Can't believe all this "OMG it's not real!" bullshit being spewed around here. Yes, of course it isn't real. Yes, no one is a criminal for doing something like that in a game. So I don't think you should be arrested or anything like that. But that sure is fuck won't stop me from passing judgement on you if you enjoy doing something like that in a game. Anyone who could go through something like that mission and not feel sick to their stomach is a morally depraved individual, regardless of whether they take that depravity out on others.
Because it's not "just a game." It's presented in a way that is realistic and is meant to tug at the emotions of the player. All games (and indeed all art) does that to some extent. To deny that is to say that you have never felt the slightest bit of emotion at anything that ever happened in a game, book, or movie that you experienced. And if you say that, you're a fucking liar. And you're one of the worst kinds of apologists that ever existed in gaming history - much worse than any of those mainstream gamers that like to forgive bad rpg mechanics who we like to make fun of so often - if you simply say it's "just a game," when referring to this depravity in MW2. It's never "just a game" when presented in such a manner. It's not meant to be. For fuck's sake, in gaming terms it's a mission where you simply go through the level mowing down people who don't even fight back and are basically only there so they can die. And yet, all you people - you who praise challenge in games, who always speak in favor of good gameplay mechanics - are defending this mission against those who see it for the trash it really is, all the while jumping up and down and yelling "Lol it's just pixels!"
You moral cowards. The very fact that you praise this level and say that it's "fun" shows that you don't think of it as just a game, because in pure gaming terms it's a piece of shit. So you look at it in terms that the developers wanted you to look at it, all the while trying to deflect attention from both you and what that level truly demonstrates. Go fuck yourselves.
That level is the ultimate in video game depravity. It has you acting out a truly evil act, presented realistically - a complete inversion of what it should be. Art is about presenting the ideal. And yes, games are art too. Anything that an artist puts forth is his vision of the ideal. So just think of that now in context of that mission. Now, games are art, but there is also the gameplay element as well to take into consideration. But I've already established that there is nothing "gamist" about that level, so you have to look at it in purely artistic terms. And in those terms, they are presenting evil depravity and, what's more, forcing the player to experience it firsthand. It is complete filth, on the level of a movie or book that has a serial killer as the protaganist, or a rap song that is about raping and killing women.
But there's more to it than that, you say? Like what? Showing maturity in a game? Except that all the other missions are your classic "good versus evil" mission, as others have already pointed out in this thread, and that this mission is a jarring departure. Presenting a complicated moral dillemna? Meaningless without actual choices, and furthermore that would require more build-up. That level has all the interactivity of a cutscene, and yet instead of presenting it as such, they force you to play through it. It is celebrating depravity for depravity's sake, and as such deserves every kind of condemnation we can give it.
And as far as Fallout is concerned, that's a completely different situation. Fallout is about CHOICE, and as such the ability to kill everyone is a representation of the power of choice and the freedom that players have. Nothing is ever forced. When we all complained about the lack of killable children in Fallout 3, we were complaining about the lack of CHOICE in the game, since they were presenting it as a sequel. Because player choice is another means of presenting the ideal in games, since it gives more immersion and greater player interaction in a game, and no other art form can do that. But in the absence of choice, a game should always force you to play the hero. Always.
This mission is doing the complete opposite. It is filth. There is absolutely nothing, nothing, that is redeemable about it. And by defending it on this forum you are giving moral sanction to this artistic depravity, and as such deserve this post that I wrote and any other vitriol that may be flung at you in this thread. If you don't want such comdemnation, then shut the fuck up and start seeing things as they really are, for once.
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