprised by the positive relationship between Luis Lopez and Gay Tony, and the respect shown to the homosexual community as a whole in that game, so this Modern Warfare 2 thing is doubly disappointing in contrast -- shouldn't we be past this kind of casual, backyard slur in the game community? If not from the players, at least from the professionals? Judging from the discourse on public channels of the last COD, Infinity Ward should are the last people who should be encouraging slurs against gay people; there's enough of it without the company's tacit approval. Besides, isn't that a violation of their own Terms of Service?
Sessler and I have much the same views on this kind of thing; check it out:
Comments are Closed
Comments
Displaying 101–120 of 141
5123456787
pnutbuttercups
I agree with Adam. It's so annoying trying to play online when everyone on your team is just throwing slurs at each other instead of playing the game. And all the crap that gets said online makes it even harder to be a girl gamer.
learnedfist
The terrorist bloodbath leak really bothers me, and the slur in the ad is not cool either. I really enjoyed Modern Warfare and was looking forward to this game, but I think I am going to skip it now. Don't get me wrong - it's Infinity Ward's right to put whatever they want to into their games and ads, but as a consumer, it's my choice whether to support it with my dollars. I'm sure the game will still be incredibly successful (and a well crafted shooter, like its predecessor), but I figure you have to draw the line somewhere.
SouthernCDogg
Damn Adam Sessler, way to vent. I usually can't stand you and your sorry game reviews but I have to agree that your 100% correct this time around. I mean I seriously couldn't agree anymore with you.
See, I'm African American and as soon as I open my mouth: "BAM!" I'm being called that lethal "N" word over Xbox Live by some lil' pest in Cali. I been online since 2006 and have been experiencing this for a long time Adam. It's getting to that point where I'm tired of putting up with the noobish acts, so I put these little brats with the low self-esteems on mute. Low self-esteem because anyone who has to go out their way to provoke you online with such hate words obviously have some soul searching to do on their own.
I wanted to put in my two cents on this video because I understand where your coming from. I'm 21 years old and being a gamer since the early 90's, kids did not act like this. Whether it's on PSN or Xbox Live, it's really ridiculous. You'll think Xbox Live would need to raise their age policies to 17.
It's lack of home training. Parents need to step in, slap their kids over the head with Baby Powder and use them family settings Xbox give us. From now on, if you people are having these kind of problems, please subscribe to the mute button - it's really useful when your owning these punks. Great venting Adam. I'm behind you ALL THE WAY!
psyberian
"not likely to be of interest to the larger culture" Unless of course you are a PC gamer, it's kind of a big thing. So I guess G4 has decided PC gamers aren't real gamers now. That would explain a lot and how the gutting of the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 got ignored. Just remember that without the PC users there most likely wouldn't be a Modern Warfare 2. Have fun in your game, be prepared to start paying subscription fees to play soon.
Oh, the petition is over 175,000 people now and rising.
Secondtooth
Secondtooth's comment is abusive and has been removed.
Infinite_Lives
In my last post when I said "Liberal" I should have "Overly-Sensitive" sorry I didn't mean to upset anyone
skyarrow210
I think the root of this problem is irresponsible parents as I think most of can agree the players spewing the slurs are clearly below the age of the M rating. Im well aware that expecting parents to pay attention to what their kids are doing is becoming quite a leap these days but I hold on the faintest hope that parents might wake up and pay attention for 2 minutes
mackeyanthony
OMG JUST WATCHED "FIGHT AGINST GRENADE SPAM" ON U TUBE WHAT THE H#LL IS THE PROBLEM IT WAS FUNNY NOT OFFENSIVE AT ALL YOU ARE REALLY TOO "THIN SKINNED" COMMON REALLY WHAT A JOKE HAS NOTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH HOMOPOBIC SLURS IN MULTIPLAYER GET A FRACKIN GRIP!
Kabong30
I just don't know how a company like Infinity Ward who is supposed to be like this mega huge game producer could be so stupid as to allow this to slip out. I'm sure that internally there may be a culture that allows that behavior but to allow it to look like they support is at all in the public eye is beyond stupid. Somebody lost their job over this, and if not, then they should have.
AmericanGrizzly, you certainly have the right to NOT be offended, but the fact is that perpetuating the use of those kind of slurs is a bad thing no matter what group you may be a part of.
Adam hit the nail on the head with this. Why should I pay my $50 to go online and be berated and screamed at by people who don't even fully understand what they're saying? MS has some feedback stuff to at least allow you to avoid those gamers in the future, but it's sad that these kids even find that acceptable to do at all. And really whose fault is it? It's our own, for all the talk of "online community" we don't do a very good job of taking care of our newer members of that community. Set an example, if you want a certain kind of behavior, live it yourself.
Maybe MS could come up with a higher tier on the LIVE scale and give a little more oversight to these issues. Maybe for $60 a year you get a Platinum LIVE membership and it's more actively monitored or only allows gamers over a certain age? Not to allow more "mature" content, but to encourage more mature behavior as far as name calling, etc? I'd pay it.
azmorpheus
This is why when I play online I am in a party with just the people that I know. I will sacrifice not talking to the other people on my team just so I don't get called everything under the sun by a 10 year old little spoiled brat. If these were my kids talking like this on Live, they would no longer have access to the internet, but then again I actually monitor what they are doing.
willabyrags
my question is what ever happened to GG (good game) after ever match? regardless of who won. i played q3 and cs back in the day and then went a while before getting back into online gaming with xbox live about 2 years ago. when i first got on live i'd say "good game" after each match regardless of what team i was on, and instead of getting a "good game" in return i'd get cussed at and insulted. i'm pretty thick skined so obviously i'm not hurt by any thing said about me either face to face or online so that isn't the issue. I'm just not sure what happened from back in the day to now when your hated on online for losing, and at the same time your hated on for winning a match as well. usually if i can't find a friend or two to game with i just leave the mic off, which sucks because i enjoy playing search and destroy and like to be able to comunicate with my team.
Tman88
I don't think Infinity Ward's homophobic. Maybe they really were just taking a jab at people who use homophobic slurs, but also maybe could have done it more carefully but I don't think what they did should be taken out of context. Game developers do take their Terms of Service very seriously so I'm sure this could very well be just a jab at people who use those slurs and not the people who are of different preference.
mackeyanthony
u can 'report abuse' on any player any time
crazyhorse1425
I agree Adam, there are games I stay away from because I know the MP experience will be dragged down by vulgarity that only anonymity can create. If Microsoft could add a 'report abuse' to the party room, where we could register complaints, maybe some people would think twice about shouting things that they wouldn't even whisper in real life, for fear of the epic beating they would get!
diseater55
I agree with Adams view on how people act on XBL. I find that as new and popular games come out the first few weeks on that game is really fun because not a lot of people talk s--t and are more concreted on ranking up and stuff but then after christmas day or a couple of months I start hearing these little squeaky voices talking s--t on how you bought an account or have no life. SERIOUSLY, I wish they could just ban all those little kids who play M-rated games.
mackeyanthony
if every decient player block the players who are offencive eventully they will be a rareity
mackeyanthony
Idiots are every where young ones doubly so, if you hear this crap kidds bein racist homophobic or just annoying take a minute and leave player feed back avoid player just takes a few seconds and quess what you never run into them agin, problem solved some times you have to think not just whine about how terible people can be
LarcenousLaugh
Having just written a reply to Infinte_Lives defending sessler and his "Liberal" ha views, I will go so far as to say this... people need to get a bit of a thicker skin. In the end they are just words, and as upsetting as they are, the only person who controls how you feel about them is you. If something doesn't strike you as correct, excercise your rights against it, and leave it at that. While I do believe it is BS to use your freedoms to use hateful words against others, in the end, the ability to use those words in the context you choose is a right I would not be willing to give up. It doesn't make you any less of an a hole though.
Schmink
You've got some nerve saying that the people that this hateful slur is directed at are the ones who need to change by telling them they need to "stop whining" or "stop being so sensitive." A typical response for someone who has no valid argument for their position.
RRODisBack
Bravo Adam, Bravo. *standing ovation*
Displaying 101–120 of 141
5123456787