CoD4 Interview Impressions

IGN currently has this amazing interview up with the Military Adviser for Call of Duty 4, the latest installment in Infinity Ward's popular franchise. They talk a little about what the man does, how he influences the making of the game, realism, etc. I found the following passage particularly interesting. The interviewer asks the gentleman how he feels about portions of his combat experience, a very serious affair no doubt involving the death and suffering of real soldiers and comrades, being portrayed as entertainment in a videogame.

That's a good point. A lot of WWII veterans say, "I hate videogames, they shouldn't be glorifying what we did." My response to them, after I looked at the earlier CoD games and saw how close the developers had got it to being accurate, I said, "You don't understand sir, this is exactly what we need because it's teaching by indirect approach what your generation had to go through." There's kids out there today who would have known nothing about WWII and are now extremely interested, are doing the reading. They come up to me and say, "I studied that battle, I made my parents take me there when I went to Europe to see where it actually happened." We are basically opening a door of interest to somebody who would never normally be interested.

He goes on to say the following:

In a way, even though it's a game, it opens that window to see what somebody else is doing today for real. And maybe somebody will have an appreciation when the soldier gets off the plane from his time in Iraq, and instead of getting spit on like the guys did during Vietnam, he gets a "Thank You" from the guy at the airport.

The entire interview is definitely worth the read, if you have the time and the inclination.