I never thought I'd say this but...

[Mozgus]

there's a game I actually don't feel comfortable with having a massive following among 8 to 15 year olds.

Call of Duty 4.

Now I'm only basing this age bracket claim on my personal experience with the multiplayer, as well as many forum threads and having heard a lot of kids talk about the game so much.

This actually worries me, whereas Mortal Kombat and Halo never did. It's not the violence really. It's the depiction of the middle easterners in a present time setting. This game alone surely stands as a kid's primary window to the middle eastern conflict. They're certainly not watching the news, or getting any honest information from their schooling. The schools would be in deep shit if they ever did, as it's still so fresh, and much of it could be argued as opinion.

Now the other CODs can exploit history all they want. I'm not so worried about those. Nazis aren't really a presence these days, and the Japanese...well, videogames wouldn't be where they are today without them. The japanese people don't take a lot of abuse from gamers.

But when it comes to COD4, I actually cringe when I hear the 13 year old punk get on voice chat and call me a tower head or sand nigger, because I'm playing as a brown person. It really worries me that this game, being their primary exposure to said culture, could be raising another generation of racist fuckheads.

I don't know. I might just be blowing it out of proportion, but after trying to play COD4 online all last week for the first time, I've come to the conclusion that no one my age actually plays that game. It's pretty much the worst online community I've ever experienced. I guess I'm just annoyed by that.

Anyway, kids can "pwn" as many "noobs" (such as myself apparently) as they want, as long as they understand that COD4 is not an accurate representation of the ongoing war.

[lordofduct]

I totally agree!

This is why I think racism, though coming a long ways, still has a long way to go. All we've done is push it onto new cultures that we get very little interaction with.

And I agree with you about the other CoDs... they're all WW2 based games where the enemy are organizations that are long defunct and no longer exist. I don't think imperial Japan or Nazi Germany have a chance of showing up anywhere any time soon. And neo-nazi doesn't count, that is far from Nazi. Anyways, those racist twits deserve to be punched in the head a couple times.

I do have to say though, I don't think this means this game shouldn't have been made. They have all the right to make the game. What I'm wondering is WHO THE HELL GAVE THESE 8 YEAR OLDS THIS GAME!!!!!!???????? And where are their parents when they're saying "sand nigger" and "towel head".

My grandfather was an old school racist. "coloured folk", "nigger", "kyke" were all common words from his mouth. But if I dare even pronounce the leading "n" in the word I'd have my head so deep in a wallop of fist I would stutter if I dare thought the word in my mind.

[Mozgus]

I do have to say though, I don't think this means this game shouldn't have been made. They have all the right to make the game. What I'm wondering is WHO THE HELL GAVE THESE 8 YEAR OLDS THIS GAME!!!!!!????????

Who the hell built them the PCs to play the game on? It boggles my mind. The single player seems nice, but the multiplayer is worthless as far as I'm concerned, unless you have a dozen actual friends to play with privately every week.

[lordofduct]

I know who built it... they did. Because mom and dad probably don't know how to make one themselves but think they need one for some weird reason.

I can't wait until next generation. I really can't. This confusion between parents and children and how the kids no more about technology then mommy does is going to change. So hopefully in just a few more years this is going to decrease a lot. Cause when we have kids... oh dear God... there isn't anything they'll be able to do on the family computer that I can't do myself.

[Mozgus]

Also I still wouldn't bar a game like this from a kid of my own. I would however expose them to some of the reality of this war first. I'd just want them to understand the real tragedy of this kind of thing, and the real motives of terrorists, and the real stances of their innocent people. It kind of scares me that many of these little gamers might not even consider that brown people aren't always terrorists with AKs.

Of course I havent beaten single player yet, so for all I know it could have a fair story and depiction. But the kids never talk about the story of the game. They talk about the multiplayer, which is nothing but whites and browns killing each other, without context.

[lordofduct]

heh, this is a back and forth conversation... where's everyone else?

But yeah, that is good practice. Help them make their own choices and decissions by introducing them to all the facts you can.

[MrPopo]

This is just another item in the big list of "reasons why parents are more incompetent today than in days of yore". And you can't blame the fact that households with two working parents are on the rise. Both my parents worked full time, but they also took the time to figure out what the hell I was up to. They actually would engage me in conversation about what I was playing, and would watch me from time to time. I don't see why this is so hard for parents to grasp nowadays.

[arion]

wow playing doom as a kid sounds so innocent now.

[Haruspex]

Who the hell built them the PCs to play the game on? It boggles my mind. The single player seems nice, but the multiplayer is worthless as far as I'm concerned, unless you have a dozen actual friends to play with privately every week.

I don't know Mozgus, i didn't encounter any of the things you said and i am playing the PC version of COD 4 for months. Although i am playing on European servers (mostly German).

[RCBH928]

I'll put in my point of view since I guess its a racist act against me(us) Arabs :

When this game first came out , I heard some rumors about banning this game as it is seen as a direct hatred and racist act against the Arab/Muslim . You can't blame them with continuous wars happening against those two communities. People can only think that, since the release of this game is a mere "coincidence" at the time America is having a major war in Iraq. People and media can only think that this is only another way to use media and propaganda to turn Americans(and westerns) into a racist killing machines (soldiers) . Funny enough , here is an American posting in this forum worried about the racism in this game and he is not part of the community being targeted with such acts. So I think this is enough proof not to blame the middle easterners.
What is stated above is only a rumor I heard, I am not sure if any actions were taken.

For the most part, the game is pretty popular. No one is really thinking "Those dirty Americans, they sell games to build hate against us" . People are taking this with good intentions and thinking this is only a game and there must be an enemy. We played against Russians, Chinese, Italians, you name it and I guess its the Arabs' turn now. So its nothing more than a story for a game, most people enjoy it(if not all) and I never heard a single complaint. So it doesn't really bother us so long as it was not created to build hate and and point racism against us(we don't need it at this age and era of history).

Now, what are the real intentions behind the developer of this game I do not know. Are they creating just another game? Or are they planning something with the US government to tinker with the minds of the young and recruit them for war? I really do not know, but I heard recently that video games are used in the army to recruit people and give them a taste of how "cool" it is to be a soldier. How can war be exciting?

Now if anything worries me, is that Americans are easily manipulated and are affected by the media around them. For example I can almost bet that no one around the middle east area is going to line up for movie tickets wearing a vader mask to get into the new star wars movie. I can also bet you that NO ONE EVER stood in line to buy anything except movie tickets(when it is crowded) and at bakeries during wartime and in poverty areas. While in America it is common to see people camping out wearing a witch hat waiting for the store to open to buy a Harry Potter book(or was that in England?) . One time I went to the movies here and it was the latest batman movie, and this girl was wearing a batman shirt. I was looking at my friend and was thinking "what the heck?" So its a bit of culture difference here, if you wear like X-men t-shirt for x-men movie you just might be the joke of the day. So that is some kind of culture difference. And due to that culture difference, It worries me that COD4 might affect the American public, and soon we see T-shirts like "GO TO WAR" or racist comments like the poster of this topic mentioned. I guess it is already happening.