Would you play CoD if the roles were reversed?

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

There have been a few games which try to break the mold by reversing the traditional role of the player, casting us instead as the villain. "Overlord" has the player controlling an evil army to enslave or put the torch to humanity. "Dungeons" similarly has you creating deadly traps to bring on the demise of dungeon-crawling, loot-seeking heroes. Destroy All Humans put us in the shoes of the harbinger of an alien invasion.

So, the military shooter then? America, f**k yeah. Every game is the same. The player is an American soldier/marine/SEAL and you have to kill lots of Russians/Chinese/N. Koreans/Arabs. Would you play it if the roles were reversed? Would you buy CoD if, instead of being an American shooting Russians, you were a Russian Spetznaz or Chinese Special Forces, shooting and "interrogating [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=y3dsly7Aqes#t=12s]" American soldiers? Would you buy CoD if you were a soldier of the Taliban, tasked with wiping out a US Army base? Or if instead of defending the US as in Crysis 2, you were tasked with destroying it?

Would you be upset if a major developer developed such a game? Is the very idea offensive? Does it make no difference to you whatsoever (freedom of the arts for example)? Well?

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Operation Flashpoint: Red Hammer already did this sort of thing.

edit: of course the old Bohemia Interactive Operation Flashpoint games were military sims not military shooters.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

although the main character you played was permamently angry and hated everyone.

I have never identified so strongly with a character before or since.

 

[NotALiberal]

I don't think COD campaigns would be made any more interesting by going down the "Russia, fuck yeah" route, or the "China, fuck yeah" one.

America isn't the problem, it's the fuck yeah attitude that's keeping the genre down.

Damn, first response of the thread and we already have a winner. Bravo, sir.

 

[TrevHead]

Even if the story is changed, it would still have vapid gameplay, so no.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

If I played that kind of game I would quite happily do so, I'd probably find it a lot of fun. For example, in CoH I usually played as the Germans against the US. DEATH TO THE WEST!!! *cough* >_> <_<

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Operation Flashpoint: Red Hammer already did this sort of thing.

edit: of course the old Bohemia Interactive Operation Flashpoint games were military sims not military shooters.

red hammer was a great expansion.. taking on those evil capitalists ! although the main character you played was permamently angry and hated everyone.

id definitely play a game from the otherside.

actually there was a game released not long ago where you play from the vietnamese perspective taking on the french and americans

What was that game called? That's very interesting to learn.

The post is really to guage whether the military shooter as it is today is because it is what the fans want, or because that's simply all the developers are willing to create.

 

[Zhukov]

Eh, at least it would be a change.

I'd love to play a game where you play as guerrilla fighters with homemade explosives and rusty AKs facing a high tech army with all the latest gadgets. Y'know, as opposed to the other way around, how it always is.

I doubt it would get made any time soon, at least not by anyone with shareholders to answer to. Can you imagine the reaction in the American media (lest we forget, biggest market for video games) to a game that involves killing US soldiers by the dozen? Yeesh.

Although I gotta say, "North Korea, fuck yeah!" doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

...

Y'know, come to think of it, I'd like a game where you swap between characters on both sides of the same conflict. Okay, it's probably been done before. Actually, I know it has. Dreamfall: The Longest Journey and Halo 2... kinda. But not have one of them be obviously working for Team Evil. Also, not have one of them switch sides or unite against a common threat.

You could have them encounter each other as a boss fight. And you get to play it from both sides.

Wouldn't necessarily have to be a military shooter of course.

 

[Genocidicles]

America isn't the problem, it's the fuck yeah attitude that's keeping the genre down.

Precisely why Spec Ops: The Line is one of the better ones in recent years.

 

[krazykidd]

How bout we drop america all together . How about a fictional war between australia and Great britain ? We could have naval battles , air battles , and kangeroo boxing . I'm tired of the U.S periode . And where the fuck is Canada in all this?

 

[aguspal]

I dont give a shit.


As In, if it is COD and it does what COD does best, I dont care what role I am.

 

[TheSapphireKnight]

I would just like to see more things like that in general. Not necessarily killing Americans specifically but just seeing things from the perspective of other nations.

For example I would like to see the Alien invasion movies such as Battle LA and its ilk but from other perspectives. Rather than Hornets, Abrams, Apaches, and M16s, I would love to see Migs, T90s, Havocs, and AKs.

As far as games even going beyond the Modern Military stuff a Resistance prequel set in USSR and things along those lines.

But I do agree with the sentiment that I would like to see modern shooters from other perspectives. I would love to see the developer take the same authentic approach to more 'eastern' militaries as they do to western ones.

 

[wooty]

A lot of people buy the CoD games for the multiplayer alone, so it is essentially the same as what your trying to promote there.....I think, in some way.

 

[Lunar Templar]

No, and its not the 'Fuck Yeah' attitude, as Smash pointed out, that's keeping me from caring about the games.

its a first person shooter, that's my problem with it. So in order to get me to play CoD, you have to do more then just change the nationality of the PC

yes i'm aware of the Irony seeing as my Avatar is a pony dressed like a Spartan from Halo

 

[Something Amyss]

I wouldn't play the game regardless because I don't like FPS. However, I did want to say that I'd be surprised if the Dudebros who are the bread and butter of the series would give a shit about which side they were on as long as they could teabags noobs and scream ****** at everyone.

 

[Puzzlenaut]

I don't actually have that much of a problem with the CoD western-centric perspective on things: ok, yeah, constantly playing as westerners can get a little same-y, but the series is nowhere near the jingoistic pile of propaganda that detractors seem to want it to be: Modern Warfare 1, 2 and 3 are all rather cynical of war and the US's role within it (especially MW2, which was about America's manipulation of history to portray them as "the good guys" and the out of control military-industrial complex within the US).

The only real "'Merica, fuck yea!" of the 7th gen CoD games has been Black Ops (and maybe black op 2; I haven't played it), but Black Ops was so ridiculous all round that its political statement matters no more than that of a Transformers movie. I would actually argue that Medal of Honor and the (*gasp!*) beloved Battlefield (the main series at least)are both more guilty of this kind of attitude, as a whole.

 

[deeman010]

Well to be honest, I would goble that up because I myself have been thinking about such a game. I also agree with most of the sentiments of the others posting on this thread, that the new faction can't receive the same gung ho portrayal that the US has been receiving from most of the video games this cycle. The change should highlight the technological difference between the two factions at war so that an influx of new tactics and scenarios could be introduced/created for us to experience.

 

[getoffmycloud]

It would depend how they they were portrayed, if they were still portrayed as dirty foreigners then I would not. But if they showed them to be human and did the same thing to the Americans instead of showing them as paragons of virtue and heroism then hell yes I would I could look past the dated gameplay for that.

 

[deathzero021]

i dont play it now so it doesnt really matter to me. also in fictional games/stories i dont care who the main role is. if it's americans or some other group, i wouldnt care. it's all about perspective, there are no good reasons for war and there are no heroes in war. the "bad guys" are the same as the "good guys" in their own territory.

hell it might be more interesting as an american to play as a different country for once.

 

[IBlackKiteI]

I don't really care, seeing as this will probably just result in a palette swap rather than any meaningful change to the gameplay. But if it did genuinely explore different ways to fight as a different force and did it well, that'd be awesome.
I'd love a game where you have to fight as a guerilla of some sort, having to use hit and run tactics and needing to scavenge just about everything from the enemy. Operation Flashpoint: Resistance was a bit like this, the early levels were all about stealing stuff from the Soviets, then it kind of drops it a bit afterwards and you start fighting and doing levels more akin to the original game.