November 9th 2010. As you read that date did it seem familiar? As though it had once swirled through the depths of your brain but was now no more than a meaningless box on a thrown away calendar? It should seem recognizable, as that snowy November marks an event that shook gaming (and broadband connections) to its core and if the sales figures are to be believed, many of you took part. The date, of course, marked the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops.
On that faithful night, Black Ops achieved an unprecedented first day sales record of 5.6 million units. To put that number in perspective, that’s the equivalent of every person in Luxembourg purchasing 11 copies of Black Ops each, all within 24 hours of each other. A figure that’s within a stone’s throw of some the most popular books and movies ever released. A popularity that has spawned with it: conventions, fan-made movies, books, cosplay, clothes, branded night-vision goggles and countless other pieces of merchandise.
Despite this, opinion amongst gamers seems divided, with Call of Duty’s popularity being detrimental to its approval across many gaming blogs and forums. Some criticise the fan base, some criticise the storyline, and others are just devotees of other online shooters, taking up religious style fervour whenever an alternative to their beloved frag-em-up is mentioned. What Call of Duty has taught us is that people like to play the soldier, but what then are the allures of playing an FPS as a soldier? And how do they stack up against filling the shoes of a civilian?
Call of Duty sure does love it's helicopters.
Out of all those millions of people queuing out the door of their local games retailer on that cold winter night, I think it’s a safe bet that the majority were civilians just looking for a brief escape with a hot new release. A few hours of leisure time to break up a monotonous day. Interestingly though, how people spend their leisure time offers us a unique glimpse into the psyche of the person as a whole. Unlike other mediums, video games are almost entirely interactive. Films and books place the action outside the hands of the participant but games however, invite you directly into the head of the protagonist to become one with them. In the case of many games (such as the majority of RPG’s) they expect you to craft your own character, to experience the story in ways other people might not.
In many people’s heads the idea of the military conjures up with it many honourable emotions, emotions that can be stirred up to good effect whilst playing a soldiering FPS. Take for instance the feeling of wishing to defend one’s own country from tyranny or destruction. Granted, not everyone feels connected to their country on such a level but the principle still applies when boiled down to more personal aspects, like defending family or friends. Many of these same people may not have the capability to make it in a military career or simply don’t want too so look to games to take the role of that glorified hero ideal. If a game captures this feeling in its story then it makes taking the role of a soldier a much more engaging experience.
A game that I believe does a great job of capturing this mood is Halo: Reach. In Reach, the games namesake planet is the largest supplier of weaponry, ships and vehicles throughout all the human colonies, a planet running almost entirely for war. A symbol of humanities military presence, that is now under attack by an almost entirely unknown force. You play as a genetically enhanced human soldier and although Reach was never your home, it’s a home for humanity and you’d fight tooth and nail to defend it.
As the story progresses and more and more cities fall to the invaders, it becomes ever more obvious that defending Reach is a losing battle and no more is this feeling summed up than at the games conclusion. The closing of Reach pits you against wave after wave of enemies – you can’t beat them. Eventually you must fall but not without your last stand. We all like to imagine if we were in the same situation, we’d go down in a blaze of glory if it meant protecting what we hold dear. Hopefully, we’ll never have to find out in reality. Let’s hope games where you play the soldier will be the only experience a lot of us have of defending what we love against tyranny.
Is it just me, or are choppers becoming a reoccurring theme?
One memory from my childhood that I’m sure many will share is of playing soldiers, madly running around a wood or field with plastic machine gun in hand, blasting my way through the imaginary enemy. Sadly, buying plastic machine guns and invading the neighbour’s driveway is frowned upon as an adult, so games like Call of Duty often become the mature alternative. If you stop and think about it, a lot of what we did in our childhood has an effect on our leisure time as an adult. A lot of the sports we play and follow, the television shows and movies we watch, the books we read and the games we play are often linked to what we enjoyed in our early years. Nostalgia is a powerful tool and when a game recreates the joy we felt as we ran around with toy guns in our youth, it’s almost certain to keep us excited.
This is why the narrative of Call of Duty and other soldiering FPS’s is so fast-paced. Very rarely are you left waiting for the action to commence. The set pieces are big and filled to the brim with bullets and explosions. It may lack subtlety but ultimately, it’s exciting. For a lot of us, games are a big source of our consequence free excitement. They’re an escape from the humdrum and playing as a soldier not only offers excitement but also a sense of duty above signing in at the office or stacking shelves at the supermarket.
That’s not to say however, that an FPS where you play as a civilian doesn’t offer excitement. Despite being of the same genre, civilian and soldier FPS’s can often greatly differ, especially when it comes to story structure and narrative flow. Civilian FPS’s tend to move a lot slower and focus on a more tactical approach rather than all out firepower. This is in part due to the very nature of a civilian, we’re not military trained and we don’t have access to the high grade equipment that would make ploughing our way through hordes of enemies a viable option. When civilians are the focus very often the goal isn’t victory, its survival.
No matter what soldiering FPS you play, be it Halo, Call of Duty or Homefront, one reoccurring theme always emerges, comradeship. Valiant brothers in arms fighting together on the battlefield, thoughts never far away from each other’s safety and the successful completion of the task at hand. Many civilian FPS’s however, tend to focus on the protagonist being almost entirely alone (Although there are some exceptions e.g. the Left 4 Dead series). The sense of dread built by crushing loneliness in a hostile environment does a great job of crafting the correct mood and works especially well in civilian FPS’s. Playing directly into the fear we can all imagine, of being completely out of our element where one mistake could mean an end to our lives. We might imagine a blaze of glory but a flickering candlelight would probably be closer to the reality.
Zombie fighting bros are bros for life.
Other characters are present but are often off-stage, used as a means to drive the story forward. Take Bioshock as an example. The grandiose nature of Rapture is juxtaposed nicely to the cities desolation, the long abandoned bars, restaurants and nightclubs once hives of activity (similar to ones we all recognize) are now full of unspeakable horrors, all out to get you and you alone. Other characters are introduced but rarely met in person; instead your interactions are limited to brief radio conversations, guiding you through the depths of the city. Had Jack entered Rapture with other plane crash survivors at his heels the atmosphere that Bioshock revels in would have been changed irreversibly and might not be seen as the classic it has since become.
When it comes down to it, it seems that the civilian vs. soldier FPS argument is a difficult one to truly solve. Each side has compelling arguments but ultimately it all smacks as being a bit subjective. The main problem is the dismissive attitude some of the arguments participants seem to take. We’ve all read opinions on how Call of Duty and its ilk have played a part in temporarily stagnating the games industry but in all honesty making all FPS’s play like Half Life or Bioshock isn’t going to solve the problem. As I mentioned earlier, civilian and soldier FPS’s are two completely different things. The gameplay mechanics may be similar but in the end they offer different things for different people. As Eddy Howard said: “To each his own” – although I doubt he was thinking of shooting at midget aliens or Russian terrorists when he said it.
