EA producer Matt Turner has a lot of respect for Infinity Ward, but he believes the developer took the "No Russian" scene in Modern Warfare 2 too far.
"We wouldn't have done it, we didn't do it," he told CVG. "For me personally, I think the alarm bells went off in a big way on that one because it was out of context. When the footage got leaked thousands upon thousands of people saw it on a clip not knowing what it was. I'm not saying they were overreacting, but people were generating these pretty outlandish opinions even though they didn't know what the scene meant in the grand scheme of the game."
"You're playing a CIA agent, it's designed to show the atrocities...it's pretty awful, and if you fail to see that side of it, then you're not getting the whole picture," continued Turner. "That being said, I thought it took it a little far; it was pretty out there. But I like seeing that they have guts like that."
However, Turner also sees Infinity Ward's gutsy move as a good thing for the industry as a whole, stating, "I say maybe they pushed it too far but in a way that's a good thing because the media of video games is very young. We have to start pushing limits, making statements and seeing what kind of social and cultural relevance that we can have which hasn't really been nailed yet. I think [Infinity Ward] were pushing towards that direction and trying to make people experience something truly terrible. Whether they were successful or not, I'll leave up to the players to decide, but I liked the fact that they were trying something new that people haven't done before. I think that's really gutsy and my hat's off to Infinity Ward for trying at least."
Does No Russian take it too far? It's more or less offensive, but does it benefit the industry in the grand scheme of things?
[via CVG]
Oh, so carbon copying Infinity Ward when it comes to WW2 shooter franchises isn’t taking it “too far” is it EA?
[Reply]
At first, I said it was too far. After playing the game though, I’m sort of between the choices. The game immediately gives the option to avoid taking part in that portion of the game, and warns again later. However, some parents are too complacent and will buy any game for their children, whether they’re at the maturity level or not.
That being said, it’s not a scene for everyone to take part in, and I almost believe it should have been locked out and playable through an age verification service using a credit card or something similar.
As for me, I kept saying “It’s just a game.” but once I hit that part of the game, it felt very wrong to shoot anyone except those shooting back. I think I killed maybe 2-3 civilians in that scene and I felt nauseous. I HOPE that was the point that Infinity Ward was trying to get across, because in that case, it worked. However, I feel they were pretty immature and childish doing it, as other things such as ‘Blunt Trauma’ and ‘Joint Ops’ are along the same lines.
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