Call of Duty: Modern Warfare- a perfect example of “Militainment”
Militainment are military-themed entertainment pieces such as video games, movies, shows and more. The theory was created by Roger Stahl, who states that these cultural products invite citizens to actively engage in wars, rather than passively watch or hear about it. They also introduce a clean war, techno-fetishism and puts citizens in the virtual boots of a soldier on the front lines, while ignoring the larger elite decisions and consequences of war.
Like it’s predecessors, the latest Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is a perfect example of militainment. Coming out in October 2019, the campaign follows a combined international special ops team, in a modern setting, in the fight against Al Qaeda. Game developers pulled inspiration from the current war in Syria and the recent terror attacks in London, England. In general, the game features realistic graphics, violent content, explosions, sexy weapons and minimized consequences, making war seem somewhat appealing to the audience.
This particular game disengages users from the true consequences of war and creates a rather pleasurable image of war in a sense. Modern Warfare tells an engaging story pulled from real-life events, while simultaneously creating a “clean war” narrative. The game does not allow the player to shoot or kill civilians, hostages or teammates. If the player does shoot or kill a hostage or civilian, they fail the mission and have to start over until they succeed. This allows for the idea that the military forces of the west minimize civilian casualties and impact, which is certainly not always the case. With this feature in the game, it also does not necessarily accurately portray the civilian or hostage situations of living in a war zone.
A past Modern Warfare game featured a mission where the player could essentially plow down civilians to send a “message”, however this mission was skippable if the violence was too graphic for the player. This furthers the cements the narrative of a “clean war” in a way as it sends the message that this civilian violence is avoidable and filterable- that combatants can avoid being placed in situations like this, all while encouraging the players to become hyperviolent towards the victims of war thus spreading the “us vs. them” ideology.
As the player works their way through the game, specifically the player vs. player challenges, the gain the opportunity to either purchase or unlock packages including character skins, weapon “camos” and upgrades. Characters gain these features based on the amount of killing and the method used, adding rewards for players to work for while enjoying the violence of killing other players. In this aspect, the game gains an entertaining, competitive aspect and also a status symbol of sorts for players who are skilled/spend a lot of time playing the game. Thus compounding the “militainment” value of the game.
The game literally puts the player in the virtual boots of a military combatant, allowing the player to be immersed in a violent world of war and actively be engaged with the fictional story of war based on real events while simultaneously awarding the player in PVP for killing other players.
As an example of militainment, the game takes place in a fictional war and does not necessarily delve into the politics of why the war started in the first place. We know the main campaign mission is to end Al-Qaeda and prevent further terrorist attacks but there is no mention of the true impacts of the fictional war. Very little is mentioned about the west’s political and economic decisions to join in, other than the main team is made up of militants from other powerful nations (U.S., Britain, etc.).
There is little no mention of the economic and lifestyle impact that is forced upon the war-torn nations’ civilians, although, as mentioned earlier, the player is not allowed to shoot or kill them (which is unrealistic, given that the fictional war seems to based off of Syria where we know that civilians have been killed). Given that the playable characters are all from western or G7 nations, and the game is American-made, this would distort the understanding of the war with bias and does not give the perspective of the civilians or the other “barbaric” other side.
As mentioned previously, the game uses the trope of a clean war. It also implements techno-fetishism through weapon upgrades, statistics, and advanced killing machines (e.g. calling in a drone strike after certain amount of kills). The game glorifies the weapons and the amount of violence by making players overlook the horrors of war by distracting them with neat weapons, cool skins and trophy hunting, making the act of war (at least in a digital spere) appear fun.
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