Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Does not Describe the Reality of Chemical Weapons



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At this year's E3, Infinity Ward presented a private demonstration of Call of Duty: Modern war for the press. It's the best Call of Duty game I've ever seen, and the style and pace of his fights seem to be quite up to it. The team said the goal was to describe the realities of modern combat, but in the end, some things just can not be shown in the last game. In particular, the team is reluctant to describe the true effects of chemical weapons.

Jacob Minkoff, director of design for a player at Infinity Ward, emphasized before and after the demo the team's determination to be realistic. For example, Infinity Ward did not always use actors for its motion capture sequences. Instead, he captured the performance of a full Navy SEALs team. Given the assault of a four-story complex in the opening sequence of the demo, the result is a powerful display of lethal effectiveness devastating, but carefully controlled.

Joel Emslie, the studio's artistic director, said the same level of detail applies to his team as well. For example, they studied the history of night vision optics dating back to World War II in hopes of recreating the actual appearance of modern multi-spectrum panoramic NVGs. They did not just create skins of characters from digital tools. They bought uniforms, left them in a Hollywood style accessory store, and then used a photogrammetry to place them in the asset library.

Imagine my horror then, during a later mission, a group of Russian renegade soldiers started to throw cans of nerve agent at the feet of civilians.

But rather than display the true horror of chemical weapons – vomiting, shortness of breath, loss of control of the bladder and intestines, and appalling muscular convulsions – the camera turns away. Later in the level, the consequences of the chemical attack are seen through the eyes of a child. The player can actually bend down and look into the empty eyes of a dying woman as she begins to tremble on the floor. It's horrible, but it's not enough.

How does a game about modern war, a game dedicated to realism, justify the way he chooses and chooses the realities to describe in his game? I asked Minkoff what were the reasons why Infinity Ward had put the brakes on this scene. Yes Modern war It's really realistic, and using that realism to create empathy for the fighter and the trapped civilians, so why not aim for the same level of fidelity on this stage?


Polygon: The effects of the neurotoxic agent are much more dramatic and terrifying than what you have shown in this sequence. […] Do not you have the responsibility to really show the effects of elements such as the nerve agent in your game? To really explore this area of ​​modern warfare?

Jacob Minkoff: I mean, we are really talking about our responsibility. We always talk about respect, good taste and –

But if the goal is realism, what is good taste do not show what the neurotoxic agent does to the human body, in all its horror?

In some cases it's a matter of – because we've tried these things and in some cases it's just a matter of technology limitation, and what we think we can, or how much we think we can express the nuances of representation needed to convey emotion, distress, or things like that. It's not that we would want to show people specific results of specific weapons. It's more of a question of what's going on in the story and the game we're designing, given the things we want players to focus on emotionally and narratively, given the technology at our disposal. I know this answer is not very clear, but the problem is not very clear, you know? It's always something for which we simply have to try different methods and iterate.

So, what I hear you saying is that it's not that you do not want to show this horror, but you do not feel comfortable with the tools you have for justice to be done .

I think we have a very powerful engine, very good artists, and great performances, but there was never a moment when we said, "We should not show that." What we want, though, is to make sure that we show the right amount so that the story of this game and the one that people tell about the story of the game are not just the painful things that they have seen on the screen. Because the game is so much more than that.

But at the same time, you talk about the elevation of the fighter, the trained, the fighting spirit, the honor and the professionalism. And in the same conversation, you also say, "But we had to reduce the effects of weapons used on the battlefield." Are not these two statements very contradictory?

I mean, I do not really see it like that. Because it's an incredible challenge to try to cross that line, right? In the end, make something that is a fictitious entertainment product, while presenting respectfully the type of subject we are showing. It is so complex and multiform that we always call as many different elements. I think we have landed at a place where I am confident about my ability to speak up and say, "We represent that the best we can and with the amount we should be, given the amount of money that we have. story that we want to tell and the game we want to do. "


Call of Duty: Modern war arrives on PlayStation 4, Windows PC via Battle.net and Xbox One with cross-platform game. The game will be released on October 25th.

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