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

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.

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