exodus
Theres a knock off Bengazi/13 Hours mission in the last Modern Warefare where dozens of men wearing suicide vests charge your position. I found this to be in poor taste but barely worse then getting hit by a white phosperous airstrike in a multiplayer match and thinking “did I just get war crimed?”
The propaganda aspect is interesting. It shouldnt be controversial to say that the military and the CIA for a long time found ways to insert messages into popular culture, particularly in the film industry, often by just providing access to “experts” and equipment as long as they get to have input on the script, through their “entertainment liaison program” (pdf warning).
A long time ago the defense department had to make it’s own propaganda films. This became unnessacery once they could insert their messages into the mass media that was already being made by someone else.
A long time ago the military used to commission it’s own videogames. This became largely unnessacery once they could insert what they wanted into what was already being made by someone else.
I would love to know what Activision’s relationship is like with their entertainment liaisons. I’m not saying that the military told them directly to change the perpetrators of “the highway of death” from americans to Russians in their game. There are a lot of freaks out there capable of doing that junk on their own with no outside pressure. And the military and videogames have been undergoing a long love affair and a slow motion head on collision for over half a century so theres a lot of cross over between the two industries.
I just find the subject super dang facinating but it’s hard to get much concrete info about it so my imagination can run a little wild at times. I mean there IS a lot of info out there about it but even with all the stuff I can get my hands on I still feel like a blind man feeling an elephant.
Final thought edit: I suspect that if “Call of Duty” didnt exist the government would find it nessacery to create one.