In Ireland, one of the platforms for Enda Kenny and Fine Gael coming into office was the creation and development of high-tech jobs, including the games industry. The leading image I have on this article is Enda visiting PopCap Games in Dublin during his campaign.

More than that, Fine Gael even had a game developed for their campaign, which was violent in it’s nature. You can still play it via finegael2011.com/game.

However now a press release is being circulated by the party in which Mary Mitchell-O’Connor TD lambasts gaming. She links Call of Duty (an 18-rated army game) to bloodshed “at home and abroad”. She also critiqued the fact that the franchise made a global killing with revenue of €16 billion in just over 2 weeks. Forget the fact that this generates jobs in Ireland via DemonWare as well as much needed tax.

Fine Gael TD for Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, has today described reports of records sales of the new ‘Call of Duty’ video game in the lead up to Christmas as very worrying.

“In a week that saw needless bloodshed, both at home and abroad, the high sales figures of this violent video game are very concerning. Sales are estimated to have generated €1 billion in just 16 days. It is being lauded as the fastest selling entertainment product of all time, ahead of films such as the Harry Potter movies and Avatar.

“I really fear we are entering an age where such violence will be commonplace. Undoubtedly, society has become desensitized to acts of violence. There are a number of reasons for this, but violent video games certainly play a part. Life is precious and such games present people as obstacles and violent acts as having no consequence. Over exposure to such violence, be it in video games or otherwise, can distort reality.”
“Having worked as a teacher and as a principal, I am aware of how impressionable some young adults can be and I think it is really important that rules governing the sale of such games are enforced. I also think it is important that parents are mindful of buying adult games in situations where younger children might gain access to them.
“These video games provide no educational or social benefits. For me, the gift of a book will always provide real and lasting benefit. In Ireland, we are very fortunate to have exceptional authors both for children and adults and we need to support them more. It is also hugely important that literacy levels in this country dramatically improve. The Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA) shows our literacy levels have fallen from 5th in the developed world to 15th.”

The TD falls short of criticising what she should be criticising, the fact that adult games are sold to minors in some cases. As an adult that can drink and vote I should absolutely have the right to sit down and gun down people in a game. It does not distort my reality.

Look at COD as an example of reality distortion. Most levels take place in large European cities which are being invaded by Russians. If anyone on this planet plays this game and confuses it with reality then perhaps we should remove the sale of Red Dawn from DVD retailers.

If this is the attitude of our government and they’re publicly naming the games industry as a big bad wolf in society then perhaps they shouldn’t campaign in game development studios or use gaming as a way to garner support from dirty heathen youths who practise murder simulations all day.

I also despise the notion that books are non violent and broaden the mind more than games. They do, don’t get me wrong… but as a comparative form of media to enjoy in a recreational manner it’s a disgrace to say books are greater than games. I enjoy a good book, but some of the books I read are as violent as the games I might play. One of my favourite authors is Chuck Palahniuk for god sake. Imagine what my mind is conjouring up reading a violent book all by itself – it’s probably much worse than anything a murder simulator game could put in front of my eyes.

This is a highly irresponsible piece of rhetoric from a typical Irish TD – the concerned aul wan ex-teacher who’s so disjointed from actual reality that she’s going to publicly moan about something that seriously benefits the economy while it entertains & employs far more people in this country than she cares to realise.

For the first time in a linear update for Battlefield (i.e. not Bad Company) we will have a single player campaign, which Activision and Infinity Ward say demonstrates EA and DICE’s fear of Modern Warfare – and a direct hit at how they run their games.

Eurogamer sat down with DICE to ask their opinion. “We’re not straying away from the formula,” Patrick Bach, executive producer says. He continued, “It is a very different feeling we’re going after. We’re not straying away from our own ideas. We are looking at our own stuff, maybe a bit too much at times because sometimes you forget to look at what everyone else is doing. But of course it adds a lot of pressure when people’s expectations are that maybe we should do something else, rather than doing what we’re doing.”

Spoilers were revealed in the interview (titled “The Making of Battlefield”) that show a shocking scene, much in the same vein as the Modern Warfare series. Famously the first MW iteration showed a nuke going off where, in first-person mode, you died. In the second game there was a scene where you play a terrorist shooting civilians.

A war of words is going to be the defining thing for both of these games, but something gives me the feeling that regardless, most FPS fans are going to end up with both games anyway!

However every second year, COD gets rather good compared to the previous year. This is because the original studio releases their iteration of the franchise. They’re also quite big and can be a bit ballsy – even pissing off their bosses, Activision, occasionally.

In this instance, Modern Warfare gets more moderner.

So what’s the point of this post? A nice video detailing something we all most likely expected, a Call of Duty set in modern times featuring multiple online people shooting each other!

One of those is WWII-come-modern warfare action shooter Call of Duty, which – surprise surprise – is coming back this year with another installment.

Last year EA tried to get a bite of the modern warfare pie by rehashing their similarly-themed franchise, Medal of Honour. EA also own DICE, the renowned developer of the Battlefield series. And this year BF3 is coming out to redefine the genre it started. Activision are bluntly thanking EA in an attempt to get some headlines (it worked). Why are they thanking EA? Because they reckon BF3 is promoting COD.

Publishing boss Eric Hirshberg dismissed the threat of Battlefield 3, saying “It sounds trite but it’s true: we focus on what we need to do to make the best games we can,” he said. “We don’t pay much mind looking at what the competitors are doing. I know they are focused on us… well that’s all I’ll say. Well, I think EA might talk about our games in the press more than we do. So, the first thing I say to them is, ‘Thanks for the assistance in building awareness.’”

Activision appear to be doing just that, by ditching Playstation branding in the current UK print campaign for Call of Duty: Black Ops. The ad, spotted in Kerrang! Magazine, only features one console branding. No word exists on whether this is a beautiful relationship for the future or not, but it’s interesting to note. This stuff occurred at the start of the console generation – but a few years later the same mind games are going on.

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This comes after Andrew House said Sony are looking to add revenue models which add content to games for a fee – kind of like FIFA10 Ultimate Team, and Bobby Kotick said a revenue stream could be created with a subscription based Call of Duty online mode.

He explained that one unit is out hunting Al-Qaida terrorists in Afghanistan. “We’re still telling the soliders’ story, doing it right and honouring a community of individuals as we’ve always done,” Goodrich said. “It’s inspired by real events, but it’s a fictional story in an actual conflict.”

Comparing it to Call of Duty he said the story is more authentic and less “big budget movie style”. “For us on Medal of Honor it’s a little bit of a different tone. Our intent is different. It’s authentic, it’s plausible,” he said.

“There’s a difference between authenticity and realism. You can have authentic weapons and authentic sounds and locations and tactics… but sometimes realism goes out the door when you have three or four weapons droppped on your back and hundreds of rounds of ammuinition. We try to remain authentic.”

MoH is due out later this year.

Speculation of such a thing came about originally around 2006/7 when Starcraft II was teased. But since then, all the talk has been about WoW expansions and of course, the newly released StarCraft II.

“Remember, we have two enormous investments,” said Kotick. “One in Bungie and the other in another project at Blizzard that we haven’t given a lot of visibility to. Those are going to be entirely new intellectual properties. But with the recognition that the way to build them is take long amounts of time, lots of capable talent, an enormous amount of capital and you have to have a real roadmap for innovation and creativity. And I think that those are going to be two very good examples from the ground up original ideas.”

Basically, a huge amount of money is being spent on two new IP’s which could save Activision from having to re-think its strategy about the waning Call of Duty franchise (now without the original team behind it and with increasing competition from EA’s Medal of Honour).

Santa Monica, CA – August 4, 2010 – Cliffhanger, the breathtaking and epic mission from Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 2, is now available worldwide for download as a single player demo on the Xbox LIVE® Marketplace and on PlayStation®Network*.

One of the most recognized levels in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Cliffhanger thrusts players into an epic fight of a lifetime amid near-blinding snowstorm conditions high in the frigid mountains of Kazakhstan. One wrong move and it’s certain death as players scale a frozen mountainside, battle their way through a raging firefight, and race for survival aboard a snowmobile under heavy enemy fire.

Developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is rated “M” (Mature) by the ESRB for Blood, Drug Reference, Intense Violence and Language.

Why is this funny? Well, mainly because we’re months into the release of MW2. Remember the rush at Christmas? Remember the anticipation being at fever pitch? Remember the controversy? Well, now, in the run up to the Treyarch developed Call of Duty: Black Ops, we get last years’ game demo. Good game, Activision.