In 2013, Marcus Schulzke set about discussing the significance of the depiction of Terrorism in video games, stating that it is commonplace for video games to reflect the binary battle of good and evil. Whilst in most cases, the majority of war-based video games sees the player donning a heroic persona, Schulzke questions the impact of when the player adopts that of a villain instead.
In games such as Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2¸the player does just that. Though for only a brief period of time, the player takes on the role of Terrorist during the “No Russian” mission, which sees countless innocent civilians gunned down in an airport by the player’s temporary allegiance. The level itself has been described as the “most provocative” and “emotionally disturbing” part of the game by Schiesel (2009), and yet Schulzke expresses concern that Terrorists may potentially be humanized during game excerpts such as this. Interestingly, whilst on this mission, the player has the option not to actively take part in the genocide, further supporting that there is no agenda forced on the player.
However, Schulzke does then describe how video games “fail” to humanize Terrorists – the notion of which is rather peculiar as it implies an active attempt to humanize and rationalize Terrorists to begin with – the likes of which certainly would be a “radical gesture”.
Rather than this, it could be argued that offering the player a change in perspective in games such as Garry’s Mod: Trouble in Terrorist Town, is seen as novel – a chance for the player to play as the bad guy for a change. In TTT, the players playing as the Terrorists are offered no reason to connect on a personal level with that role – in fact, the game itself can be likened more to a parody of Terrorism than to any attempt to sympathise with them, challenging Schulzke’s perception that video games allowing players to play as Terrorists actively blur the lines between good and evil.
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- Schulzke, M. (2013’ Being a terrorist: Video game simulations of the other side of the War on Terror’, Media, War & Conflict, vol. 6, Issue (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1750635213494129)
- Schiesel S (2009) Choices in infiltrating a terrorist cell. The New York Times: C1.
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. 2009. Infinity Ward.
- Garry’s Mod: Trouble in Terrorist Town. 2004. Valve.
The Last Lemming 