Columnist Calls Black Ops Ad "Twisted"

[tehroc]

It's real soldiers that have some problems with it, maybe they find it glorifies war and perhaps they've seen war horrors we can only imagine.

 

[Knusper]

I quite liked the advert, primarily because it had The Rolling Stones in it. But I can see why some people (e.g. those who have witnessed the horrors of frontline warfare) might find it distasteful.

 

[TheUnstoppableRobman]

What a fucking moron. WHy does it seem everyone in news media doesn't have the intelligence to understand what things mean, yet always open their misinformed mouths. T^his commercial is quite obiously pointing out the diversity of people who play CoD. You never know who you just fragged onine. For christ sake Kobe Bryant and Jimmy Kimmel are in the commercial. As well as a business woman, a firefighter, and a dude from a concierge service. Symbolism?!?! Jesus I hate newspapers.

 

[temporalcrux]

They're dead on the inside and are secretly planning on killing people because they show no emotions when killing game characters.

VERSUS

They are gonna kill people for the thrill of it! They're playing a game that's so real about killing people, and they're enjoying themselves!



Yeah, just forget the commercials, the media, hell, forget the damn game even. It's just another rehash of a shooter that no one really will remember unless all the sequels are horrible. That's how the shooter genre works.

 

[Red Albatross]

I think it's a great commercial, and I really think the juxtaposition is ludicrous enough to not be taken seriously. But since some people are incapable of loosening up, of course there will be some kind of uproar about it. I've already seen some idiot news station complain about it, saying that the phrase "There's a soldier in all of us" is an insult to real soldiers, at which point I buried my face in my hands and despaired at being part of the human race. Really? Isn't that the fucking point of the military? Normal fucking people, like you and me, taking up arms against our enemies?

Even if it wasn't, it's a COMMERCIAL. For a VIDEO GAME.

 

[ShadowKirby]

Here's one question I have about this:

How is this commercial, this ad, ANY DIFFERENT AT ALL from some of the over-the-top, absolutely ridiculous action movies we've seen over the last few years?

Oh, right. It's for a video game. Clearly, that makes it the root of all evil.

I dunno, maybe because movies are already seen in the public eye as a legit art form and games are not. Instead games are seen as dumb, violent and just petty amusement. So I think this ad is incredibly tone-deaf considering it was launched mere days after the SCOTUS hearing where games were falsely called out for being exactly like what this ad is portraying them to be: violent, without meanings, train people to be killers because hey, there's a soldier in all of us right!

You can't claim video games as art, and then when people start looking into the games critically, say that "hey, its only a game." You don't get it both fucking ways.

It's not always people being too oversensitive, sometimes it's just gamers being incapable of basic compassion or understanding, and just being insensitive about everything.

I've already seen some idiot news station complain about it, saying that the phrase "There's a soldier in all of us" is an insult to real soldiers, at which point I buried my face in my hands and despaired at being part of the human race. Really? Isn't that the fucking point of the military?.

The issue though is that this ad (and the game to a certain degree) reduces the job of a soldier to "a dude that runs around shooting people for fun".

 

[Polock]

I thought the commercial was great, really caught my attention. Commercials rarely do.

 

[Canid117]

That was the most badass cook I have ever seen.

 

[Chewster]

Oh good. I hate stuff like this for the obvious reasons: it is taking a stab at games and I like games, but I also hate this stuff for a second reason: it points out how die hard all us gamers are. There never seems to be any discussion, just a round of back slapping where we all say "yeah, that guy is dumb, games are great and he is obviously wrong and that is that". Are we all really that fucking reactionary? Come on people.

Unfortunate that stuff like this can't spark a wider debate on the subject.

That was actually my first reaction to it. You know what really gets me about all this? People get mad about video games portraying combat as all fun and games (10 days in Fallujah), but no one gets mad at the US military ad campaigns.

I get annoyed with the Canadian ones all the time. And lest we forget, the American army made their own video game, to use as a propaganda tool. From what I heard, back when AA first came out, it worked well.

Of course, one bad act does not negate another, and this is a forum dedicated to video games, not the politics of the army. So I guess I'm saying, "and?"

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

Oh come on, it's not like these people were using real weapons....

And if they were, I garentee they are properly trained.

 

[PanicStricken]

"The thud of recoil, the screams of rockets, the dust of explosions... and the look of exasperation on that little, shotgun-wielding girl. The only things missing are the dead bodies on the receiving ends of each bullet and blast."

that's because you respawn after pressing x...

 

[deadxero]

Someone should remind him that he needs to remove his face from his ass and grow a sence of humor. I though that ad was funny as hell.

 

[ninjajoeman]

I personally don't like the ad, but he's reading too much into it.(BTW the RPG-7 is a recoilless weapon, so it won't knock you on your ass like that.)

yea but hes a noob and we all know that nubs get knocked on their assess with everything.

 

[Unesh52]

snip

I agree with you about the back-slapping thing. It's the same way I feel when someone posts a video of a guy throwing a cat in a bin or whatever. Everyone rushes in to post their obvious comment about how he should rot in hell or whatever. It's like, can't we just assume that you feel that way until you say otherwise? At least after the first hundred comments to that effect. Say something thoughtful about it, don't just say yay or nay.

I think it's a bit weird for people to call out any media for bringing violence to life. People, especially kids, love to make believe they're brutally murdering people. All the time, often without the help of our futur-y magic boxes.

 

[Snotnarok]

I love how nothing is innocent anymore. It could be Sonic running around with palm trees and it'd be offensive because it depicts palm trees that are native to a racist tribe who had slaves. Sheesh it was a good commercial.

 

[Branches]

Honestly, the ad was great. And even then, I liked the Xbox ad. There's some sort of Demarcation line when it comes to game ads, where every other insane ad like the newest one for the Russel Crowe movie shows some guy trying to break his wife out of prison and escape.

I mean, It's reading too much into something that's meant to be entertaining enough to sell you a product.

 

[loc978]

"This ad equips people with real guns and simulates real-life, no-CGI combat," Sam Machkovech wrote in a column for The Atlantic. "The thud of recoil, the screams of rockets, the dust of explosions... and the look of exasperation on that little, shotgun-wielding girl. The only things missing are the dead bodies on the receiving ends of each bullet and blast."

That columnist is seriously equating Hollywood-style war movie action to actual combat..? I'd find it mildly insulting if it weren't so damn funny. Those weren't real guns, and that wasn't a simulation of combat.

Trust me, "realistic" is not the term one should use to describe that ad.
Fun, funny, and just enough application of the Rule of Cool, though... that would be an appropriate description.

 

[superbatranger]

Twisted? I found this ad to be hilariously awesome. I mean, did I see Kobe Bryant and Jimmy Kimmel?

 

[Daemonate]

I do not think this sort of ad is appropriate. This is realisically depicted warfare 'as a joke' - but it is advertisment, not satire.

It IS hilarious, and for a gaming 'in-joke' it's great.

For a public advertisment, it is exactly what we DON'T need going about with the Supreme Court ruling in-progress.

 

[Darth Lexx]

All this ad does is speak the truth.