Juvenile Modern Warfare video attacked, defended, pulled

By Joe Fourhman | November 1, 2009

One of those faked-up viral videos hit YouTube late last week (jeez, aren’t we tired of that “strategy” yet?), featuring Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels stumping for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The video is ostensibly a public service announcement from a group called Fight Against Grenade Spam. Gosh, what’s that acronym spell?

GayGamer.net writer Mixvio wrestled with how to react, wondering if genuine outrage was worth it. The GayGamer posting, more annoyed with Infinity Ward’s shoulder-shrugging “Whoops!” attitude than anything else, ended with this salient point:

“…in the United States if that PSA had been, for example, brought to you by any of the unfortunate racial slurs attributed to African Americans or the sexist titles for women, a half-hearted apology of non-action would be the least of the things this company would be supplicating themselves towards forgiveness for.”

Game Informer’s Phillip Kollar took a more direct approach with the following multi-message post on his Twitter account:

“…it’s an official video released by them that for all intents and purposes says, “Yeah, we think it’s hillarious to use the word FAGS as well! LOLOLOLOL!” Just look at all the YouTube comments saying how totally awesome IW is for that bit. Whether it was their intent or not, that stupid joke condones a part of their community they should be shunning.”

And now, Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling has wiped the adolescent grin from the company’s face and pulled the video. Bowling rather lamely tried to frame the piece as a parody of people who think and talk that way. But judging from the community reaction, their audience did not get the joke. In the Kotaku post, Owen Good neatly capsulizes the entire affair:

“Many gamers, judged largely on what I’ve seen in commenting threads and in behavior online, haven’t expressed a lot of sophistication on this subject or a great willingness to have a mature discussion about it. It tends to break down to “I’m not offended so, no one else can be either,” and accuse anyone who is of politically motivated dishonesty. By no means do I accuse Infinity Ward or Bowling of homophobia or having that same small-minded attitude. But the video was pointlessly provocative, and made not only the studio, but also some of their biggest fans, by their reactions to it, look foolish and reprehensible to the general public. Bowling made the right call in removing it.”

Good also notes one Kotaku reader’s point that simply adding the word “Relentlessly” to the piece would have turned the acronym into FRAGS and perhaps sidestepped the entire controversy. Michael Abbott over at Brainy Gamer adds this:

“If we want to teach boys why compassion and civility are essential to their development as men, we must do it one lesson at a time. We can disapprove of EA and Activision’s despicable choices, but we shouldn’t presume our outrage will impact the underlying reality. It’s not about the games or the ad campaigns; it’s about how we raise and teach our kids. We have created this callous consumer, and we should expect marketers to target him accordingly. Are companies who sell games and music and body spray complicit in all this? Of course. Are they to blame? No.”

And while Mixvio, Kollar, Good and Abbott may take their share of immature shouting over this, I know I stand with them. It was a tasteless stunt that was directly pointed at stoking the most obnoxious, juvenile segment of online gaming fandom. Unlike last year’s Resident Evil 5 teaser trailer flak, it seems very difficult to absolve Infinity Ward et. al. of not being aware of what they were doing.

Plus, I now have another reason to hate the Phillies.