this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2026
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So we play as the bad guy, right? (lemmygrad.ml)
submitted 4 days ago by tradclasstruggle@lemmygrad.ml to c/games@lemmygrad.ml
16 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I mean, "we're the baddies" and all that. I think the CoD has kinda lost any semblance of resonability a long time ago (maybe it never really had any), but hell if this isn't going full villain mode into a remake (?) of a mainline game.

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[–] pyromaiden@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Once upon a time Call of Duty was just a Medal of Honor clone retreading on the territory of WWII. The games were okay but nothing spectacular. MoH did it better.

Then they decided to rebrand and became a naked propaganda mouthpiece with CoD4, getting boatloads of money from the Pentagon to boot. Now every game is just pro-U.S. revisionist history mixed with pro-imperialist geopolitics that oversimplify conflicts and paint whole countries in black and white. Even when they try to be more nuanced they can't stop being propagandists. Even when they try to go sci-fi they can't stop being propagandists. Even when they go back to their WWII roots they can't stop being propagandists.

Humanity has evolved beyond the need for Call of Duty.

[–] tradclasstruggle@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 2 days ago

I only played the first 2 back in the day, and frankly they already had their fair share of anti-soviet bullshit propaganda. Then, as you say, CoD4 hit... and you play Fox News Modern Warfare

[–] ksynwa@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 4 days ago

You know you are the good guy when you put a skull on your face, a symbol historically associated with only good guys.

[–] amemorablename@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The psyop connections to CoD are even documented: https://www.mintpressnews.com/call-of-duty-is-a-government-psyop-these-documents-prove-it/282781/

[–] knfrmity@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 3 days ago

Back in my active-on-reddit days I got clowned for letting this "conspiracy theory" slip in a gaming subreddit.

[–] MasterDeeLuke@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Cop games on Steam often get the villain protagonist tag, CoD should get the same treatment. There was also a game killed "Spec Ops:The Line" where the whole story revolved slowing revealing that you, the standard military shooter protag, are a total piece of shit.

[–] cosmosaucer@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 4 days ago

im pretty sure Spec Ops The Line was one of those games that contributed to mine and other peoples radicalization

the white phosphorus scene in particular

[–] LeninsLinen@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Media is always propaganda. Wether it is war movies glorifying imperialism, tv shows portraying an idealised portrait of petit bourgeois aspiration, or video game polemics against the geopolitical rivals of the American Empire, it exists to continually mold the consumer into an anti-social reactionary ideologue. There's a reason libs can not speak about real world affairs without referencing some major pop-culture franchise.

The lesson? Video games will be no more under socialism. Only tetris shall remain in order to foment positivity toward the soviet union.

[–] MasterDeeLuke@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I think it should be more about pushing video games in a healthy direction rather then just saying no to video games altogether. Neglecting consumer desires is a big reason the USSR lost the war of influence against the USA, and likewise a big reason China's global image has been beginning to rise in recent years with it's advances in the entertainment industry. Video games and media in general should exist to as a medium to express art and ideas, today generally they are the exact opposite of that and exist as pools of toxicity and stagnation instead.

[–] LeninsLinen@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

That last part was a joke mostly. Video games are currently propaganda for bourgeois ideologies because that is simply the conditions they are produced. Even video game addiction is itself a product of life under capitalism and the supremacy of the profit motive. I'd say that neither of these would apply under socialism and that there are exceptions to the rule presently, mostly in the FOSS/Libre space.

Nonetheless, I'd maintain that this medium has a tendency to either attract or create people who are anti-social and reactionary. The racist portrayal of PoC, objectification of women, and strong lean toward imperialist propaganda might not be unique to games as an entertainment medium, but are certainly way more in your face and the defensive posture consumers take whenever these issues are raised is quite damning.

[–] Meow@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 4 days ago

It's not so much the medium itself as it is the content of that medium, in a Capitalist system it will be contaminated with the various toxins of that system, sometimes very deliberately.

In a healthy system, like one of the stages of socialism for example, it is far easier for it to be made healthy, will be increasingly encouraged to do so, and if it's too toxic it may even get the axe.

[–] opiumfree@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

There’s a reason libs can not speak about real world affairs without referencing some major pop-culture franchise.

this is so real

[–] LeninsLinen@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I've seen all kinds of ridiculous stuff.

According to libs, Israel is just like Harry Potter and America is Gandalf or something while Iran is Voldomort or something. Zelenskyy is Captain America and Trump is Palpatine. These giant media franchises are not only a stand in for having an actual personality or even a smidge individuality whatsoever, but also seemingly for political theory. I haven't heard any libs outside of academic writings even so much as hint at any sort of coherent political philosophy or even liberal theories of political economy.

[–] cornishon@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 4 days ago

It's a widely recognized phenomenon:

Iranian cleric: The US has only fictional heroes

[–] opiumfree@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 4 days ago

i was not familiar with this game then i looked into it and i saw its basically a muslim shooter game and theyre also planning to make a flashback version where you can kill communist koreans during the korean war

[–] starlightfading@lemmygrad.ml 0 points 4 days ago

The gamers who complain about being forced to experience “politics in video games” because of lgbt+ characters or that having the ability to choose your character’s pronoun is, according to them, political and woke, are pretty much the same guys who believe Call of Duty isn’t political.