In what is becoming International Blame Videogames For Everything Day , sections of the Russian media have linked Monday’s terrorist attack at Domodedovo airport in Moscow to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 .
The 2009 shooter famously featured a stage in which the player could gun down civilians in a Russian airport. The ‘No Russian’ level (video below) wasn’t the smartest thing Infinity Ward ever did with the Call of Duty franchise, but to idly pin the blame on a videogame is yet another example of lazy mainstream journalism where games are concerned.
Russia Today , a government-financed satellite channel, has featured a report that combines footage of the Domodedovo attack with scenes from Modern Warfare 2 . According to the New York Times , the report was keen to emphasize that the game was developed by Americans, and included an interview with Fox News favourite and so-called terrorist expert Walid Phares. Here are his pearls of wisdom:
“I think those who have been radicalized already — let’s suppose in this case jihadists, Al Qaeda or [some] other kind — they look at the games and say these games will serve them to train.”
Yeah, right, as opposed to all the world’s openly available shooting ranges featuring real guns . So far, so monumentally stupid, but then the report tries to claim the real-life suicide bombing “mirrors” the video game’s scenario.
Watch the video of the game below, and it’s plain this is a complete fabrication. Whereas the game portrays a commando raid, witness reports from Domodedovo suggest something far different. The only coincidence here is that the videogame also features a Russian airport – an incredibly tenuous ‘link’.
[Via New York Times ]
