8. The Call of Duty Franchise
And the most obvious choice award goes to, dun dun dun dun, dun duhhhh the Call of Duty series! For its outstanding dedication to gun violence and dehumanisation of soldiers in the eyes of millions. Every game in the franchise is essentially the same experience: youre in a war, you shoot the other side. Not a complex concept Ill grant you, but for all its simplicity Call of Duty (now recognised by the abbreviation COD) is one of the most popular series of this generation, with its most recent edition selling over 7 million copies. However, this ardour for shooting faceless soldiers is rather troubling when you think about it. Killing such a steady stream of enemies, often in wars that have actually taken place, may suggest players dont particularly value human life, thus making them feel free to merrily murder the day away. It is a refuge for those with pent up anger, a home of trolls, somewhere psychopaths can simulate their ultimate fantasies. Or is that just uninformed nonsense? Perhaps COD is more like a sport, with players secure in the knowledge that they can fire forty shots into a virtual man without anybody really being hurt (not physically anyway). It is very much a two way argument with this game, but surely if one was truly obsessed with guns then going paintballing, hunting, or to somewhere like LaserQuest would be much more satisfying? Players of COD are usually testosterone fuelled teenagers who want to give themselves a little ego boost by beating strangers in an enjoyable game, and suggesting there is anything more sinister at play just shows an unwillingness to accept the truth. If gamers didnt understand video-games were different from reality, I assure you wed have a Hell of a lot more people jumping off rooftops in the belief their make-shift cape would allow them to glide across the skyline. So, as our streets arent littered with the dead bodies of Batman wannabies, its probably safe to assume gamers dont have to copy everything they can do virtually, ok Jack Thompson?