Is the Decision to Buy Call of Duty or Battlefield a Moral Choice?

Kotaku - Before you skip everything in this video and run straight to the comments, understand the question: Many (not "most"; not "all") shooter video games feature licensed, real-world firearms. Gunmakers are compensated for the appearance of their brands as much as the NFL Players Association is paid for its members appearing in Madden. Does this present a moral choice to a video gamer?

[Pope_Kaz_Hirai_II]

Battlefield is the superior game far more skill based, try landing sniper shots over 400 metres in battlefield and see what I mean.

[badz149]

moral choice? what happen to buying games that you want? or enjoying both?

[aCasualGamer]

@badz149

What do you mean dumbest question? This is a legitimate question. If you care about the deaths of innocent people, then it's a legitimate question. Not enough that hundreds innocent Americans get killed every year by "gun worshipers" but think about it in a global perspective. Do you know how many thousands of innocent people get killed due to guns?

If it's true that Activision pays these gun manufacturers money then i'm done buying their games. Simple as that.

[NeoTribe]

Casualgamer. Your a sally. Go buy a nintendo if guns scare you.

[FragMnTagM]

@aCasualGamer

Please read this and do some research if you do not think it is correct.

http://americangunfacts.com...

[aCasualGamer]

@Neotribe

Do guns scare me? Ofcourse they do, you'd be mental if they didn't. If i had a gun pointed at you, you would shit your pants. That goes for everyone. So, should everyone buy a Nintendo?

I'm saying guns in games are fine. What i don't like is game companies becoming more politically involved with gun manufacturers. Any type of endorsement to these gun manufacturers is an instant ban for me. Don't like it? It's my opinion.

The whole idea of gaming is to endorse peace, not further development and manufacturing of guns/weapons. Violence should be digital only. If we can trap the violence in gaming, think about the good it would do/it's already doing.

[Ace_Pheonix]

@aCasualGamer , three times more people die from autoasphixiation every year than from "assault rifles". Yes, more people die strangling themselves with a plastic bag while jacking off than from rifles. Three times more. Everything you see on MSNBC is to scare you into giving up your freedoms, not make the world safer. Look at what has already happened in Australia. And if you had a gun pointed at me, I wouldn't shit my pants. I feel quite confident I could not only avoid getting shot by you, I could likely draw my own concealed weapon and use it properly to prevent you from using a firearm improperly. Using a gun to kill or threaten innocents is not its intended use.

[Conzul]

@aCasualGamer
Guns guns have never killed anyone. It's the people who do the killing. People who are unwell in the head. If they didn't have access to guns, they'd use knives or baseball bats, or even their own hands.

Did you know that more people are killed in America annually by hand than by gun? But you'll probably believe anything you're told by the media. You're probably one of those people who think marijuana is the spawn of Satan sent to pervert good hard-workin' folk into a haze of laziness and iniquity. GTFO

Says it better than I can:
http://youtu.be/82Wn9Nu5lzw...

[dedicatedtogamers]

Stop making up moral dilemmas where there are none, Kotaku.

He complains that videogames devs often have to pay the gun manufacturer to use a likeness of their gun (like paying Colt for M16 designs, or Barrent for their .50cal design, etc). Here's the thing: that's how the real world works. If you're happy with space guns in CoD, that's up to you. However, if you want to depict something from the real world that has patents and licenses protecting its design, you're probably gonna have to pay the owners of it.

If "guns aren't your thing" as you say, then don't play games with them. Leave the guns to the adults.

[Ace_Pheonix]

Exactly! The fact that BF3 uses licensed, real world firearms is a big part of the reason I bought it. I just wish they'd put an XCR-L in there. As far as money going to gun manufacturers, I'm pretty sure they'd do just fine without whatever they get from games. Hell, they probably hardly pay anything, it's free advertising. But the money they get from me buying firearms far outweighs what they get from me buying games. And if people hate firearms with a passion, they should get a different hobby or just play space games as you mentioned.

[TopDudeMan]

@Pope_Kaz

When are people going to learn to read before commenting? This article isn't about the choice between call of duty or battlefield. Battlefield, like call of duty, features real guns and therefore funds gun manufacturers.

It amazes me how even the most innocent of articles can be turned into an opportunity to pit 2 things against each other.

That said, some very interesting points are made in the video.

[Flavor]

Thanks not paying atention. The question was about money from gun manufacturers in games. Bubble down for off topic.

[Oschino1907]

I find it even more surprising how many aren't even reading the other comments before commenting let alone watching the video or even the paragraph at the top of the page laying out the basis of the question.

N4G makes me facepalm often but things like this turn into a double facepalm and me questioning my faith in humanity.

[aviator189]

It's preference, but I am more of a fan of Battlefield's mp than cod's mp mainly due to the added layer of vehicular gameplay- and that's exactly what draws me to Halo as well.

[thechosenone]

I'm done with both, think I'll go with Killzone and Bungie next gen.

[chadboban]

Wow, the first bunch of comments have already proven that NO ONE watched the video.

[TopDudeMan]

My point exactly.

[coolbeans]

"Before you skip everything in this video and run straight to the comments, understand the question: Many (not "most"; not "all") shooter video games feature licensed, real-world firearms."

It's like one sentence above-average in length is too much to handle for most. :/

[knifefight]

I'm staring at them like a train wreck.

It's...it's so awful, so brutal...and yet I can't look away.

[Chard]

Respawn is showing their shooter at E3 this year, and I'm willing to bet it will be better than cod.

[ForgottenProphecy]

yes, with either choice being bad karma.

[rohsik]

I say ARMA series are the best. Arma 3 alpha multiplayer is the blast!! even in the current alpha phase, the game is way better then bf3.

[fattyuk]

What a fantastic video!!

[fattyuk]

I think by all the comments so far... no one has even watched this video.

[Zha1tan]

These pseudo realism/arcade shooters are so boring to me these days, Id buy neither and instead il stick to developers who listen to their communities like the Red Orchestra series and the Arma series.

[Flavor]

Right on. hey, you ever try out project reality? it's a mod for Bf2 that turns it into a quasi-sim game.

[Zha1tan]

I did play it back in the day but Not anymore, looking forward to Red Orchestra Rising Storm though!

[MacDonagh]

People don't care about these type of weighty issues. People would rather buy jingoistic video games like Call of Duty or Battlefield rather than a game like Spec Ops:The Line which forced the player to confront the choices that they had made and the sales numbers indicate that.

[Detoxx]

BF4's multiplayer will blow everything away just wait

[Flavor]

The derping in this thread is unbelievable.

[Myst]

Wait moral!?

[Tetsujin]

Oh it's Kotaku, must be another slow day for them.

[knifefight]

The video isn't by Kotaku. Kotaku just embedded PBS's video on their own article.

[solidworm]

No its simply a choice between a good game (BF3) and a steaming pile of casual toss (COD)

[Sub-Zero85]

I think it's more about preference than morals IMO

[knifefight]

You have absolutely no idea what the video is about, do you?

I recommend you actually watch it before commenting ;)

[BuffMordecai]

Guns don't kill people, dumbasses do, it doesn't help that current guns laws aren't even enforced, and yet new legislation is brought up which only makes it harder for legitimate law abiding gun owners; little crap like limiting clip sizes would do nothing to stop recent tradgedies, especially since most criminals obtain their guns illegally anyway. And isn't it ironic how gun free zones have the most gun activity? Its because criminals know they would face little to no resistance if they lit up the place and went full retard, like in Aurora. Also with the recent stabbing spree at a Texas college, I guess we should all ban knives too. And no, I didn't watch the video, I already know its someone talking out their ass and making issues out of nothing.

[Master-H]

Guns don't kill people..

[gamejediben]

Wow, if gun manufacturers are getting money from licensing then I need to start buying MORE of these games.

They need all the support people can give them with the crazy msnbc dumbf@cks trying to take guns away from law abiding citizens.

I had no idea I was supporting 2 of my favorite things when I bought videogames. I'm looking forward to Battlefield 4's release even more now.

[csreynolds]

To be honest, I never stop to think about the consequences of my buying shooters, and I suppose that's my standpoint on this matter. I buy games to be entertained. I buy shooters because ever since my first encounter with an FPS in the 90s I've enjoyed first-person shooters.

It's not because a homicidal maniac is brewing underneath my mind-mannered persona, or because have a conscious desire to fund arms manufacturing. I just enjoy the genre - in the same way I enjoy racers (of which the licensed variants fund automotive manufacture), platformers (funding the manufacture of platforms), RPGs (funding fictional expeditions) and puzzlers (funding the manufacture of Rubix Cubes). It's that simple.

On the real though, this was a very interesting video.