Zero Punctuation: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

[TAdamson]

Do you complain about reverse racism

Racism is racism. Bigotry is bigotry. There is no "reverse" of it.

That's kind of the point. But being mocked for how you drive or dance or being called "honky" doesn't qualify.

class jealousy

One of our presidential candidates and a good deal of the political spectrum call people like me "parasites" and "of no net worth" soley because of my income level. Me being white didn't get them to say "Oh, sorry, we didn't mean you white folks!"

So you shouldn't feel ashamed. It's them who should feel ashamed. I don't see how these statements applied to you any more than BC or I would apply them to ourselves.

anti-Christian persecution?

I actually make sport of proving how un-oppressed Christianity is in this country.

As was Ben Crowshaw. The Daily Show does it too.

 

[TAdamson]

. But being mocked for how you drive or dance or being called "honky" doesn't qualify.

As racism? Debatable dependent on whether we're talking institutional or de'jour racism.

As bigotry? Yes. It's bigotry, plain and simple, to mock people on a racial basis. I say without apology that "honky" offends me no less than if I heard some idiot casually throw around the word n!gger.

Let's stick to institutional racism. People are always going to be arseholes. A dickhead will alway's be a dickhead.

So no. Honky does not qualify. It's just a word. That goes for ****** as well -- Y'all need to get over that word. If you are black and someone calls you a ****** (Same goes for gay men and the word ****** by the way) your response should be: "Yeah... SO?"

All these words do when they are used as weapons is give an excellent indication that person using them is an arsehole.

But honky, that'd just make me giggle.

 

[ImmortalDrifter]

That's not what minority means. Really. There are more non-white people than white people but the only ethnic group that can really call themselves a minority in NYC are Asians with double points for Pacific Islanders.

Demographically there are more whites than any other section of the population in every Borough of NYC apart from the Bronx.

Note that what I said was a response to the claim that "Men of Color" made up only 6.4% of the population of NYC. This wasn't about White People being the smallest number, but White People making up less of the population than people of other Races when they are counted as one group. ("Men of Color")

If you don't like it when we point out how and why American Jingoism in videogame format is somewhat repulsive America then you know you can change don't you?

Don't make horrible videogames that glorify your wars past present or imaginary,.. unless you're willing to do it with a modicum of circumspection or satirical intent.

It's not a diatribe against white people. It's a diatribe against this sort of mentality. Most powerful nation on the planet, can't take a spoonful of criticism without crying to teacher.

I have 4 points to make and I'm just going to list them to save time.

1. I bolded "We" because it literally caused me to laugh out loud. Are you and Yahtzee in some kind of little club? Do you somehow think that he knows or cares about your opinion?

2. Stop talking to me as if I'm directing these games. Do you think I can just walk into Activision's corporate office and dictate their actions? No, I can't. No elected official made Call of Duty, so stop blaming America.

3.I never said this was a diatribe against White People now did I? I was expressing sorrow that ZP seems to be less about the actual video games and more of a soapbox for Yahtzee to ***** about shit of borderline relevance.

4. -facepalm- If we're the most powerful nation on the planet then that would make us the teacher in that analogy. I can take criticism, but I would prefer if the criticism stayed in political circles rather than in a show for Video Game reviews. He took certain elements out of context, blew them out of proportion (which he admitted), and then took the moral high ground. You know who does that exact chain of events daily? Fox News.

PS: Why the hell did you quote my message twice?

 

[TAdamson]

If you don't like it when we point out how and why American Jingoism in videogame format is somewhat repulsive America then you know you can change don't you?

Don't make horrible videogames that glorify your wars past present or imaginary,.. unless you're willing to do it with a modicum of circumspection or satirical intent.

It's not a diatribe against white people. It's a diatribe against this sort of mentality. Most powerful nation on the planet, can't take a spoonful of criticism without crying to teacher.

I have 4 points to make and I'm just going to list them to save time.

1. I bolded "We" because it literally caused me to laugh out loud. Are you and Yahtzee in some kind of little club? Do you somehow think that he knows or cares about your opinion?

2. Stop talking to me as if I'm directing these games. Do you think I can just walk into Activision's corporate office and dictate their actions? No, I can't. No elected official made Call of Duty, so stop blaming America.

3.I never said this was a diatribe against White People now did I? I was expressing sorrow that ZP seems to be less about the actual video games and more of a soapbox for Yahtzee to ***** about shit of borderline relevance.

4. -facepalm- If we're the most powerful nation on the planet then that would make us the teacher in that analogy. I can take criticism, but I would prefer if the criticism stayed in political circles rather than in a show for Video Game reviews. He took certain elements out of context, blew them out of proportion (which he admitted), and then took the moral high ground. You know who does that exact chain of events daily? Fox News.

PS: Why the hell did you quote my message twice?[/quote]

1.) Who gives a fuck what pronoun I/we use. Glad it brightened your day though.

2.) If you're not directing these games then why are you taking offence?

3.) Cool bro. I don't know if you noticed but it was at least somewhat relevant to the videogames story.

4.) Cool Bro. See above comment.

 

[TAdamson]

Any racism directed at me is fair call simply because I share the same skin tone as a group of people whom I have no direct affiliation with. Apparently I'm responsible for the sins of someone long dead merely because of the colour of my skin.

This. Is. Fucking. Racist.

If you're not the one:

A) Complaining about reverse racism.
B) Demanding that people from poorer nations have no right to be jealous of you.
or
C) Who wrote Black Ops 2

Then you have no reason to think that Yahtzee's rant was in any way directed at you.

Also are we forgetting whom these "evil whities" bought the slaves off? Should we take a trip to Africa and demand that the impoverished natives take responsibility for the sins of their ancestors by virtue of the fact that they have dark skin?

That's an excellent strawman that you've built for yourself there. I don't think anybody has suggest that people can disavow any African involvement in the slave trade.

I'm pretty sure that we weren't even remotely talking about the slave trade. We were talking about the difference between wealthy western countries where whites are majority and poorer countries that might justifiably feel unfairly dealt with by these countries.

Perhaps Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Peru, Nicaragua. The little playgrounds that the US used as proxies in its war against communism.

But no we can make this about slavery if you like. Would the slave trade existed in such a scale if English and Spanish settlers didn't create a market for it? No? Well then.

 

[Chizambers]

I'll say this about COdBlops2.

Multiplayer is pretty much the only reason I buy the COD games. They don't change much from year to year, but they still do it better than anyone else. 15 Multiplayer maps at launch, and more game modes than any other FPS. I picked up Halo4 also, but CODBlops has about twice the content for multiplayer. That being said, the game is 95% the same as any other Cod, with new maps. Still, I felt like this is the most refined and balanced version yet, and the changes while small were positive ones.

For example, Killstreaks are now ScoreStreaks, so doing things like Capping/Defending Objectives, Assists, and pretty much doing anything of value helps ready your Streak rewards instead of some douche camping in the corner on an objective game to get his 25 streak to drop a Nuke. Also, I really like that the Air Warfare has been toned down a bit compared to previous CoD Games. MW2 I hated cause you would hop into matches where it was just nonstop Airstrikes, Choppers, and Predator Missiles. You couldn't take two steps sometimes without being blown up by random shit.

I didn't ever pick up MW3, so a few things are new to me in Blops2 that may not be totally new to everyone. They added the Hardpoint mode which is basically team King of the Hill, and it works well. I am a big fan of the Kill Confirmed game mode, which requires players to run out and pick up the dropped dog tags from your kills in order for them to count. This mode really makes people to work together more than standard TeamDeathmatch, since people are moving around more to pick up tags, and trying to reach a tag can lead to being ambushed. It is really a great adaptation of your Standard Team Deathmatch.

The New Create A Class setup is actually pretty damn amazing. Now, you basically have a max of 10 total weapons/attachments/equipment/perks/etc. that you can have equipped at any one time. But the big change is the new Wildcards, which open up new possibilities. Wildcards use an equipment slot, but allow you to do things like using 2 Perk 1's, or extra equipment, or extra attachments on your weapon. They really add a lot more options. You can go without a secondary weapon or grenades in order to make room for more perks or attachments.


As far as the Campaign and Zombies go, I have never really enjoyed either of those, so reviewing them would be pointless. But the Multiplayer is more of what you expect from CoD, lost of content, same old gameplay, with some solid general improvements.

 

[ImmortalDrifter]

1.) Who gives a fuck what pronoun I/we use. Glad it brightened your day though.

2.) If you're not directing these games then why are you taking offence?

3.) Cool bro. I don't know if you noticed but it was at least somewhat relevant to the videogames story.

4.) Cool Bro. See above comment.

1. Nice pathetic cop-out, bro.

2. Because you directed the statement at me. You didn't frame it around those who made that the game, you framed it as a statement to me. What are you 12?

3. Note use of the word "Borderline". See point 1 for what I think of the fact that you didn't even acknowledge the fact that your original accusation was baseless.

4. Nice hilariously pathetic cop-out bro.

 

[maninahat]

a

Man there's a lot of bullshit in this thread. It's a sad fact that a person can't make glib references to politics or race without it turning into a massive debate. Yahtzee is snarking about video game jingoism, not writing a essay. Treat his remarks for what they are, and think before you launch into a 1000 word counter-argument on the subject of white guilt. There is no point in arguing with a slogan.

Not when said slogan maker is revered as a demi-god and the last final word on a hobby by so many people.

No, he's not snarking on video game jingoism, he dived right into the pit of political discourse, and if he's gonna act like a gladiator in that arena, he's gonna tangle with the lions just like the rest of us.

Well that is something we just have to disagree on. As far as I'm concerned, casual remarks about the obnoxious political sentiments in a video game do not count as a political discourse. Either you find the American-centric messages of COD/MOH games annoying, or you don't - that's all there is to it. There is no need to start "tangling with the lions", or trying to debate the finer points of American foreign politics, when the issue is really about taste and story telling.

I DO find it tired and eye rolling, and that's not even the worst sin that the military FPS craze has brought to bear. I'm just sick and tired of the "White=in bed with the powers that be and pulling strings of power" garbage, and also tired of the "well, people who were your skin color oppressed people, so shut up and be quiet when non-whites are bigoted towards you."

This white privledge bullcrap is passive-aggressive racism and just a politer way of saying " other people with your skin color were dicks, so you are too." Who needs individuality these days, eh?

The argument boils down to whether you see white people as having advantages, purely by virtue of having been born into their specific place in society. It always seemed like common knowledge to me that being born black or Hispanic in the US puts you at a statistical disadvantage (more likely to have poorer education, prospects, security etc). That is entirely down to the historical treatment of race, and even if we aren't racist nowadays, we still get to enjoy the benefits of our place in society, as shaped out by those past racists.

Look, no one is saying that modern white people are racist, or even blaming them for being where they are in society. They are just saying they should take it into perspective. Especially before making yet another video game that portrays the most richest, powerful military industrial complex in the world as the victim.

 

[TAdamson]

2. Because you directed the statement at me. You didn't frame it around those who made that the game, you framed it as a statement to me. What are you 12?

No, I didn't. I directed it at your misdirected outrage. Which I see is still ascendant.

If you didn't write the game and you aren't a white person that cries race war every time somebody criticises you or insists that nations have no right to feel aggrieved due to their dealings or interactions with the US then you have no reason to be offended.

If you are offended by the politicisation of videogames then it must be pointed out that this is a videogame about politics. One that completely abrogates any duty to discuss the real and very corrupt actions that were undertaken by the US in Nicaragua.

 

[ImmortalDrifter]

No, I didn't. I directed it at your misdirected outrage. Which I see is still ascendant.

If you didn't write the game and you aren't a white person that cries race war every time somebody criticises you or insists that nations have no right to feel aggrieved due to their dealings or interactions with the US then you have no reason to be offended.

If you are offended by the politicisation of videogames then it must be pointed out that this is a videogame about politics. One that completely abrogates any duty to discuss the real and very corrupt actions that were undertaken by the US in Nicaragua.

I'm outraged? I hadn't noticed. Furthermore, if you direct a comment at my reaction you're directing it at me; That's how conversations work. If you'll kindly look back to my first post, it was a factual rebuttal of someone else's comment along with a crestfallen admission that ZP may no longer hold appeal to me. Any rage you may perceive is entirely your own delusion. Also, before I respond to your post allow me to say how hilarious it is to see you once again choose to ignore everything you were wrong about.

I didn't write the game, but I am an American who had nothing to do with it's development who you are blaming for it. Allow me to quote you briefly: "Don't make horrible videogames that glorify your wars past present or imaginary,.. unless you're willing to do it with a modicum of circumspection or satirical intent." This statement was direct solely at me as if I was responsible for Blops' creation. You said this as if I made it, and if I stopped making them then I would enjoy ZP more. And if it wasn't directed at me, then why did you bother saying it?

Before I respond to the last paragraph of your post, allow me to also point out that I never said that the game or any politics therein was my point. I have never mentioned the game up to this point. First Blops is not about politics, it's about shooting things. Taking the plot back to it's most basic levels, it's about a man who threatens the U.S. and the player character being one of the men sent to subdue him. The game's plot is also fictional which negates any "duty" it may have to anything in the real world. Has the U.S. done evil shit? Of course it has, I never said it hasn't. My point from the beginning was that Yahtzee chose to review this game in a way that barely talked about the game and just leveled a volley of insults at America.

 

[TAdamson]

I didn't write the game, but I am an American who had nothing to do with it's development who you are blaming for it.

Did I actually directly blame you for it? Try harder man. If you aren't familiar with rhetorical generalisation and you are so vain that you think that every think that I write is explicitly directed at you, or I'm implicitly blaming you just because I quote you in a post then really...

Yes, I blame you, ImmortalDrifter, for all of Oliver North's crimes and for Treyarchs shitty story. You are specifically to blame.

Or I don't and I simply insist that this sort of thing is worth talking about and have no respect for the idea that politics should be shunted off to a corner so nobody gets offended over things they have no business being offended about.

 

[ImmortalDrifter]

I didn't write the game, but I am an American who had nothing to do with it's development who you are blaming for it.

Did I actually directly blame you for it? Try harder man. If you aren't familiar with rhetorical generalisation and you are so vain that you think that every think that I write is explicitly directed at you, or more directly I'm implicitly blaming you then really... Get over yourself.

Allow me to quote you again to freshen your memory. "Don't make horrible videogames that glorify your wars past present or imaginary,.. unless you're willing to do it with a modicum of circumspection or satirical intent." You made no mention of Treyarch or Activision or anyone else, that leaves me. Oh and forgive me for assuming that the reply you made to my comment was direct at me and my comment; obviously I'm vain for assuming that. Oh and again, congrats on ignoring everything else to respond with some condescending remark that makes absolutely no sense. You really have no idea what you're talking about do you?

 

[Nazulu]

Wow this has touched a nerve with some people. Chill out, it's just a game review, it's not like commenting on it is going to have ANY serious impact on the world and I would be amazed if Yahtzee reads half these comments. Just reading the first page made me want to cover myself in gasoline and stick lit fireworks into every orifice.

As far as the game goes the CoD franchise has been stagnant for far too long, particularly the gameplay which has barely changed and Yahtzee's review reflected that (i.e. the lack of any noteworthy features meant he talked about other stuff such as the whole racism thing). Although admittedly I am suprised he didn't mention Zombies, thought that might be the one bit of the game he found tolerable.

You say chill out but the first page makes you want to cover yourself in gasoline? *snicker*

This is quite normal here, a lot of people make assumptions and miss half the information so it gets ugly quickly. When you see a thread with a link explaining the situation in full, make sure you read it all to avoid ignorance.

As for the zombies, I've got a feeling that Yahtzee doesn't bother playing through all parts of the game when he believes they're terrible. His message is to not get it so I don't blame him though.

 

[TAdamson]

I didn't write the game, but I am an American who had nothing to do with it's development who you are blaming for it.

Did I actually directly blame you for it? Try harder man. If you aren't familiar with rhetorical generalisation and you are so vain that you think that every think that I write is explicitly directed at you, or more directly I'm implicitly blaming you then really... Get over yourself.

Allow me to quote you again to freshen your memory. "Don't make horrible videogames that glorify your wars past present or imaginary,.. unless you're willing to do it with a modicum of circumspection or satirical intent." You made no mention of Treyarch or Activision or anyone else, that leaves me. Oh and forgive me for assuming that the reply you made to my comment was direct at me and my comment; obviously I'm vain for assuming that. Oh and again, congrats on ignoring everything else to respond with some condescending remark that makes absolutely no sense. You really have no idea what you're talking about do you?

Why would you be so vain to think I am directly blaming you? Even with those words why would you think that? Is it ego mania?

Very well. If you don't want to get impeached don't have your staff break into the Watergate or get blowjobs from interns.

Clearly I'm talking about you directly right? I quoted your post so I must be talking about you.

 

[Shadie777]

Edit: Screw it, I'm not in the mood for this circle of debate..nothing to see in this space!



I'm guessing this video was an elaborate scheme to cause rage. If that is the case, well done. Seriously, nothing beats the sound of bad social political jokes being forced into a review.

OT: ...I love how I nearly forgot about the game he is reviewing. It seems like Yahtzee is being very harsh on blops 2 (some of it was on point though). Seems kinda overboard than what his usual criticism, but I guess he might be tired of reviewing mainstream games. Also, I'm kinda of disappointed that he didn't have anything to say about the alternate endings I keep hearing about. O wells.