Control and the Controller: Narratives of Imperialism and Empire in Modern Military Shooters

James Houston Bales, Independent Scholar

Joseph Conrad touched a nerve with the independent history or culture” (xviii). Said publication of Heart of Darkness. Both in is willing to let Conrad off the hook, arguing Heart of Darkness and his later works, that the greater problem exists in Conrad’s Conrad created what could be described as successors, such as Francis Ford Coppola an imperialist adventure narrative, with an and Constantin Costa-Garvas, noting that imperial protagonist realizing the end result “these works, which are so indebted to of the imperial apparatus through a series of Conrad’s anti-imperialist irony in Nostromo, brutal adventures. One of these adventures, argue that the source of the world’s Nostromo, provides Edward Said ample significant action and life is in the West,” ammunition for a criticism of the genre. In continuing on to say that “whereas Conrad his book, Culture and Imperialism, Said wrote Nostromo during a period of Europe’s describes Conrad as one of a school of largely uncontested imperialist enthusiasm, writers “whose specialty is to deliver the contemporary novelists and filmmakers who non-European world either for analysis and have learned his ironies so well have done judgment or for satisfying the exotic tastes their work after decolonization” (Said xix). of European and North American While Said’s criticism seems valid, Said is audiences” (xviii). Of Nostromo itself, Said somewhat shortsighted on this final point. is equally critical, saying that “Conrad’s Though contesting that the contemporary novel embodies the same paternalistic moment should somehow be more aware of arrogance of imperialism that it mocks in the tools and mechanisms of imperialism, characters like Gould and Holroyd. Conrad Said’s criticism is incomplete because Said seems to be saying “We Westerners will himself is not fully aware of the extent of decide who is a good native or a bad, the modern idea of Empire. because all natives have sufficient existence In 2000, Michael Hardt and Antonio by virtue of our recognition” (xviii). Said Negri released their own examination of the continues his critique of Conrad, stating that machinations of imperialism in Empire. he is “both anti-imperialist and imperialist, Unlike Said, who would forward the idea progressive when it came to rendering that imperialism is receding, if not already a fearlessly and pessimistically the self- thing of the past, Hardt and Negri in their confirming, self-deluding corruption of seminal work Empire conceive of a overseas domination, deeply reactionary transmutation in the form of imperialism, when it came to conceding that Africa or changing into Empire. Empire, as Hardt and South America could ever have had an Negri conceive it, is a regime dedicated to

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2018 8

peace with neither temporal or spatial Paul Gee defines as “one’s identity as a boundaries. Most importantly to Hardt and virtual character within the virtual world –” Negri, the Hardt and Negri Empire “not only usually as a member of a Western military manages a territory and a population, but (Gee 49). Modern military shooters exist also creates the very world it inhabits” (xiv- outside of the West – notable examples xv). While Said conceives of imperialism as include China’s Glorious Mission Online, a a concept connected to the traditional game published by the People’s Liberation Western powers, Hardt and Negri extend Army and Under Ash and its sequel, Under this concept, conceiving of the ahistorical Siege, games from Syria which depict Empire that still exists today, creating the Palestinians in combat with Israel (Jou, main flaw in Said’s criticism of Conrad and Ashcraft). Though the vast majority of the his successors: That while Conrad can be modern military shooter genre comes from excused for his actions within a system that Western developers and publishers, these existed pervasively around him, others such narratives will not be investigated here, as as Coppola and Costa-Garvas cannot they are either resistive of Empire, or because the system has been exposed or reflective of a completely different kind of diminished in some way. imperialist legacy than Said’s critique of Keeping the concept of Empire in mind, Conrad is equipped to explain (Ashcraft, some clemency can be extended to Conrad’s Jou). This paper will instead focus its successors, but Said’s critique remains valid analysis on a select set of examples from the if incomplete. Conrad, writing from genre: Yager Interactive’s Spec Ops: The ideologically deep within Empire, spawned Line, Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern a tradition of imperialist adventure narrative Warfare, DICE’s Battlefield 3, and Danger that is at once critical of Empire and Close Games’ Medal of Honor: Warfighter. ignorant of its place within the system. While other options abound in the genre, Today, Conrad’s tradition continues in, these games were selected for their exposure among many other manifestations, the form and narrative structure, as well as for a of the modern military shooter video game, direct comparison based on a shared media a genre of game where the player is asked to platform: They are all available for take on the persona of a defender of Empire Microsoft’s Xbox 360 system. and do its work. Despite its innovation of As technology has evolved, the world form, the modern military shooter continues has moved away from the traditional the Conradian tradition of imperialist imperial schemes that formed the setting of adventure narratives. Conrad’s work. However, something of A modern military shooter is, succinctly, Conrad still seems to resonate for artists of a video game portraying military action all stripes, and even as forms evolved and taking place in the present, a historical the world changed, people continue to read, setting, or near future with the player examine, and draw inspiration from Heart of typically taking on the virtual identity – a Darkness. Perhaps the best-known example form of multifaceted identity which James is the 1979 movie Apocalypse Now, which

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2018 9

relocated Conrad’s tale into the American philanthropies upon a mind-deadened Third imperialist venture in Vietnam. In this same World” and this critique applies in its fullest vein, Yager Development also revisited extent to Spec Ops, which, like the rest of its Conrad’s vision in 2012, replacing the genre, is a rehash of the problems of jungles of the old tales with a sandstorm- imperialism set against the framework of ravaged Dubai, through which Captain Hardt and Negri’s Empire (Said xix). Martin Walker goes in search of Colonel While Spec Ops: The Line is rightly John Konrad and the fate of his 33d Infantry praised for the way it interrogates its genre, Battalion. Erik Kain of Forbes notes the as well as the psychological power of the similarities of Spec Ops: The Line to both story told, the frame of the narrative is Conrad’s novel and Coppola’s film through purely imperialistic, literally designed to a brief catalogue of the allusions in the funnel the “fantasies and philanthropies,” in characters, but he also notes, the case of this game the fantastic philanthropies, to modify Said’s phrasing, of [Spec Ops: The Line] is no more a the characters and the player (xix). As the remake of either of these works than narrative opens, the main character is Apocalypse Now was a remake reflecting on what he knows of another of Heart of Darkness. Coppola’s film borrowed thematically from central character, the colonel he has been Conrad’s book and then built its sent to find: John Konrad. The camera pans story around the skeletal frame of its over photos, but particularly shows press plot, but it remained unique – a clippings talking about how the Dubai separate and fundamentally different government rejected foreign aid and piece of work. Partly this is because America stepped in anyway (Yager film can tell stories in ways that Development). Konrad takes this element of novels cannot, and vice versa. (Kain) the narrative even further by actively Like Kain, many other people in the rejecting his superior’s orders and remaining mainstream press have noted that Spec Ops: in Dubai as evacuation became impossible. The Line alludes to and is roughly based on Over the course of the narrative, the player the quest to locate a man in the madness. encounters several main figures, each with But in all the attention paid to the game in their own imperialist fantasies and the press, there is little to no focus on how philanthropies: Konrad, a CIA operative the game addresses one of the major named Riggs, a reporter named Robert underlying issues in Conrad’s work – not Darden known to the player as the just Heart of Darkness – the issue of the Radioman, and Captain Walker the player’s imperial reality. As previously discussed, character. Said reserves a harsh critique for these Central to the narrative is the character followers of Conrad who argue that “the John Konrad. It is his imperialist fantasy that source of the world’s significant action and initializes the plot of the entire game. Seen life is in the West, whose representatives in a piece of collectible “intel” – little items seem at liberty to visit their fantasies and that can be found throughout the game that

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2018 10

are accompanied by audio that provide sense, Konrad’s reinforcement of the additional information about an action, a mechanics of Empire make him a character, or the setting – is John Konrad’s reinforcement of the systems that perpetuate psych profile. While many characters cast Empire, and Konrad would likely not doubt on Konrad’s motivations, his psych contest that critique, either due to his own profile reveals Konrad’s basest motivation: devotion to his role as an enforcer of “It is believed that as Konrad comes under Empire, or due to his belief in his own fire for failures in Afghanistan, he will go to excellence. extreme lengths to internally fortify belief in One idea central to imperialism in this reputation [of excellence]” (Yager). general is the idea that the people of the Konrad is a man in a position of power who imperial power are inherently superior to is damaged for some unknown reason, and those of the colonized indigenous the game shows the player that it is population. As Said says in Culture and Konrad’s failures that motivate him to Imperialism: “[Imperialism and colonialism] volunteer his men to assist a nation that are supported and perhaps even impelled by wanted no such help. His fantasies lead impressive ideological formations that directly to a failure to recognize the people include notions that certain territories and of Dubai as anything more than a brain-dead people require and beseech domination” (9). pet project that needs his help, despite what In Spec Ops: The Line this mindset is most anyone, even his own superiors, might say. clearly displayed in the character of Agent He literally sees Dubai as a fantasy of Riggs, a CIA operative tasked with, as the philanthropy. In this sense, Konrad is acting player later learns after being manipulated as an agent of Empire through the into doing his bidding, massacring the mechanism of intervention. While much of people of Dubai so that the reality of the Spec Ops’s internal critique focuses on the situation can never be known by the rest of justice of intervention in foreign nations, the world (Yager). To accomplish this, Hardt and Negri see Konrad’s fantasy of Riggs has not only manipulated the player, philanthropy as a necessity for the but also the local populace under the guise functioning of Empire, saying on the subject of throwing off the oppressive remains of of intervention that “these [interventions] the 33d Infantry. are not really interventions into independent Riggs’ character is troubling for two juridicial territories but rather actions within different reasons. First, he is a direct product a unified world by the ruling structure of of the mindset that some people require production and communication. In effect, domination. Riggs is not acting in the best intervention has been internalized and interests of anyone other than the United universalized” (35). Hardt and Negri’s States, which does not want their regional concept of intervention implies that Konrad dominance destabilized, particularly if said is unconsciously serving as the last bulwark destabilization leads to massive active of Empire in the face of an impossible resistance. Riggs is a direct illustration of disaster in his defiance of his orders. In this Said’s concepts of culture and imperialism.

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2018 11

Said says that “the power to narrate, or to Dubai to do nothing more than “Locate block other narratives from forming and survivors. Leave the city immediately. emerging, is very important to culture and Radio command from outside the storm imperialism, and constitutes one of the main wall” (Yager). However, Walker and his connections between them” (xiii). Riggs’s team soon find themselves under fire from character exists literally to control the locals, and their orders are quickly forgotten narrative. He manipulates the locals and the as Walker takes his men deeper into the player in his attempt to manipulate the ruins of Dubai, looking for answers. The global narrative in the service of his imperial question the game avoids answering for masters. This is Riggs’s imperial fantasy: almost its entire length lies in this pursuit: If The imperial need to control not only the Walker’s orders were merely to find colonized figures, but the narrative other survivors and report, why did Walker colonies and the rest of the world hears constantly venture deeper into Dubai, about events within the colonized space. causing more and more death and Second, unlike Konrad, whose fantasy might destruction along the way? In a conversation inadvertently help somebody in Dubai in the with John Konrad at the end of the game, process, Riggs uses his fantasy of Konrad cuts right to the heart of Walker’s philanthropy – manipulation – to actively colonial fantasy: “You’re here because you help the imperial power. In this action, wanted to feel like something you’re not: A Riggs is a direct servant of Empire’s hero” (Yager). Like Riggs before him, intervention. Unlike Konrad, the unwitting Walker’s every action is about controlling servant of Empire, Riggs knows he is taking the narrative and silencing other narratives orders for an imperial purpose, and his he finds unacceptable; Walker cannot accept pattern of intervention matches what Hardt that he made the decisions he made because and Negri identify: “More often it of a hallucinatory, blame-avoiding power [intervention] is dictated unilaterally by the trip executed upon an indigenous population United States, which charges itself with the with narratives of their own. Like Riggs, primary task and then subsequently asks its Walker is consumed with a fantasy of allies to set in motion a process of armed philanthropy: At every juncture, he is containment and/or repression of the current completely consumed with the belief he is enemy of Empire” (37). In Spec Ops, the doing what is right, even as he destabilizes a enemy of Empire has become the people of horrific situation that had found some Dubai, who are witnesses of horrors that semblance of stability. However, unlike would destabilize Empire’s control in the Riggs, Walker is not a servant of Empire. region, and American hegemony. Where Riggs accepts his mantle and While Riggs illustrates the experience of executes his intervention faithfully, the machine of imperialism and Empire, Walker’s act of pursuit is more than just a Captain Walker, the player’s character, defiance of orders: It is a defiance of illustrates the experience of the man enabled Empire. This decision is not made by imperialism. Initially he was ordered into consciously in Walker’s virtual identity, but

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2018 12

is instead a circumstantial accident that calls the projective identity: Another of results in Walker becoming a figure of Gee’s facets of identity, this one formed in rebellion against Empire doing exactly what the negotiation between the fixed identity of Hardt and Negri identify as one possible the player and the virtual identity (50). Spec resistance to Empire: “We must push Ops: The Line goes to great lengths to make through Empire to come out the other side” it clear that the choices made in-game do not (206). In a sense, Walker does just this in his reside exclusively in the character’s identity, Dubai narrative, exploring the depths of his but they are also present in the projective own depravity and the depravity the identity. The problem lies in the fact that intervention of Empire has created, and these imperialist fantasies are not either coming out the other side or being exclusively Walker’s. On some level, the crushed under the weight of Empire through player shares them, because the game, quite his own suicide (Yager). But Walker’s literally, is a fantasy. This is also where the virtual identity is not quite the resistance positive implications of Walker’s rebellious figure it might be, due to the necessary actions against Empire begin to recede into negotiation between the character and the the imperialist background of the tale. player. While Walker’s push through Empire to From a broader perspective, Spec Ops: rebellion remains one positive implication of The Line is praised for its willingness to ask the game, it is also only one possible questions of its genre and the role of the implication. The rebellion against Empire is player in the events of a game, and the not left to reside in the virtual identity: The praise is well-deserved. In a genre endgame places key choices in the hands of dominated with jingoistic games designed to the projected identity. Walker’s end is up to make the player into nothing more than the a negotiation between Walker and the Juggernaut of Democracy, Spec Ops: The player, with Yager presenting a series of Line deserves the credit it gets for its choices to the player: Either commit suicide, willingness to force the player to take surrender to the American relief force, or responsibility for Walker, a system which continue your push through the mechanisms extends into every part of the game, of Empire and into a post-Empire space including areas not normally used for (Yager). As Hardt and Negri imply, the push engaging the player, such as the opening through Empire is much harder than any credits, where the player is credited as a other option, and naturally leads to an special guest, and the loading screens, one unresolved question: Even though Walker of which reminds the player that “you are has made this symbolic push through still a good person” (Yager). But despite all Empire in rebellion, how far can he continue the game’s good points about player- pushing? America, and by extension character interaction and choice, the Empire, cannot be toppled by a momentary imperialistic problems only become more rebellion. Largely, Said’s criticisms remain tangible, as the player is clearly implicated valid in the context of Hardt and Negri: in the fantasy through what James Paul Gee Walker’s tale is still that of the imperialist

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2018 13

adventurer. Like Conrad, Spec Ops never once playing anything local in origin. leverages resistance to Empire to create It is obvious the people he is trying to what is both imperialist and anti-imperialist comfort are the stranded Americans. Both of at the same time. these instances point to a larger problem: Like Riggs and Walker, Robert Darden, Despite the story’s Arabian setting, the better known and heretofore referred to as narrative is decidedly American-centered, the Radioman, is a man obsessed with and the indigenous populace is only controlling the narrative. But unlike Riggs considered when they are useful for a or Walker, Darden’s colonial fantasy is storytelling moment; fighting in a refugee simple and less thought-provoking, but camp, killing them with white phosphorus, symptomatic of a larger problem in the or choosing whether or not to open fire into game: The treatment of the native a crowd forming a literal obstacle to population. Two instances from the advancement (Yager). This is the Radioman’s story serve to illustrate how the Radioman’s fantasy of philanthropy; that he game handles the native population of is doing something good for everyone, and Dubai. In the first instance, seen in an intel the game buys into this fantasy as well. item, the Radioman is interrogating a local Radioman is largely irrelevant in terms politician about how upper-class people of Empire, being a mere hanger-on to were allowed to evacuate Dubai secretly, Konrad’s actions, having been drawn along while the local press claimed there was by Konrad’s attempt at intervention, nothing wrong (Yager). While the portrayal becoming nothing more than a piece of of the politician is disturbing enough, it is imperialist flavor to the larger narrative. the Radioman’s attitude towards the man However, it is important to note his presence that is more concerning: The politician is not in Spec Ops to create a contrast with the rest seen as an equal, but as a roadblock for the of the genre. Despite its shortcomings, Spec Radioman’s story. The Radioman is not Ops is an example of the achievement seeking a narrative, but confirmation of the games can become as narrative devices. narrative he has already constructed, Nothing else in the modern military shooter whether it is right or wrong. The second genre stacks up against it for awareness of instance is a globalized component of the its imperialist functionality. But the rest of setting: In the ruins of the city, the the genre still functions as imperialist Radioman has set up a public address narrative, albeit without the awareness that system that he uses as a radio station, even Conrad had, and that any of his ostensibly to provide hope to the people in successors should have. It is worth noting the same way Edward R. Murrow did during that, while Take-Two Interactive does not the Battle of Britain (Yager). This seems release unit sales numbers, sales of Spec like a commendable idea, but the Ops: The Line were below expectations, programming of his radio station is leading to a $110.8 million loss for the questionable in its selection. He only plays company (McWhertor). In contrast, Western rock-n-roll and classical music, Activision’s Call of Duty games are

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2018 14

routinely seen as massive successes, terrorists model is followed like a script routinely selling 20 million copies, and other (37). Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare games in the genre do not perform poorly features American soldiers waging an either, usually selling in the range of five to interventionist war in Saudi Arabia against a ten million copies (D’Angelo). So while revolutionary government and British SAS Spec Ops is lauded for its narrative qualities, soldiers enforcing Empire through many more people are actually engaging intervention in a Russian civil war (Infinity with a narrative of Empire that does not ask Ward). In both cases, America and its allies them to question anything, much less their have decided that neither government would role in the mechanics of the system that serve Empire, couching the rhetoric of enables such narratives. intervention in terms of terrorism: The While Spec Ops uses its storytelling to leader of the revolutionary Saudi differentiate itself from the rest of the genre, government is a terrorist, and the Russian the modern military shooter genre is revolutionary forces are equally dismissed generally dominated by a multiplayer arms with the rhetoric of terrorism (Infinity race, resulting in a series of less aware Ward). In both cases, intervention is narratives that focus on massive set-pieces expressed differently. American intervention instead of sustained engagement with the is expressed as a full-on invasion of Saudi player. This lazy narrative has allowed Arabia on moral grounds, seeking to capture certain imperialistic tropes to infiltrate the the leader of the revolution. British genre, resulting in narratives that relive the intervention is different, developing as an same “fantasies and philanthropies” across intervention not in the affairs of games and even across developers (Said government, but is instead an intervention xix). Across the other games examined for much like Conrad’s quest for Kurtz, seeking this paper, all of them exhibited Hardt and a single man. While both narratives take on Negri’s concept of intervention, a sense of different shapes, at their core they are both the primacy of Western agency, and a still interventions on behalf of Empire preoccupation with one of the methods of seeking to remove a single destabilizing Empire’s control: Weapons of mass influence. destruction. Battlefield 3 follows the interventionist With the concept of intervention a core trope through its two protagonists in much component of real world American foreign the same manner as Call of Duty, only policy, and one of the primary missions of instead of placing the onus of intervention the American military, it should come as no on the nation – although America is still surprise that narratives reflecting an image intervening – the onus of intervention is of the American military would take up shifted to individual agents of Empire. Even intervention as the general setting for their from the beginning of the game, individual stories. In the modern military shooters intervention is the main narrative force, as coming from America, Hardt and Negri’s the story unfolds in retrospect, as your unilateral American and allies against character has been arrested and is being

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2018 15

interrogated about his vigilante quest to stop mission after mission in support of Empire a terrorist (EA Digital Illusions CE). But and in continual defiance of local authority again, the rhetoric of terrorism matches (DCG). What separates Medal of Honor Hardt and Negri’s concept of intervention. from its companions in the modern military Battlefield 3 only expresses intervention in a shooter genre in this sense of a right of the different way, forwarding the idea that when police is the impetus of authority. Where the insufficient proof exists to inform Empire protagonists of other games defer to a about a threat, it becomes the individual’s military command above, the hierarchy of responsibility to defend it. command in Medal of Honor is largely In contrast to Call of Duty and independent of any organized military, Battlefield 3, Medal of Honor: Warfighter becoming a quasi-military force that takes intervention from an occasion for answers only to Empire in its pursuits. narrative to the reason. Medal of Honor is In his critique of Conrad, Said points out focused on the personal narratives of a a fatal gap in Conrad’s conception of the group of special forces soldiers whose sole world about which he wrote: “He could purpose is intervention, and the game tracks neither understand that India, Africa, and their interventions around the globe, with South America also had lives and cultures the narrative going to Pakistan, the with integrities not totally controlled by the Philippines, Somalia, Yemen, and Dubai gringo imperialists and reformers of this (Danger Close Games). Many of their world, nor allow himself to believe that anti- operations are conducted unilaterally, and in imperialist independence movements were nations with no awareness of their presence, not all corrupt and in the pay of the puppet such as one notable example of a car chance masters in London or Washington” (xviii). in Pakistan where the player is not only in This critique is equally fair of the modern pursuit of what has been deemed a terrorist, military shooter, which uses as one of its but is also fleeing the local authorities core concepts a sense of the primacy of (DCG). In contrast with the tight narrative Western agency. While Spec Ops focus of its competitors, Medal of Honor interrogated this concept through the actions takes to heart not only the concept of of Konrad, Riggs, and Walker, other intervention in a boundless Empire, but also examples in this genre choose to embrace the concept of a “right of the police,” a the denial of agency to the non-Western, function of Empire that, according to Hardt usually through positioning Western villains and Negri, “in inscribed in the deployment to be opposed by Western heroes, despite of prevention, repression, and rhetorical their decidedly non-Western settings. force aimed at the reconstruction of social Battlefield presents a typical case of this equilibrium” (17). While both Call of Duty denial of non-Western agency. Over the and Battlefield utilize this right, neither course of the narrative, the player’s embraces it as wholeheartedly as the top- character participates in an invasion of Iran secret operatives of Medal of Honor, who in a reaction to a military coup, and exert their force around the world on discovers nuclear weapons, only to learn

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2018 16

that the leader who acquired the weapons experiences to places where genuine conflict and launched the coup did so only at the is occurring instead of co-opting real-world behest of the game’s Western villain, conflicts for a more familiar setting, and Solomon (EA DICE). In the narrative, this is aside from a brief interlude with a played as a major reveal, perpetuating the stereotypical Eastern European arms dealer story, but in reality, a postcolonial critique representing a brief digression from the sees such an action in a narrative like this as game’s focus on actual sites of conflict, the an inevitability of the Conradian vision. game features no overtly Western villains Even though Battlefield makes an attempt at (DCG). Medal of Honor is not innocent. a setting-appropriate villain, the Western Instead, Medal of Honor subverts the agency perspective of the writers can only result in of its non-Western opponents through one conclusion: that there must be a second reductive characterization. Over the course Western villain manipulating the non- of its narrative, Medal of Honor presents the Western. player with two main villains, Marwan al- Call of Duty is a particularly egregious Khalifa and Hassan, who are both offender in this regard, deciding that not characterized as very intelligent and only is the non-Western villain incomplete charismatic leaders (DCG). Ultimately, after without a Western villain behind him, but spending much of the game’s narrative, or in that the non-Western setting is incomplete as the case of Hassan all of the game’s well. While Battlefield 3 does have Western narrative, building these characters up as settings, with major events taking place in terrorist masterminds, they are both Paris and New York prompted by the ultimately reduced to suicide bombers, with Western villain, Call of Duty takes another al-Khalifa destroying a train station in Spain step and not only allows the Western villain and Hassan donning a suicide vest when the to select the West for his battleground, but American protagonists raid his compound also allows the Western heroes to select the (DCG). This course of action is extremely West for their battleground (DICE, Infinity unlikely for men like this, as suicide Ward). This abandonment of the actual bombers are generally depressed, unstable, battleground of the contemporary soldier for and brainwashed instead of the masterminds the fantastic battles that never happened of that Danger Close Games takes great pains the Cold War cheapens the experience on to put in suicide vests (Islamic Center of both sides of the conflict by allowing the Beverly Hills). But to a Western audience, West to appropriate an experience that is not suicide bombers are a typical image of theirs and in the process, to deny the terrorism, and reducing the enemy to suicide authentic resistance of the people actually bombers serves as an easy way to prompt engaged in resistance to imperial the player not to think that the characters domination. labeled terrorists might have legitimate Medal of Honor would appear to be less grievances and reasons for their resistance. guilty of these denials of agency than either When reduced to their basic essences, Battlefield or Call of Duty, keeping its these Conradian narratives are about control.

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2018 17

As previously illustrated, Empire uses projection of Empire is problematic, because intervention to enforce its will around the video games, particularly modern military world, and the modern military shooter is shooters, have become international born of intervention. But an engaging story touchstones of culture, reaching millions of needs a credible villain to create conflict, people with narrative that minimize billions and a protagonist with the weight of and lionizes the control systems that Empire’s army behind him is hardly continue to divide the world today. While threatened by localized rebellion, so the some games like Spec Ops do exist, the modern military shooter uses successful majority of the genre validates Empire, rebellions to create credible threats. The creating imperialist adventure narratives that rebellions that modern military shooters go unchallenged. pose as the enemy are successful because they have seized one of the pillars of Works Cited Empire’s control: the bomb. Hardt and Negri propose that “imperial control Ashcraft, Brian. “A Game About operates through three global and absolute Insurgency.” Kotaku.com. Gawker means: the bomb, money, and ether” (345). Media, 4 Oct 2010. Web. 12 Dec, 2013. While ether and money both factor into the D’Angelo, William. “Top 10 In Sales – First modern military shooter, only the bomb Person Shooters.” Vgchartz.com. makes the threat credible enough to create Vgchartz Ltd, 23 Apr, 2012. Web. 13 dramatic tension. Battlefield and Call of Dec, 2013. Duty both feature endgames revolving Danger Close Games. Medal of Honor: around preventing nuclear attacks on Warfighter. Redwood City: Electronic American cities, which are naturally foiled Arts, 2012. Xbox 360. by the Western heroes (Infinity Ward, EA EA Digital Illusions CE. Battlefield 3. DICE). These endgames create their Redwood City: Electronic Arts, 2011. dramatic tension through agents of Empire Xbox 360. fighting to quash rebellion at the height of Gee, James Paul. What Videogames Have To its power, when the rebellion has gained Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. control of the most complete means of New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007. control, that of total destruction. Medal of Print. Honor opts for personal tension instead of a Hardt, Michael and Negri, Antonio. Empire. global sense of dread, but this does not Cambridge: Harvard University Press, diminish the fantasy of power present in the 2000. Print. other two narratives. Infinity Ward. Call of Duty 4: Modern Collectively, these narratives represent Warfare. Santa Monica: Activision, tens of millions of fantasies and 2007. Xbox 360. philanthropies of Empire projected onto Islamic Center of Beverly Hills. “Suicide their non-Western subjects in the same Bomber: Who-Why-Prevention.” manner as the Conradian narrative. This

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2018 18

Icbh.org. Beverly Hills, Islamic Center of Beverly Hills. Web. 14 Dec, 2013. Jou, Eric. “China’s First Person Military Shooter Has a Terrible Message.” Kotaku.com.au. Allure Media, 5 Aug, 2013. Web. 13 Dec, 2013. Kain, Erik. “Sands Of Darkness: The Good, The Bad, And Ugly Of ‘Spec Ops: The Line’ (PC).” Forbes. Forbes.com, 8 Aug 2012. Web. 1 Oct 2013. McWherter, Michael. “‘Max Payne 3’ and ‘Spec Ops: The Line’ Sales Lowlights of $110 Million Loss for Take-Two.” Polygon. Vox Media, 31 Jul 2012. Web. 1 Oct 2013. Said, Edward W. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage Books, 1994. Print. Yager Development. Spec Ops: The Line. New York: Take Two Interactive, 2012. Xbox 360.

The Phoenix Papers, Vol. 3, No. 2, March 2018 19