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IW wanted you "close to atrocity" in MW2 News
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Tom Bramwell
Modern Warfare 2 scriptwriter Jesse Stern has said that the goal of the game's controversial airport level was "to put you as close as possible to atrocity". (Beware, spoilers ahead.)
"We've been catching a lot of criticism for that and a lot of praise as well," Stern told GamePro (thanks Kotaku). "People have really strong reactions to the airport scene and it's been fascinating because we all wanted to make it something that would be upsetting, disturbing, but also something people relate to.
"There's something instantly identifiable about it when it happens, when you're in that situation and the level begins."
Stern went on to say that there were periods during Modern Warfare 2's development when the team had to take a step back because the events they were trying to incorporate into the game were coming to life in the real world: terrorists running amok with machineguns in urban areas, Russian tanks rumbling into Georgia...
But they stuck with the airport level, called "No Russian", regardless. "People want to know," Stern explained. "As terrifying as it is, you want to know. And there's a part of you that wants to know what it's like to be there because this is a human experience.
"These are human beings who perpetrate these acts, so you don't really want to turn a blind eye to it. You want to take it apart and figure out how that happened and what, if anything, can be done to prevent it. Ultimately, our intention was to put you as close as possible to atrocity.
Also interesting is Stern's recollections of people testing the game. While reactions were obviously polarised, one thing does stick out: "Every single person in testing opened fire on the crowd, which is human nature."
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keyboardmonkey
20/11/09 @ 08:28
+2
Another day another MW2 story...
I enjoyed the Airport level... does this make me sick? |
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Lee_Morris
20/11/09 @ 08:31
+5
Everyone I've heard talk about that level say they fired on the crowd and it boggles my mind. Why would you want to do that? Honestly please answer cause I cannot fatham it. I still think it is important to the story (if you can call them hodgepoge set of events a story) becuase of what happens at the end of the level. To me it communicates strongly why the russians invade america nd with such force
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 20/11/09 @ 08:33
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4thVariety
20/11/09 @ 08:32
+12
Maybe that says more about the selection process for testers than it says about human nature. Activision even seems aware of that. Why else would they remove the option to shoot civilians for the German version?
But thanks for wringing one more news item/free advertisement out of that scene. Activision's promotion seems to take every chance to ejaculate this shootout in the face of the public, reminding us that it is not about the message, but cheap shots for attention. Oh Activision, if you only had known in advance what an outrage Tony Hawk would cause by skating in the White House. You would have made it the cornerstone feature in your new Tony Hawk game. Well, there is always next year. May I ask to be able to choke babies in the next CoD? I promise to tell my local news team your game made me do it when I choke real babies due to my human nature afterwards. |
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captainrentboy
20/11/09 @ 08:32
+11
I opened fire on the crowd without thinking twice, y'know why? Because it's just a computer game, once the people you've shot begin dissapearing/clipping through other bodies and you realise that everyone in the crowd is dressed up in one of six different outfits it kind of loses it's impact/immersion anyway.
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+13
"Every single person in testing opened fire on the crowd, which is human nature."
Huh?!? What a strange thing to say. If it was a test only to see how people react in that situation then I'd say that says more about the testers' nature than everyone else's. I mean I didn't shoot them... I found the whole scene tasteless and pointless. It made little sense storywise either, at best it was far-fatched and at worst it was downright stupid IMO. Yeah... sure... it's perfectly believeable to expect a nation to go to war and invade another because one American was framed despite there being bodies of Russian terrorists there too? It's been said that the game's set-pieces were done before the story was finalised and, boy, does it show. That says to me that this particular scene was created not for story reasons but purely for the controversy it would cause. |
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TriggerHippie
20/11/09 @ 08:33
+32
Every single person in testing opened fire on the crowd
Isn't that their job? They're testing sweet F.A. if they don't. |
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kentmonkey
20/11/09 @ 08:33
+9
Seriously tired of all this constant MW2 coverage. Everywhere you go there's something else being said about the game.
It wouldn't be so bad if they'd kept up the quality of COD 4,and it deserved all this hype, but they didn't. And if that airport level was meant to make you feel 'as though you were there', then it failed miserably. Watching people stand and wait for you, even though they can hear gunshots ten feet away, and only run away when you get close to them, just so they can be shot down, was totally unrealistic. And I didn't partake in the shooting of civilians, because that's not what I would have done in real life. I'd have taken the opportunity to shoot the others from behind, before the atrocity even started. Last COD I buy unless it's with chips or until they buck their ideas up and stop trying to ruin the industry with their self-indulgent and aggressive sales techniques. |
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the_dudefather
20/11/09 @ 08:34
+3
if they were actual people sure, but it's more akin to opening fire on a puppet show (of the marionette variety, otherwise you would get a lot of puppeteers with missing fingers and hands)
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keyboardmonkey
20/11/09 @ 08:42
0
@ Lee_Morris
"Everyone I've heard talk about that level say they fired on the crowd and it boggles my mind. Why would you want to do that? Honestly please answer cause I cannot fatham it." Because it was mindless violence and fun.. It's something you would never do in real life so it's fun to do in a game.... Just like in GTA carrying out drive by shootings, trying to run people over, stealing a cop car... |
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+9
i usually always go good when given the chance. first thing i did was shoot at the bad guys standing beside me, which of course the game doesnt allow. After that i just made my way through the level stopping to put the odd npc out of their virtual misery, and eventually just started to shoot everything for a bit of fun. Even if you choose to 'be the good guy'' and not shoot any civilians you are then forced to shoot the swat teams that show up to get out of there and finish the level! what a mess the game is storywise it must be said.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 20/11/09 @ 08:47
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+16
I wish EG would write proper comments like this: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/11/...
instead of the constant activision promotion! |
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+5
This airport level... well, that was just stupid imho.
You get to be a nice CIA agent that is somehow planted into close proximity of evil evil terrorist Makarov (speaking of that, how long does it take to teach average GI Joe, who is recruited from the standard platoon in Afghanistan, Russian? Not only the language, but the Russian customs and ability to drink vodka by the glass and all that? No wonder it failed. But that's beside the point). So, you're a badass CIA agent. You are given gun to mow down innocent civilians. Your comrades march happily ahead turn their backs on you. Including the evil Makarov himself. Now, is there any particular reason I shouldn't be able to just aim the bloody nice gun i've been given towards the back of really evil terrorist Makaroni and pull the bloody trigger? Controversial for it's stupidity imho. |
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muscleblade
20/11/09 @ 09:05
0
I didnt bother to shoot at the crowd. It didnt feel right to me. Im not the kind of gamer that goes around killing innocents on the street in GTAIV either. Collateral damage is another thing though.
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Negotiator
20/11/09 @ 09:13
-3
Yes its only a computer game, but that scene is quite hard hitting and remains with you for some time afterwards. It has a realistic feel and tone to it, that say GTA does not, at one point a guy is crawling along the floor with blood pouring out of his stomach. However scenes of this nature are shown in movies all the time and are far more realistic than a computer game, so forget about it.
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thesombrerokid
20/11/09 @ 09:22
+1
the reason a lot of people open fire on the crowd is because it's the only action the game lets you make, almost everyone will react the same way i reckon:
try to kill makarov, because the game doesn't even bother to try explaining why you can't. failing that you trundle along depending on when boredom sets in and to what extend you may hold down the left mouse button, which has zero emotional weight due to the fact that you've been so thoroughly reminded it's a game by forcing you to interact with it in a specific way. |
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andywilkie35
20/11/09 @ 09:27
0
Non event gets more coverage, great!
Can we not just be mature about it and say its a fucking computer game and get over yourselves? Cheersthxbye! |
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kangarootoo
20/11/09 @ 09:34
+7
I was going to link that RPS article too.
Again for those not bothering to read the whole thread - http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/11/... It is really all you need to know about "that level", and the debate that surrounds it. If "that level" is our poster boy, our flag bearer, or representative to the rest of the world about how "games can be serious too"... we have been failed. |
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HandOfBeadle
20/11/09 @ 09:36
+8
It sounds worryingly as if IW think they actually pulled this off with some level of artistic merit.
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0
@Killdare
Dude, i have the same issue. i cant help but always do those things the right way. A problem of being obsessive some times with perfection in things around me in general in my life. Yet in MW2 in the Airport scene I played it once and I killed.. Lots of them since i knew it wouldnt affect the game ( the rest of it.. ) . lol Btw as of the statement of the script writer. Im always against ppl and countries banning games and not the way they treat movies etc. BUT.. Dont say it as if you would plainly create a recreation of the Twin towers and the event of 9/11 without wondering what is wreong about it. That said. Great game butthats it. |
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kangarootoo
20/11/09 @ 09:55
+6
"if they wanted the players close to the atrocity, have the player as a civilian trying to escape and then eventually getting shot"
But again, if depicting a true attrocity was the plan, a civilian probably would either escape or be killed immediately. 5 guys simply cannot hold an airport hostage in the way that was depicted. Armed security at airports are either military personel or they are from the armed response section of the local police force. And what is more, they are trained specifically to defend airports against attack. 5 guys wandering through an airport in the way shown would get dropped in no time. I said when I first saw the movie that I didn't feel it would work, because based on what I was seeing I didn't BELIEVE it. I stand by that. It is as if the director of Bad Boys dropped in a scene from Schindler's List, but only after it got a workover from the Bad Boys script and storyboard team. |
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mcmonkeyplc
20/11/09 @ 09:57
+2
I didn't open up on the crowd you sick puppies. Infact I didn't fire a shot until a police man shot me. Then I only shot them not the crowd.
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0
i found the whole thing pretty pointless.
i didn't find it shocking in anyway as it's just a game, i did not fire on anyone and found myself getting slightly bored having to walk at a snails pace waiting for all this pointless stuff to end. IW is usually good at doing those scripted events, like riding in a jeep well all hell is breaking lose or climbing out of the chopper after the nuke goes off and so on. but that well fell sort, it brought nothing out, like most people just found it pointless |
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actionfitz
20/11/09 @ 10:11
+1
"Every single person in testing opened fire on the crowd, which is human nature."
erm. I didn't. and tbh, it felt more like a cheap stunt to me than anything like an essential plot device. /shrug. but then I always max out light side or play good guys in games like fable and KOTOR etc :/ Mostly thats because the majority of games that say they give you moral choices would have you pegged as either Jesus come down from upon high or some cartoonish Mustash twirling Dick Dasardly cloned Baby eater (yes im talking about you Fable). /sigh whatever happened to the grey area, the middle ground... for those of us generally decent sorts that still have he capacity for a rather twisted sense of humour... |
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octavedoctor
20/11/09 @ 10:13
0
OK IW, if you wanted to put people closer, why not turn it into a survival situation and have the player as a civilian in the crowd trying to escape, surely that would have been closer to the attrocity of it all, you could have had a cutscene before hand with you and your family before the gunners arrive.
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+2
When I played that level I blew everyone away without even batting an eyelid. But I didn't realise I was a CIA Agent until the end - I wouldn't have pulled the trigger if I had known that.
Can ppl not just lighten up about this anyway? I personally think it was a powerful thought provoking scene but I know I'm in the minority here. |
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+2
I didn't fire a shot, until the very end (not counting the time I tried to kill Makarov). The AI bugged out, a policeman had been left behind and Makarov and his pal couldn't kill him, or vice versa. They all just stood there plinking at each other, until I did the deed. It took ages as well, the terrorists don't actually like killing cops, they prefer to let you do it, and it takes some fairly intricate maneuvering to get them to advance the level.
I don't how many times i saw Makarov get shot, the man must be made of rock. PS I thought the level was shit, both in terms of artistic intent, and purely from a gaming perspective.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 20/11/09 @ 10:47
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kangarootoo
20/11/09 @ 10:47
+4
"Every single person in testing opened fire on the crowd, which is human nature"
It is human nature when your attempt at gritty realism fails. If it had genuinely worked, maybe people would have behaved differently. |
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-1
The level was pretty horrible, I never killed the civvies, I did however spend ages to see if there was a way to take out Makarov and his chums, unfortunately there wasn't, which makes no sense, yeah you might be outnumbered, but there are countless places throughout the game where you overcome more threatening odds. It's totally stupid.
And why weren't there any civilians anywhere else in the game? It's convenient that these battles all take place in ghost towns isn't it? The single player of this game is actually a shambles, I enjoyed Army of Two more. |
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+1
Also let off plenty of bullets to not arise suspicion but mostly into walls above the crowds head or into gaps where the terrorists had already mowed them down. I wasnt particularly squemish (its only a fucking game after all) about any of it it just didnt sit well with my human nature.
They chickened out of having a 'proper' airport population, there were no kids. |
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0
Shadders -
No civilians elsewhere in the game? What? other than all the civilians in the generic middle east country the first fucking level is in? Or all the people in the Brazilian levels who run away once you and the enemies start shooting? Fail. I think people are a little too worked up over this. it doesnt make you a better/worse person if you did or didnt shoot at the civvies during the airport level as some people seem to be insinuating with their rather pompous posts. IW just tried something different. it didnt work. So what? Its a fucking computer game people. And if the story didnt make sense to you in MW2 i feel sorry for you. It was basic as fuck, 2 dimensional and predictable, but it did make sense. Oh and IMO, the airport level was a rare miss, and the rest of the game is fantastic entertainment. Which is all the game should ever have tried to be.
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 20/11/09 @ 11:46
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+1
Enough, already.
If I were of a slightly more cynical state of mind, I'd say that EG is becoming either: A) Fixated with MW2 to the point of obsession. B) Desperate for hits, so keep reeling out this increasingly-tired nonsense to provoke response clicks. C) Copping a back-hander from Activision to keep this bollocks front and centre. D) Determined to drive readers insane with the incessant drivel coming from Activision and IW. E) All of the above. Yes, there are one or two of those factors that are more than likely non-starters, but for crying out loud, aren't there more interesting things to be reporting on, rather than the same spiel again and again? Yeesh. |
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sickpuppysoftware
20/11/09 @ 12:03
0
I fired over their heads and at screens in case the terrorists twigged that I was going along with their plan.
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makeamazing
20/11/09 @ 12:54
0
I opened fire cause i was bored.. though the screams were pretty well done.
to put you as close as possible to atrocity Yes you did IW you gave us a rubbish SP experience... thats as close to atrocity I wanted to go. |
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0
Geeza - In the airport there's about 200 civilians, but across the rest of the game which is almost entirely made up of urban areas there are about 8 civilians. The possibilities of mixing civilians into the combat zones are really amazing, but IW totally bottled it. How cool would it have been if American civilians had come out of their houses with their own weapons during the invasion? As surely that's what would happen in real life. Having that massacre scene just served to highlight how empty all the other areas of the game were. I was really excited when they had civvies in the training bit at the start, I won't go into any more detail here though, I'm halfway through a post for my own blog detailing the game's failings.
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