History Fridge / SpecOpsTheLine

** The entire debate over this point of contention is meaningless if you look at it as a tool instead of a criticism. Yes, the game is attacking the player for believing the fantasy that mainstream military shooters feeds them, but the point of the attack is to get across a message. The game is specifically targeted at players who ''wouldn't think'' to "just stop," who don't realize the standard military-shooter power fantasy is beyond insane when measured by the standards of reality. The goal is to teach them this, and this goal is served well by the game being made in such a way that the players will blame the developers the way Walker will always blame someone else. The game is not pointing and laughing at players who fall for it for being sheep. While it may be obvious that Walker is going nuts quite a ways before the end, the ending wraps up the plot and gives the player a clear look at how far gone he is and what he's done. The lesson is best served by completing the game so the player can actually appreciate how far things ''wouldn't'' have gone if Walker/the player had just stopped.

** Walker's reaction to his gradual awareness that his presence in Dubai is actively making the situation worse is to deny reality and embrace fantasy, shift the blame for his wrongdoing onto somebody else and push forward because he wants to be a hero, and growing increasingly frustrated that he cannot be - in much the same way that the archetypal player will insist that "it's only a video game, it's just entertainment", blame the developers for railroading them into committing horrific acts (especially the [[spoiler:white phosphorous incident]]) and keep playing the game to the end, growing increasingly frustrated when the game denies them the escapist fantasy they wanted from it.

** Walker's reaction to his gradual awareness that his presence in Dubai actively making the situation worse is to deny reality and embrace fantasy, shift the blame for his wrongdoing onto somebody else and push forward because he wants to be a hero, and growing increasingly frustrated that he cannot be - in much the same way that the archetypal player will insist that "it's only a video game, it's just entertainment", blame the developers for railroading them into committing horrific acts (especially the [[spoiler:white phosphorous incident]]) and keep playing the game to the end, growing increasingly frustrated when the game denies them the escapist fantasy they wanted from it.

** Of course, said mentality also involves some degree of MST3K to be applied. Dropping anvils is fine, but actively blaming the player for playing a product the only way that is allowed [[RageAgainstTheHeavens is dubious at best]] precisely because it brings up the issue of Real Life blame *and* makes it very clear that the person responsible for the sorry state constructed is *not* the player, or even Walker or Konrad, but [[WallBanger the developers]] for teasing at an alternative but not giving it. Which also carries the lovely UnfortunateImplication that [[spoiler: Walker literally had no choice and/or might have even been *right* to descend into the depths of monstrosity.]] [[BrokenAesop Nice Job Breaking It, Dev Team.]]
** The fact that some people actually play games for the story doesn't seem to have entered consideration. Is it wrong to not want to leave a book half-finished?

*** The major difference being that the Stanford Prison Experiment involved real people while a video game involves an artifically intelligent combination of pixels. Not reading the last page of a book does not mean the book has no ending.

*** Put in this way. You're reading a book, and halfway through [[SnicketWarningLabel the story tells the reader to stop reading.]] Is it wrong to leave the book half-finished? And even if you don't read it ''that doesn't mean it's not there.''

** The game makes clear at various points that the 33rd tortured opponents and committed various atrocities to maintain order. It doesn't matter how nice his intentions the facts that people will see is that the 33rd occupied a foreign city and killed a large number of its civilian population.

* The game makes clear at various points that the 33rd tortured opponents and committed various atrocities to maintain order. It doesn't matter how nice his intentions the facts that people will see is that the 33rd occupied a foreign city and killed a large number of its civilian population.

*** Amusingly if you take the story as a deconstruction of most shooters that have been out on the market, you know the type that encourage mindless violence and don't showcase the consequences that such violence would have in real life, then Konrad is addressing not only Walker but the player as well. His brutality is just as "sane" as our mindset is, showcasing such mindless brutality makes us no better than Konrad is. It reminds me a great deal of what Colonel Kurtz said to Captain Willard in Film/ApocalypseNow, "You have seen horrors that I have seen. You have a right to kill me, but you don't have a right to judge me." How can you judge a man that you are the same as? It would be like judging yourself.

*** And this kind of reaction is ''[[http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/spec-ops-is-critical-of-war-and-players-of-war-games-an-interview-with-the exactly the kind the dev team wants you to have]]'': "During the 'White Phosphorus' scene, Walker buries his guilt and casts blame on Konrad and the 33rd, all in an attempt to keep going. Our hope was that the player would do the same -- cast the blame on us, the designers." [[YouBastard After all, your sins are the same as Walker's. Just like Walker, you fail to take responsibility for your actions, and choose to scapegoat others and claim you were just a victim of circumstance.]] For Walker, it's [[spoiler:Konrad]]. For the player, it's the developers.
**** In other words, some people [[CompletelyMissingThePoint probably need to play the game a couple more times before editing this page.]]

** The evacuation probably failed for several reasons, such as the storm itself, lack of supplies and fuel, civilians fighting amongst themselves to get out first, death from sunstroke and exposure, etc etc. As for why they couldn't just take a boat out, one level near the end of the game is actually set in a body of water... or more accuratley, where a body of water ''used to be''. The water was either swept away by the high-speed wind of the sandstorm, dried up in the sun, or was taken and used by desperatly thirsty civilians.

** The evacuation probably failed for several reasons, such as the storm itself, lack of supplies and fuel, civilians fighting amongst themselves to get out first, death from sunstroke and exposure, etc etc. As for why they couldn't just take a boat out, one level near the end of the game is actually set in a body of water... or more accuratley, where a body of water ''used to be'' The water was either swept away by the high-speed wind of the sandstorm, dried up in the sun, or was taken and used by desperatly thirsty civilians.

*** Walker, Lugo and Adams literally '''walk into Dubai.''' You mean to tell me the U.S Army can't send in an armored convoy through the storm? An armored convoy should be a hundred times more capable of getting through a thick sand storm then 3 men on foot. The United States is clearly apathetic about helping Dubai, realistically they should be more than capable of getting through the storm whether by land or sea (as noted above).

** Actually the CIA got sent in a long time before Walker and his group did [[spoilers: and they were trying to make sure that no one found out what happened there, so it's very possible that the CIA is pulling strings back home to keep people from being sent out]]

* There is no way a unit of the United States Army the size of the 33rd would be abandoned to an ambiguous fate with no contact in a half-destroyed city for ''six months'' before any sort of investigation was sent. Never happen. This might just be a sign that something's wrong, though...

** The game made a great job to highlight that. At that point, I showed hope for Walker's redemption [[spoiler:by not commiting suicide]]. That hope was completly lost [[spoiler:when the rescue team showed up, because, as Walker, I felt angry at those guys who've been spared by the horror I've been through, and realized there were no coming back after crossing the line, death was the better option left]]. Those few guys sure didn't deserve to die, just like the other hundreds you've already shot.