Heeding The Call

This is a picture of my version of Call of Duty 4. My personal experiences with through this game have led me to write this post.

Let me begin my post by creating a scenario. Todd Thompson is starting his first year at USC, and is very enthusiastic about getting his degree in Rich Parenting. As the first semester pushes forward, Todd realizes that this supposedly great school is in the middle of the ghetto. He fears for his life on a daily basis, leading him to revert back to what feels most comfortable to him. He stays inside his dorm room all day and plays Call of Duty 4 for the Xbox360. After feeling the rush of his first deathmatch victory, he only leaves his room for food from that point on. At the end of his first semester at USC, Todd Thompson is kicked out of school for failing all of his classes. Being that Todd was just kicked out of the University of Second Choice, his father gives him a second chance at Chapman University. Does Todd have what it takes to manage his personal call to duty?

Unfortunately for Todd, the moment he decided to purchase his own Call of Duty 4 sealed his fate forever. Let me transition now by explaining this game to those who are not as familiar with it. “Call of Duty” has been a series of military video games set in varying time periods. The first few versions of this game revolved around the stages of World Wars I and II. From your character’s first person viewpoint, you would be dumped off at places like Omaha beach, scurrying up the frantic hill towards the safety of the bunkers within. A long, winding close quarters battle would then take place, as your character would overcome insurmountable odds to achieve victory. This idea has been taken and shifted for the worst.

The most recent Call of Duty game is set in the near future. You play as Special Forces units in war-torn Russia and in the Middle-East. As you play through the game, plenty of Russian and Middle-Eastern stereotypes are present, and one of your characters is killed in the storyline by a terrorist-owned nuclear bomb. Having said that, the main attraction for this game lies within the multiplayer feature. The game producers came up with a genius system for online gameplay. Playing against other human opponents from across the globe has been a recent craze in the world of gaming, and the developers took this idea to the next level. As your character plays more “ranked” online matches, he gains experience points and military ranks. These ranks allow you to use new weapons and special features for your character. When you reach the highest level, you can earn your first prestige… and start all over again… Each prestige takes hours and hours of gameplay to reach, and there are TEN of them… This system, along with great graphics and the natural human drive to compete make Call of Duty 4 the most dangerous of games.

What makes this simple disk so dangerous? A multitude of reasons could provide an answer for this. I’ll start with something I briefly mentioned above. It is part of human nature to compete in some form or another. This game gives an outlet for gamers to feel good about themselves for sneaking up behind another player and knifing him in the back. The addition to headsets in this game adds the “trash-talking” aspect to this competition. After killing a friend, or even a completely random person, it is common for derogative verbal interaction to occur between those players. You could think of globalization through this game, but certainly not in a good way. Many Europeans have found interest in this game, and it is common to hear banter between Americans and them. The British take the majority of the punishment, as the non-English speaking players tend to stay quiet. Constant taunting of British accents and talk of tea and crumpets is disturbingly commonplace. I feel ashamed to call myself American in times like this, as it puts a label of ignorance directly on our foreheads.

Along with this twisted competition, the “rank” system would be my other main observation about the addictive properties to this game. At the end of each match, you can easily press one button and check your online stats. In this window, you can compare yourself to the rest of your friends, not to mention the entire world. Everyone knows the best players in the game, and they actually GIVE LESSONS in their downtime to earn money. When you are playing to earn promotions and get medals, every game is as intense as the last one. Depending on how you play from match to match, bonus points are given throughout the game to help boost your rankings. The false idea of all of these points flying around is what sets the trap. What people have to realize is that everyone is getting this array of points and promotions etc… In the grand scheme of things, you’re really just stuck in the middle of a never-ending cycle. Regardless, once you have begun your quest for that tenth prestige, you won’t just simply set down your controller and walk away, right?

From the inspirational US Army figures on the front cover to the genuine human ignorance and hatred brought out by the game itself; Call of Duty 4 has not only shaped the new gaming world, but has given millions of people around the world a new habit to break. Thanks Microsoft! Oh yea, and if I hadn’t stated this clearly enough, USC can go to hell.