Persuasive Politik

Thinking critically about a game can involve realizing the undertones that are expressed while playing. For instance, when you play FPS's, typically you take the role of a soldier or some kind of government agent. You take on that identity. Where I'm going with this is clear - when people pretend to be soldiers and other kinds of killers, that most likely has an effect on their psyche. In Modern Warfare, you are given missions that, contrary to the experiences of many soldiers, are fun. In reality, war is terrible and frightening. In Iraq, coalition forces were ordered to break into homes where persons might or might not be armed. In such tense situations, civilian deaths became a statistic. They were and are other causes for civilian deaths that are much less tolerable, but regardless, FPS's do not present this. The developers are so focused on making a fun game that they do not consider reality. They do not consider how the invasion of the Middle East has perpetuated violence.

Metal Gear Solid 4 (MGS4) has you, Solid Snake, seek out a man who leads a league of private military companies (PMCs). The legitimacy of these PMCs was fulfilled by the United States, but now these companies are running amok, working even for terrorists. Made in Japan, MGS4 takes shots at globalization and, like its predecessors, poses the US as a nation that has screwed itself. You, Solid Snake, have been called in to fix it. MGS4 presents a world where war has become trivial. The game starts out in a town turned battlefield. You watch as militiamen are mowed down over and over again by a well-armed, coordinated PMC. I've only played about 30 minutes of MGS4, and although I have problems with the gameplay, the world that it puts the player in is bothersome because it is believable. PMCs as strong as some country's armies are not hard to imagine. That the United States would be responsible, considering its situation, also seems plausible (PMCs were supposed to replace the failing oil market). It is this plausibility that makes MGS4 worth mentioning. The game makes you think about the future.