Call of Duty’s latest marketing campaign misses the point of Call of Duty

“This is real.” A war photojournalist murmurs this affirmation over a melancholy score in the latest promotional video for Vanguard’s Call to Duty. Centered for emphasis, the still shows a soldier huddled behind bars, holding his gun, as fire crackles away behind him. This image was created using the software Vanguard’s in-game engine. It’s a great example of how Vanguard: Call of DutyEscorts to immerse you in another tale of World War II.

This video is just one of many videos that were created to show how Vanguard: Call of Duty is aiming for “realism.” Its tagline — “World War II Like Never Seen Before” — appears over a hyper-realistic shot of soldiers running in slow motion over a muddied battlefield. This interactive, gamified version of one of most expensive events in history is available. The series has already explored it a dozen times. Activision claims it will be more real than any previous version. Real this time.

Two war photographerjournalists from Italy, Sebastiano Piccolomini, and Alex Potter are featured in the video. They discuss their backgrounds and showcase their portfolios. The video features them introducing themselves with photos from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan that they took in quick succession. They are then given handheld cameras which allow them navigate. Vanguard’s levels They’ll photograph digital war zones within the game, trying to impose some semblance of reality on recreated environments.

Image: Activision/Sledgehammer Games

As the photojournalists kneel in an area designated by the stage’s center, flashing lights mimic bullet fire. The trailer shows more than one image: exploding tank, burning buildings and the photojournalists in bulletproof vests, as if they are actually there. At one point, the trailer lingers on an in-game paratrooper, caught in a tree, at what appears to be the moment before he’s killed or captured, while Potter’s camera continues to click. This trailer seems to be an attempt at painting acts of war in a cool, gritty manner. Duty CallThe series is a constant pursuit.

This trailer reduces war photography’s purpose and uses it to spread propaganda. While the modern use of war photography is contentious, with its original intent warped by interference from the American government, it once provided a look into the atrocities committed by various imperial powers — America included. Activision treats this history as something to be exploited in pursuit of “realism” for a franchise that is already entangled with the American military industrial complex in its use as a recruitment tool. The tasteless effort is made to appeal most of its loyal players (who, in fact, are much more obsessed with the historical inaccuracy and weapons’ design). VanguardLaser sights) or are simply fascinated by World War II enough that they want to dive into it all for the voyeurism.

Image: Activision/Sledgehammer Games

Duty CallHas already crossed moral lines. You can find out more at In Call of Duty Modern WarfareWhite Phosphorus was used by the designers to make a mini-game for one player. The community has debated whether these realistic depictions of war, its atrocities and other human suffering are needed for the enjoyment of the game. Duty CallThis is the question. Is it possible to benefit from this pursuit of realism? This is the reason why Duty Call’s most popular modes — Zombies and its progression-oriented multiplayer modes — dive headfirst into the absurd, it makes the inclusion of legitimate acts of war, and by extension war crimes, feel superfluous. It was a boundary that didn’t need to be crossed, but was anyway, for the misguided sake of creating an authentic and legitimate experience in a video game based on acts of war.

Based on the marketing it has received so far Vanguard feels like another step further in the same direction it embarked upon with “No Russian” in Modern Warfare 2: Call of Duty But, actually, the original Duty Call The series took us to France in 2003, and Stalingrad the following year. It was an unavoidable disregard of historical events which the series has systematically rewritten to make the experience more enjoyable. A “cooler,” newer, “more accurate” and immersive (down to adaptive controls with the DualSense controller) Duty Call

Image:: Activision/Sledgehammer Games

The question is, can it get too extreme? What is the limit to the mixing of fiction and reality, as well as the recreation of events and images, or the use of these images? Maybe it’s in the grisly acts of “virtual patriotism” depicted in single-player campaigns? Or maybe it’s in the constant distillation of what amounts to propaganda in its promotional material? Or maybe it’s how marketing warps history, like when Lt. Col Oliver North (notoriously involved in the Iran-Contra scandal) became a consultant and talking head for Black Ops 2, Call of DutyWhich?

Maybe it’s all. Both of these things combine to form Call of Duty, a propaganda tool that is soulless and uninteresting. It was designed by an American company who refuses to recognize its role in the American militarist industrial complex. The dazzling visuals, the desire for legitimacy and inclusion of award winning war photographers in Call of Duty’s most recent promotion campaign make it difficult to know what is being promoted. Duty CallFor.