Video games’ link to violence + Call of Duty
p2pnet view Games | P2P:- “Life imitates art or vice-versa?” – posts voxleo in a Reader’s Write. “Consider the following and what implications it may have regarding the state of our society at the moment.”
She’s an occasional but, when she puts digit to keyboard, prolific p2pnet comment poster and this time around, among other things, she’s picking up on an item in p2pnet World Headlines, March 2, namely, New analysis reasserts video games’ link to violence in USA Today
“My partner in crime, Chad, has discovered the online facet of gameplay on his PS3, and I have noticed that his mood in general tends to correlate, whether in causal or effectual form is unknown, to how well he is scoring on the latest round of ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2′,” says voxleo.
“When I hear him shouting various obscenities at the flat screen in the other room I always think to myself how wonderful it is that he is having so much ‘fun’.”
I can relate to that. It was my birthday last month and one of my presents was the wii version of Modern Warfare 2.
“There are so many others having fun along with him that if I type the letters ‘COD’ into the search pane, Google’s first suggestion for completion is not ‘code’ or ‘codec’ or even ‘codeine’ but ‘cod modern warfare 2′,” says voxleo, continuing >>>
His rank among the nearly 8 million other virtual commandos is somewhere in the middle to upper third, while his friend is somewhere at newb level near the 7,000,000 marker. He can join a round of “Team Deathmatch” or “Search and Destroy” in under 30 seconds to continue his quest to unlock new callsigns earned by accomplishments during gameplay to strike terror into the hearts of his opponents. There [are] more than 500 possible emblems, with titles ranging from the banal “Major” or “Colonel” to the clever “C4 and After”. There are charming examples of
The typical: Destroyer, Impaler, Devastator, Predator
The topical: 1bullet2kills, Boom! Headshot, Crackin’ Skulls, Blunt Trauma
The tribute: Mmmmm Brains…,Live Long…, Global Thermonuclear War, Top Gun
The top dogs: Submit to Authority, Bow Down, Big Bad
The truncated: SBD (Silent But Deadly), STD (Sexually Transmitted Disease), NBK (Natural born Killer),
The tell-tale: Philanthropist,The Anarchist
The totals: Omnicide, Omnipotent
The temeritous: 9 Lives, Phoenix Rising, Godhand
and then there is my personal favorite, The ultimate testament to testosterone: Wargasm
My own favorite PS3 game at this juncture (at least since Chad stepped on our Soul Calibur 4 disk) is “American Idol Encore 2″ which also presents the opportunity to compete/interact with others who don’t happen to be in the immediate vicinity but can still console you when “Simon” decimates your ego in his typical fashion. I was curious to try playing with strangers, but despite this being a game that made my mom laugh so hard she nearly peed, and fashioned after a show that draws in millions, would you believe there was not a single match to be had in all the network for me to dust off my vocal cords with? Zero. None. Nary a one. Anywhere.
“I find interesting social commentary in the fact that I couldn’t find a soul to join me in a game that never leaves me cranky, and in fact, never fails to leave me with a smile on my face no matter how badly I might perform”, says voxleo, adding:
“While 8 million folks around the world gather to play a game which often makes them angry. What fun!”
heh
Not incidentally, my brother Mike was in the SAS, motto ‘Who Dares Wins’, the UK special forces regiment featured in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
He did it all for real.
Me?
I’m still walking into walls and falling off scaffolding. 
Jon Newton – p2pnet
..… and identi.ca
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
March, 2010
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March 7th, 2010 at 3:30 am
Impaler? Wargasm?
Really? Really?
March 7th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
I usually prefer playing the single-player campaigns. It gets old just running around the same small levels endlessly killing or being killed by infinitely respawning opponents.
As for getting worked up, I swear at Windows all the time. Does that mean that Windows makes one agressive and anti-social?
March 7th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Multiplayer in any RPG is better than the single player mode.