Call of Duty: Black Ops immerses players in a hyper-realistic representation of the Cold War. As a first-person shooter, it puts the player in control of an avatar to complete missions and level up. However, the game exaggerates reality by portraying war as exciting rather than dangerous. It presents an unrealistic view of history by portraying American success in every mission.

1. Call Of Duty: Black Ops
Molly Baker
Friday, 24 April 15

2. Baudrillard
Hyper-reality
It's set in the cold war, you're a soldier and you have to complete the challenges set to go onto the
next level, which will provide more benefits than the previous level. The game is in first person, so it
immerses the gamer even more as you feel like you are actually in that reality and actually shooting
people.
This is shown more by the avatar the game gives you, you're in control of it as its meant to be you
'The avatar merges spectatorship with participation' - Bob Rehack - The avatar makes you more
involved & emerge more with the 'reality'
You are made to feel like a hero if you defeat the enemy & get everyone to safety; player get
emerged in this exciting & dangerous reality.
This relates to Baudrillards hyper-reality theory he claimed 'The distinction between reality and its
representation, have collapsed. We now live in a 'reality' defined by images and representations
Friday, 24 April 15

3. Strinati
He believes 'The mass media were once thought of as holding up a mirror, and thereby, reflecting a
wider society. Now reality is only definable in terms of surface reflection of the mirror.'
This can be applied to COD as the game is trying to represent the cold war & gamers get to
experience the representation of what war is going to be like.
However, the game provides an exaggarated 'reality' it gives the gamer and unrealistic view of war,
as it presents it as being a high action & exciting place, when there is more to war. Therefore, the
representation of war that the game is presenting doesn't hold up a mirror to reality, as the
representation isn't completely truthful to reality.
Friday, 24 April 15

4. Nostalgia
The game looks back on the past because its based
around events in the cold war, it looks back to the war
and looks through 'rose tented glasses'. As they make
America seem superior in this war, when although they
did win, they weren't successful in every mission.
Friday, 24 April 15

5. Intertextuality
The game sets the player missions to complete, one of the missions is called
'operation 40' where you have to undertake a daring assassination atttempt
during the Bay of Pigs invasion
Operation 40 was a real event,it happened during the cold war; it was an
unsuccessful military invasion of Cuba. However, in this game the player is
successful in invading Cuba. The game tries to incorporate real life events within
the fictional world; this gives the gamer a sense that they are involved in history
& could of possibly changed events. - playing around with representation
Friday, 24 April 15

6. Active Audience
The gamer has to make choices in the game, that will
affect their experience of the game, this make
everyone's experience of COD unique.
The gamer is engaged & involved with the game from
the beginning, as tasks actively encourage the player to
shot the enemy & kill them.
Friday, 24 April 15