The Designer of CοD's 'No Russian'Massacre Wanted You to Feel Something

[Lazaros Paok Fc]

Long-time Call of Duty game developer
Mohammad Alavi designed Call of Duty IV's
famous ghillie suit level and Modern Warfare
2's notorious interactive massacre of
civilians, the level called "No Russian."
In a stellar piece about interactive atrocity,
game designer Matthew Burns gets Alavi to
explain the intent behind that level, a level in
which the player is put in a position as an
undercover agent to assist or simply watch
a terrorist cell of Russians massacre Russian
civilians in an airport. The level wasn't
designed to create controversy. It wasn't to
sell more copies. It was to further the plot,
Alavi tells Burns, saying he wanted to: "sell
why Russia would attack the U.S., make the
player have an emotional connection to the
bad guy Makarov, and do that in a
memorable and engaging way." He didn't
want it to be a movie. He wanted you to feel
involved.
Was it fun? No. That's fine with Alavi. "It isn't
really relevant whether that makes you enjoy
the entertainment experience even more
because you're being naughty (à la Grand
Theft Auto) or it engrosses you further into
the story and makes you resent your
actions. What's relevant is that the level
managed to make the player feel anything at
all."
Alavi doesn't make Call of Duty games
anymore. He, along with most of the original
Modern Warfare development crew have
formed Respawn Entertainment and are well
on their way to making a new game that
will be published by EA. Burns, meanwhile,
has written a terrific essay about the
atrocities that game developers have dared
to let us experience in modern shooter
games. It's a topic we find fascinating here.
His piece is highly recommended.




The Designer of Call of Duty's 'No Russian' Massacre Wanted You to Feel Something

[HorizonImages]

Thats very interesting, I remember how controversial it was when it first came out. A lot of people (Well the media more so) were kind of up in arms about it, then quickly forgot about it.