Zero Punctuation: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

[TAdamson]

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You do know the real history of that period don't you? The US funded the drug dealers (The Contras) that the game explicitly states were raping and killing his people.

Iran Contra?

....No?....

 

[dystopiaINC]

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You do know the real history of that period don't you? The US funded the drug dealers that the game explicitly states were raping and killing his people.

Iran Contra?

....No?....

Yes I know about the Iran-Cpntra bullshit I know trust me. that still has nothing to do with the atrocities Manedez directly took part in nor the things he did in the 2025 story arc. The story is about the cycle of revenge that keeps getting upped in scale over the years if anything the Iran-Contra issues are with Manedez's father to say he's sympathetic because his sister was killed by Americans is false when you look at the whole thing, just who killed his sister, why it happened and so on. and i call bull crap on using real history when it was never brought up in game never referenced. it may have been in the back ground but who knows. and besides black ops has not been playing by the same history books, masons shot jfk, the whole nova gas thing, and other weirdness like weapons being in service years before they were invented in the real world (blops1) toss that argument out the window. we don't know how the Iran Contra indecent played out on Black ops

 

[TAdamson]

-

You do know the real history of that period don't you? The US funded the drug dealers that the game explicitly states were raping and killing his people.

Iran Contra?

....No?....

Yes I know about the Iran-Cpntra bullshit I know trust me. that still has nothing to do with the atrocities Manedez directly took part in nor the things he did in the 2025 story arc. The story is about the cycle of revenge that keeps getting upped in scale over the years if anything the Iran-Contra issues are with Manedez's father to say he's sympathetic because his sister was killed by Americans is false when you look at the whole thing, just who killed his sister, why it happened and so on. and i call bull crap on using real history when it was never brought up in game never referenced. it may have been in the back ground but who knows. and besides black ops has not been playing by the same history books, masons shot jfk, the whole nova gas thing, and other weirdness like weapons being in service years before they were invented in the real world (blops1) toss that argument out the window. we don't know how the Iran Contra indecent played out on Black ops

I'm sorry. I have nbo sympathy for anybody in this story.

The only person who is remotely relatable is Menendez. Yes he's a bad guy but his outrage it totally personal and understandable.

"and besides black ops has not been playing by the same history books, masons shot jfk, the whole nova gas thing, and other weirdness like weapons being in service years before they were invented in the real world (blops1) toss that argument out the window. we don't know how the Iran Contra indecent played out on Black ops"

This is completely specious. If you want to write alt-history then you better make it damn obvious that you're writting alt-history.

All I get from the specific dates, people, and places featured in black ops is that the protagonists were probably prime actors in Iran-Contra or at least complicit and that shit happens off screen. It's heavily suggested with the presence of the contras in the dialogue and the fucking appearance of of Oliver North in what can only be called a cameo.

Much like in BlOps 1 the protagonists are the sort of people who were probably actively engineering the sale of cocaine and heroin to sponsor anticommunist activity. But no. In COD world Americans don't do that sort of thing.

 

[YCRanger]

I think the most important issue is that people have chosen to take the term 'spunkgargleweewee' and run with it.

 

[Vault101]

snip

I think you seriously need to calm down...so yahtzee didn't like a game you like....he's done that with my favorite games too, but I don't go off on rants insulting everyone because I'm a bit upset

 

[maninahat]

snip

Problem is, that mindset assumes that people in the most powerful, richest industrialized nation in the world can't ever be victims in the first place. And we can. We're flesh and blood, same as the rest.

Of course they (we) can be victims; but as far as video games are concerned, the US is always the victim. That's the aggravating part. The narrative is always about America being invaded by foreigners. Even when the game takes place in other countries, the emphasis is on how hard it is for American troops, rather than the strife of the locals. The BLOP games are designed to show the darker side of America, but they are still ultimately a story about heroic Americans trying to stop the outsiders.

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

snip

Problem is, that mindset assumes that people in the most powerful, richest industrialized nation in the world can't ever be victims in the first place. And we can. We're flesh and blood, same as the rest.

Of course they (we) can be victims; but as far as video games are concerned, the US is always the victim. That's the aggravating part. The narrative is always about America being invaded by foreigners. Even when the game takes place in other countries, the emphasis is on how hard it is for American troops, rather than the strife of the locals. The BLOP games are designed to show the darker side of America, but they are still ultimately a story about heroic Americans trying to stop the outsiders.

Shooters were basically born in the US so is it really a surprise as to what their primary content is?

It's exactly like how the overwhelming majority of game developers are male, so male characters are always vastly more well-developed and characterized compared to female characters (that is, when they even show up).

 

[Hyakunin Isshu]

2. Yahtzee spews a torrent of racism on this "review". And justifies it by saying its ok to be bigoted towards men, white people, americans, and christians. On occasion justifying that justification with horrible generalizations (eg, all Christians are bigots and deserve to be mistreated). Offensive doesn't begin to describe it. There is no such thing as "acceptable" bigotry.

You forgot Japanese. He's racist toward Japanese too.

 

[Tommy Toejam]

Honestly, i was looking forward to this review, so much so that i couldnt wait and just watched *insert random military shooter* review he did before.


...yeay Yahtzee dont like shooters, give them the good 'ol same bashing you do every time! people who play fps's are DUMB yes, and throw in that its linear!

i say this, yet i do really love his videos, and i dont really enjoy military shooters myself.
But i thought this game was pretty decent, and i get the feeling that the annual COD bashing is just that, annual, the pressure to deliver a negative review might actually cloud his view a bit where as he might focus on a negative part and nail that down focusing only on that negative part, missing any silver lining that may come along the way.

Either way, the military-shooter-bashing starting to be a bit same-y. ofc he's never ever gonna 100% like a game, thats why we all watch his videos, but i think he's said pretty much all he can say about shooters, so hes really just repeating now :-\

Disclaimer: I'm Norwegian, you see a spelling error, keep it to yourself unless you dont understand what i mean

 

[Machine Man 1992]

snip

I think you seriously need to calm down...so yahtzee didn't like a game you like....he's done that with my favorite games too, but I don't go off on rants insulting everyone because I'm a bit upset

No,no, read it again.

I'm not mad at Yahtzee. That rage was directed at YOU. And by you I mean the entire Escapist community. Every single one. Just one huge blanket of contempt for every user.

 

[DataSnake]

Also, It's called a first person shooter.

Did you actually watch the rant a few weeks ago? Admittedly the term "spunkgargleweewee" is a bit inflammatory, but there's actually a justification for not calling modern military games FPSes: they're a completely different genre from games like Doom, Half-Life 2, Painkiller, Halo and so on; that means the fact that someone likes traditional FPSes (Doom, Halo, etc) doesn't mean they'll like "realistic" military shooters and vice versa. Basically, saying "you just don't like spunkgargleweewee" is more concise than saying "you just don't like strictly linear cover-based 'realistic' modern military shooters" and more accurate than saying "you just don't like shooters."

 

[maninahat]

snip

Problem is, that mindset assumes that people in the most powerful, richest industrialized nation in the world can't ever be victims in the first place. And we can. We're flesh and blood, same as the rest.

Of course they (we) can be victims; but as far as video games are concerned, the US is always the victim. That's the aggravating part. The narrative is always about America being invaded by foreigners. Even when the game takes place in other countries, the emphasis is on how hard it is for American troops, rather than the strife of the locals. The BLOP games are designed to show the darker side of America, but they are still ultimately a story about heroic Americans trying to stop the outsiders.

And you know, I don't have a problem with a game going the sort of direction you indicated. Shoot, I have a game idea already that I'd be all over; play a Vietnamese nationalist guerilla gunning down Japanese occupiers in WW2, then later Euro forces and released Japanese soldiers trying to reoccupy as well as propped up SV puppets (who in actual history were no better than the creeps that the Russians ended up funding). Give me a Cod/Battlefield/whatever with that plot, and I'd pre-order that sucker.

Maybe that leads me to ask this; if you don't want the usual white boys in American wargear as a protagonist, then WHO do you want? Give me an example of someone worth sympathizing over in such a role, since I gave one that I'd be sympathetic to.

A Gurkha would be kind of interesting. You end up in all sorts of places (Nepal, India, Hong Kong, UK etc), your allegiance lies with a foreign country over your own (one which will casually mistreat you for your services), and you get to carry around a cool knife.

Alternatively - I like the idea of playing someone fending off an empire - maybe an Abyssinian fighting off the colonialists. You'd be playing as someone from an interesting culture which was genuinely victimised by a far more powerful enemy. Plus, Ethiopia actually has a reputation for managing to stave off the Empires for such a long time - a real underdog story.

 

[Grach]

I'm not mad at Yahtzee. That rage was directed at YOU. And by you I mean the entire Escapist community. Every single one. Just one huge blanket of contempt for every user.

What the hell did I do?

You know what? I have an idea for a modern military shooter. It would be set in a alternate timeline where World War 1 never happened, so Europe would've been locked in the armed peace period throughout all of the XX century, with hostilities starting in early 2010. You play as Wilhelm Schneider and as Boris Gorodetsky, a german imperial frontline soldier and as a russian saboteur respectively. With both, you experience the start of the war all jacked up with nationalism for both parties which starts getting overshadowed by the horrid atrocities you experience or commit during the campaign, as you witness the nerve shriveling gun fire of the frontlines and the more morally questionable missions your respective goverments send you to do. The old strategies would have to brutally adapt to new weapons such as sarin gas, white phosphorus and radiological weapons used freely, finally coming to terms with the lunacy and hatred that warfare entails.

This would imply a vastly different warzone, as tanks are not as advanced, planes are mostly used for recon with nuclear weapons being phased out for more cost efficient thermobaric ordenance (the world would run on nuclear power mostly).

What do you think? It would be better than what we have now?

 

[Jegsimmons]

i dont know why yahtzee is putting politics into a game, especially one as fucking stupid as COD...er i mean gargley wee wee

it isnt for gun nuts because the gun mechanics are bullshit and ARMA, BF, STALKER, Red Orchestra, and similar games are the /k/ approved ones.
it isnt for 'white people' because we have better games like Halo.
so 'stupid paranoid white people' should be shortened to 'stupid people'.

really these games are for no one except the retard teens who but it and think its fun.

 

[FallenMessiah88]

Also, It's called a first person shooter.

Did you actually watch the rant a few weeks ago? Admittedly the term "spunkgargleweewee" is a bit inflammatory, but there's actually a justification for not calling modern military games FPSes: they're a completely different genre from games like Doom, Half-Life 2, Painkiller, Halo and so on; that means the fact that someone likes traditional FPSes (Doom, Halo, etc) doesn't mean they'll like "realistic" military shooters and vice versa. Basically, saying "you just don't like spunkgargleweewee" is more concise than saying "you just don't like strictly linear cover-based 'realistic' modern military shooters" and more accurate than saying "you just don't like shooters."

Yes I did, but here's the thing. They're called first person shooters because you shoot things from a first person percpective. You do that in Doom as well as in Call Of Duty.

Using the term "spunkgargleweewee" is like using a word like "satan sex worshippers" to describe people who like heavy metal.

If you really must put give a specific name to every sort of FPS, then start by not using inflammatory terms like these. Why not just call them Modern Military Shooters or MMS's like TotalBiscuit does?

 

[Jegsimmons]

Its an umbrella term used, short hand, to describe why whites have it better when it comes to stats. It includes a litany of factors, the majority whites are not effected by.

The factors are well known, and it has to do with MODERN RACISM, Current economy, and the LINGERING EFFECTS OF PAST RACISM AND PAST DISCRIMINATION. Racism that whites never had to go through just BECAUSE of their skin in the PAST, so they are not stuck in an unending loop of suffering NOW.

Yet it all boils down to institutionalized racism that still lingers, and minorities just being less lucky. When whites are practically the only ones not effected CONSISTENTLY its called white privilege. Its more than just ONE graph that led to this, it was CONSISTENT graphs over DECADES. Ever since we started recording this kind of stuff.

To say white privilege does not exist is to toss the entire field of statistics out the window. The fact white privilege's existence is about as irrefutable as Evolution at this point. The same as women still being effected by sexism.

The charts don't lie, especially a metric fuck ton of charts that all say the same damn thing.

while i agree being white may (big emphasis on MAY)work to ones advantage, to say this is the only reason to ones demographic being a success is ignorant. alot of it boils down to culture and attitude and location.

but to even remotely hold shit that went down 150 years ago to people today who have never experienced, been subject, or victim to it is silly. Im a WASP and i still have to work my ass off to get where i am, im not handed anything because of my demographic. my family didnt earn its position as middle class for being white or oppressing people, because we never oppressed anyone. if anything, as Irish decent, we were oppressed but it doesnt carry on to next generations. we dont cry about it, we dont care, what matters is what WE do.

Also, im not sure what graphs you mean, but if it shows the success of certain demographics, then it doesn't show 'white privilege' as much as it highlights cultural issues in certain groups.
but again, i dont know what 'graph you're talking about, but id have to see a specific one to actually make a statment about it.

 

[Jegsimmons]

The charts don't lie, especially a metric fuck ton of charts that all say the same damn thing.

None of which you chose to provide.

In any case, when do you suppose that the privilege expires so I can go on the London subway and use racist epithets without being arrested?

probably about the time England stops being a police state that arrest people for being mean on facebook.

also that 'privilege' wont actually expire, as long as that history exist, they will hold it over your head as an axcuse for their short comings, what you do i call their bullshit and fight back.

 

[DataSnake]

Yes I did, but here's the thing. They're called first person shooters because you shoot things from a first person percpective. You do that in Doom as well as in Call Of Duty.

Using the term "spunkgargleweewee" is like using a word like "satan sex worshippers" to describe people who like heavy metal.

If you really must put give a specific name to every sort of FPS, then start by not using inflammatory terms like these. Why not just call them Modern Military Shooters or MMS's like TotalBiscuit does?

Someone mentioned in the Warfighter thread that MMS is already used, so what about MWS (Modern Warfare Shooter) or RMS (Realistic Military Shooter)? And the point stands, saying someone "just doesn't like shooters" because they hate BF3 and MW3 is like saying they "just don't like games": too broad, because there are other kinds they DO like.

EDIT: Also, "Satan Sex Worshippers" would be a good name for a heavy metal band.

 

[Vault101]

No,no, read it again.

I'm not mad at Yahtzee. That rage was directed at YOU. And by you I mean the entire Escapist community. Every single one. Just one huge blanket of contempt for every user.

because...WE...don't like the game you like? (what?)

now thats a bit fucking stupid now...isn't it?

being an ass aside we arent all rabid yahtzee fanboys brown-nosing, and some of us arent cynical fucks eather

so pleasepback up your generalisations and take them out the door with you since you obviously hate us all so much....or come back when you learn to act like an adult and not throw a tantrum everytime your feelings get hurt

 

[FallenMessiah88]

Yes I did, but here's the thing. They're called first person shooters because you shoot things from a first person percpective. You do that in Doom as well as in Call Of Duty.

Using the term "spunkgargleweewee" is like using a word like "satan sex worshippers" to describe people who like heavy metal.

If you really must put give a specific name to every sort of FPS, then start by not using inflammatory terms like these. Why not just call them Modern Military Shooters or MMS's like TotalBiscuit does?

Someone mentioned in the Warfighter thread that MMS is already used, so what about MWS (Modern Warfare Shooter) or RMS (Realistic Military Shooter)? And the point stands, saying someone "just doesn't like shooters" because they hate BF3 and MW3 is like saying they "just don't like games": too broad, because there are other kinds they DO like.

EDIT: Also, "Satan Sex Worshippers" would be a good name for a heavy metal band.

I agree that saying that someone "just doesn't like shooters" because they say they don't like BF3 and/or COD is quite stupid and by extension, I agree that perhaps segregating FPS's into multiple genres is a good thing. Basically, as long as it's not inflammatory or demeaning then I don't care.

And now that you mention it, "Satan Sex Worshippers" is actually quite an awesome name. Maybe I should use this method more often when coming up with band names.