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November 5, 2022

‘Call of Duty’ a popular military game, has gone very, very woke

By Andrea Widburg

When I raised my kids, neighborhood parents were aggressive about controlling their kids’ computer time and, in fact, the kids spent most of their time being physically active or playing old-fashioned board games. The exception was Call of Duty (“COD”), a military video game. Even if you banned it in your own house, it was a dead certainty that at least one of your son’s friends would own the game and that your son would inevitably spend hours playing it. That’s why it matters that Activision Publishing, Inc., to “spice up the game,” has opted for the “pride” agenda while turning on America.

Activision, based in Santa Monica, California, is one of the top third-party video game publishers in the world. One of its most important properties is the COD franchise, launched in 2003. The original COD was a WWII shoot-‘em-up game, but the series expanded to cover “Modern Warfare,” Black Ops,” and more.

As of August 2021, several hundred million variants of the COD games had been sold. And as I noted, my best guess is that, since its launch, most American boys have spent time playing COD.

Despite (or maybe because of) the enormous number of boys between ages 8-18 playing the game, COD has begun to include “Pride” calling cards in its various iterations. Calling cards are a big deal. According to Call of Duty Wiki, they “are a player customization option” and “take the form of stylized backgrounds that can appear with or without text on a player’s nameplate when that player’s name is shown in-game.” In other words, it is an image that is associated with the player.

Image: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II American flag. Twitter screen grab.

In June 2021, Gamespot reported that Warzone, one of the COD games, which had previously added six “Pride” flags in June 2020, had now augmented those flags with eight more:

The newly added flags include designs representing the genderqueer, agender, aromantic, intersex, genderfluid, and pansexual communities. The new flags also include one specific to gay men, as well as the Progress Pride flag, which combines the rainbow Pride flag with the colors of the trans Pride flag.

That trend is not limited to Warzone. On October 28, Activision released the latest version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (“COD:MWII”). It was a very successful release, with Kotaku reporting that it had a “record-shattering $800 million opening weekend.” Did I mention that this is a really popular platform? And that boys, especially, are drawn to it?

It turns out that COD: MWII is also very woke. Those players who bought the newest version are complaining that, while the game offers 22 Pride calling cards, it doesn’t offer a single America-themed calling card (language warning; h/t Gateway Pundit):

It's not just on TikTok or Twitter that people are noticing this peculiarity. On a bulletin board for COD: MWII, a disgruntled player asked “why are they pushing all this pride stuff?” The thread generated 181 comments before being locked down. The comments were predictable, ranging from some that effectively said “yeah, this has gone too far,” to others that said “whatever,” to still others that complained about gay shaming and hate speech. Another question about the “pride emblems” was instantly locked down, while one managed to survive for seven responses before getting locked.

The absence of America-themed calling cards isn’t the only indignity the game has for patriotic players. As of this writing, some players are complaining that the only American flag that appears in the game is one lying on the ground, partially burned:

It's easy to say that Activision’s decision to chase after the LGBTQ+ customer base is a business decision and that people who don’t like it don’t have to buy COD: MWII. However, the reality is that most people who buy it for their sons, or who happily see their sons off to play at the nice next-door neighbor’s house, will have no idea that this kind of thing is being pushed on their children.

All of us should raise our children to treat people with respect, including people who are gay or lesbian, or people who are struggling with mental illness. However, it’s another thing entirely to have a company use what amounts to subliminal methods to indoctrinate America’s boys with all sorts of imaginary “genders.” Just remember, “Trans rights are unicorn rights,” because both are completely imaginary.

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