A US Special Ops veteran has criticized the new “vet and noob” ad for Modern Warfare 3 as “crass,” and accuses it of “trivializing war to the extreme.” The Escapist writes:
Writing in The Atlantic, Grady says that, “If this were September 10, 2001, maybe it wouldn’t be quite so bad… after ten years of constant war, of thousands of amputees and flag-draped coffins, of hundreds of grief-stricken communities, did nobody involved in this commercial raise a hand and say, ‘You know, this is probably a little crass. Maybe we could just show footage from the game.'”
It’s hard to disagree with him. “This is not an argument against so-called shooter video games or depictions of war in popular culture,” continues Grady. “However, as Afghanistan intensifies and we assess the mental and physical damage to veterans of Iraq, is now really the time to sell the country on how much fun the whole enterprise is?”
What strikes me here is this isn’t someone who has no idea of what violence is accusing violent video games of being awful for their content. This is someone who recognizes what war is and what combat requires of a person. And they aren’t criticizing the game for its content. They’re criticizing the presentation, that war has a greater context, that media sanitizes war enough as it is, and this just trivializes it into a romp in the park. It’s disrespectful to the men and women who sacrifice their lives and well-being for their countrymen.
“Two smug, A-list clowns strut toward the camera, rifles hanging over their shoulders, explosions consuming the city of New York, and then the words: “THERE’S A SOLDIER IN ALL OF US.”,” he says. “No, there’s not.”
Well stated.
(And of course, Ars chimes in with a It Wasn’t Offensive Because I’m Not Offended post. GG guys. Seriously this is one of the dumber retorts I’ve read, and I’ve been on the Internet for some time, folks.)