Media pressure groups are calling out the reveal trailer for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for being in “incredibly poor taste.”
British newspaper, the Daily Mail, is upset Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 to task for its “ultra-violent” content, which the paper feels gets a little too close to the 7/7 bombings that occurred in London in 2005. The paper says that some are actually calling for the game to be banned.
The 7/7 bombings were a series of suicide attacks in the English capital, targeting the city’s transport links, with the majority of the attacks happening on the London Underground service. The attacks killed 56 people, including four bombers, and injured around 700 more. The Daily Mail pointed to sections from the recently released Modern Warfare 3 trailer, which showed an Underground train derailed by a pickup truck, and a series of masked soldiers firing on an unmarked vehicle, calling them a “chilling echo” of the 2005 attacks.
Vivienne Pattison, a spokesperson for pressure group Mediawatch UK, said, “I have concerns as these games are hyper-real and take place in a landscape we are familiar with. In light of the fact we have just had the 7/7 inquests, it is in incredibly poor taste.” However, in a statement Activision said that Modern Warfare 3 was a work of fiction aimed at adults, and it did not recreate any real events.
While it’s very easy to dismiss the Mail’s comments as reactionary, especially considering its less than friendly stance on videogames in the past, it’s not hard to see how people affected by the bombings might feel uneasy about the Modern Warfare 3 trailer. Of course, it’s very unlikely that Activision will change the game over these complaints – it left the controversial “No Russian” level in Modern Warfare 2 after all – and it seems unlikely that the complaints will do a great deal to dent the game’s sales.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 comes out on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on November 8th.
Source: via GamePro
Published: May 26, 2011 12:16 pm