Counting Every War Crime in Call of Duty 4 🎮

Call of Duty is a powerhouse first-person shooter franchise. From World at War, to Warzone, the last 20 years has carried us from WWII well into sci-fi near futures all while becoming the largest and highest selling video game series of all time.

It's not without controversy though. Many have done breakdowns about the series' cultural impact and how Call of Duty highlights (and/or glorifies) the horrors of combat, but for a series so specifically about war it's strange that I've never seen anyone try to analyze how Call of Duty handles depictions and scenarios involving war crimes.

I will be playing through the entire Call of Duty series in release order, using my research and judgement to Count EVERY War Crime depicted in the campaigns. This series will serve as a retrospective on COD as a franchise but also as a deep dive examination to see if, as the series grew in popularity and Activision Blizzard deepened its relationship with global militaries and defense contractors if the number or severity of war crimes shown changed or were glossed over and justified.

We’re getting all ghillied up and diving into Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. This game is regularly lauded as one of the best in the series and it’s hard to overstate just how dramatically it changed the landscape for military first person shooters. For the gameplay in the video I played the “Remastered” version of the campaign for the higher fidelity and extra added details to the game. This is our first foray into contemporary warfare and it introduces a heap of new issues for us to navigate and international laws to violate.

⚠️ Disclaimer: I am not a legal expert, these videos are made for entertainment purposes with a hope to increase curiosity and deepen learning. There is also a chance that the topic or content in this video or future videos in the series could be upsetting to some viewers, please look after yourselves and watch with your own discretion.

🎓 Sources Cited:
International Humanitarian Law Database 👉 https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1

International Red Cross "The Law of Armed Combat" 👉https://www.icrc.org/sites/default/files/external/doc/en/assets/files/other/law3_final.pdf

Methods of Warfare 👉 https://casebook.icrc.org/a_to_z/glossary/methods-warfare

Conduct of Hostilities 👉 https://casebook.icrc.org/a_to_z/glossary/conduct-hostilities

The Hague Conventions 👉 https://casebook.icrc.org/a_to_z/glossary/hague-conventions

BBC Ethics Guide 👉 https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/war/overview/crimes_1.shtml

War At Sea 👉 https://casebook.icrc.org/highlight/war-sea

Claymore Mines: 60 Years of Facing the Enemy 👉 https://www.coffeeordie.com/article/claymore-mines

The Ottawa Treaty 👉 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_parties_to_the_Ottawa_Treaty

The Bering Strait 👉 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00908320.2016.1159091#abstract

BE KIND and DO GOOD, gamers -- see you in the next one! ~🖤👻

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Chapters:

0:00 Intro
1:34 FNG
3:10 Crew Expendable
7:00 The Coup
9:21 Blackout
15:33 Charlie Don’t Surf
18:11 The Bog
20:53 Hunted
23:55 Death From Above
25:52 War Pig
27:35 Shock and Awe
30:12 Aftermath
32:32 Safehouse
34:35 All Ghillied Up
39:32 One Shot, One Kill
42:32 Heat
45:06 The Sins of the Father
47:53 Ultimatum
51:08 All In
52:31 No Fighting In the War Room
54:58 Game Over
59:03 ???