While many of us are still trying to decide what to make of night vision goggles being included with the Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Edition, one man has already reached a firm conclusion — this is going to go horribly wrong. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s resident game correspondent, Rob Watson, has warned that he feels some will use Infinity Ward’s gift for evil instead of good.
“I hate trippin’ over games with a violent angle because I know there are many people out there who believe that these videogames are the product of Satan or some such nonsense, but [night vision goggles are] a bad idea,” professes Watson. “I would say 99.9999% of gamers who buy the Prestige Edition will have a blast with these new goggles, innocently playing around at night with them.
“Yet, it is also like giving away a free race car with Gran Turismo or Forza – someone is going to cause a highway wreck. In Modern Warfare 2‘s case, I shudder (just a bit) to think of someone, who may have a hard time with reality anyway, donning these goggles for real mischief or even worse.
“Infinity Ward should know better,” he concludes. “They are great at fake realism. One of the best. This maybe be crossing that line, however.”
Watson does actually bring up a rather salient point. While I disagree with the idea of forming rules based on the minority instead of the majority, I do think that if something does go wrong with these goggles, it’ll be a PR disaster. Just imagine if some idiot kid trips on a traintrack while wearing these things — you just know there’ll be a media circus, and the “ban this sick filth” debate will start all over again.
On Infinity Ward’s head be it, I suppose.
Published: Jul 17, 2009 04:20 pm