11.16.2009

From Russia with BANHAMMER

As reported HERE and HERE and many other places, Russia a bit miffed at the "No Russian" mission in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The initial response by a lot of people is, "Oh big deal it's just a game, get over it Russia."

Now, I'm going to get some flak for this but I don't really blame Russia. Entertainment has some obsession with Russian villains. Be it a Bond film, a video game, or even just a novel, for some reason we love to make Russians the bad guys. Maybe it's because of things like the Cold War, or where they live, or those wonderful stories on the Russian Mafia, but one way or the other, we like them as our enemies.

Currently Vladimir Putin seems very concerned with Russia's overall look to other countries. By headlining things like saving the Siberian Tigers, and trying to increase ties to America, something like MW2 can be a bit insulting.

Granted, *Spoiler Alert*, the real bad guy isn't necessarily Russia in the game *End Spoiler*. But let's look at all the other concerns with images of "War Torn America" and how THAT was an issue no that long ago. We can sit there and say, "I can't believe people would show us that way." It's no different from the Russians who are probably really tired of being portrayed that way.

To drive the nail in, as gamers aren't we tired of being portrayed as mindless, gun toting lunatics that will kill anyone because GTA taught us to? Aren't we tired of being blamed for stupid things that happen, like when someone shoots someone over something they said on Xbox LIVE? It's thinking like this that makes me understand Russia's plight. We're so quick to say "QQ MOAR PLS" but really how much is too much?

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