Correct Conduct in Call of Duty

In America, we love our video games. Growing up, my favorite thing in the world was sleepovers with my friends where we would stay up all night playing Nintendo or Xbox. As we matured, the games we played did too. We transitioned from harmless games like Mario Party to games with more violence like Halo and Call of Duty. My favorite video game of all time was, and still is, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Seeing as my skill with video games in general is quite horrendous, my fairly decent ability to play Call of Duty made it my favorite one to play.

(Source: http://gamerinvestments.com/video-game-stocks/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2-box.jpg)

Whenever I played with my friends, we would always play multiplayer mode. By doing this, we could play head-to-head against each other and test our gaming capabilities. Three of my friends competed against each other at a high level, but my friend Steven was always a tier below the rest of us. My friends and I would always tease him about not being as good as us, so he decided he needed to come up with a way to compete with us. He came up with a simple answer, instead of coming to find us; he would let us come to him. 

No matter what gaming map we played on, Steven would find dark corners to camp in. As my friends and I looked for him, as well as each other, we would round a corner not expecting anything, and to our surprise, we would all of a sudden get shot by Steven who was simply crouching in a corner or ducking behind a door. This allowed him to get a few more kills and vastly reduce the number of deaths he had each game. The video above does a good job illustrating a typical camper, especially right after the 30 second mark and after the 50 second mark. Also, be sure not to miss the text boxes that describe what the campers are doing.

The question is, was this fair? Is it okay to use any means necessary to compete in Call of Duty, or is it not in the true spirit of gaming to camp in corners and to wait for the unsuspecting gamers to cross through your line of sight?

Before I take a more in-depth look at this question, I want to take a look at a topic called "Just War Theory." I am going to refer to Michael Walzer’s article “Just and Unjust Wars.” A summary of his theory is presented in the video preceding this paragraph, but I am going to focus on the middle part of his just war theory, jus in bello, justice in war. Michael Walzer theorizes that even though war is completely immoral, there are still rules and morals that should apply in war. He submits that it is not morally right to do whatever means necessary to win a war. For example, he gives an example of a naked soldier taking a bath. The on-looking sniper could easily shoot him, but he does not like the idea of shooting a naked man, so he hands the gun to his comrade. The sniper decides not to shoot the opposing soldier because the soldier is not attempting to fight; he is just taking a break. Walzer suggests that at that moment in time, that soldier is no longer a soldier (Walzer 8). Walzer’s ideas of appropriate conduct in war suggest that there is more to a war than just killing the opposing soldiers. I agree with Walzer that even though war itself is immoral, there are still morals and ethics that should go into making decisions during a time of war. I believe that each human life is important, and that it is not right to kill someone, even in a war, if that someone is not threatening you.

Soldier taking a bath, doesn't seem too threatening does he?
(Source: http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NTMwWDgzMg==/$(KGrHqZHJBoE8+mdyC3PBP,c6vRbW!~~60_3.JPG)

Call of Duty is a close real world comparison to help us think about our personal beliefs in a time of war. In my opinion, even though the goal of the game is to get the most kills and fewest deaths as possible, I still believe that there is an honorable way to play and a cheap way to play. That is why I think that playing the game this way is indeed unfair. It is not in the spirit of the game to just wait for unsuspecting players. Even though they are looking for you to try and kill you, at the time they enter the room that you’re hiding in, the only thing they are focused on is getting from one spot to the next, they are not expecting to be shot at whatsoever, just like the naked man taking a bath. What do you think? Would you say it’s fair to sit in the corner and just wait for people to come by, or is that not a fair way to play the game? 

Works Cited:

Walzer, Michael. "Noncombatant Immunity and Military Necessity." Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations. New York: Basic, 1977. N. pag. Print.