Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a realistic shooter in a gritty military setting. Not exactly a place to seek aesthetics. Yet it seems a handful of gamers are drawn to the character Ghost, known for his iconic skull mask. Some fans are not happy about it. There is controversy.
Who is the man in question? Simon “Ghost” Riley is an important character in the campaign of Modern Warfare, one of the protagonists of the story and a member of the famous Task Force 141. His trademarks are a headset, sunglasses, and a skull mask – he appears fully masked.
In the original Modern Warfare, Ghost was actually killed due to betrayal. As a fan favorite, however, he later returns as a playable operator in Modern Warfare (2019) and is back in the latest CoD installment. Because Modern Warfare 2 takes place in an alternate timeline where Ghost is still alive.
This delights many fans, some of whom are not only interested in the cool soldier Ghost but also in the attractive man Simon Riley.
What’s going on? In some now-untraceable tweets and videos on TikTok, a few fans expressed their interest in Ghost. They find him “sexy”, envisioning the soldier in erotic moments.
Such things are not necessarily unusual in gaming but occur more frequently with female characters. Especially Overwatch regularly struggles with a true flood of porn. With Ghost, however, opinions differ on how far “sexualization” should go.
Here’s a little insight into the campaign of Modern Warfare 2:
Community upset about double standards: “But it’s okay for women?”
The discussion started merely with the question of whether it is okay to find Ghost sexy or not. After all, he is a soldier, and you can’t really see him anyway. However, this mysteriousness seems quite appealing.
Some users, however, are really getting into the debate and presenting questionable arguments. Longtime fans of the series, for example, are outraged that those who find Ghost attractive apparently have no clue about Call of Duty and Modern Warfare.
It’s about war and serious topics, and there’s no place for sexualization. A now-deleted comment even goes so far as to claim that sexualizing Ghost is worse than sexualizing children (via TikTok).
On TikTok, some streamers have embarrassed themselves in Call of Duty:
On TikTok, under the category “ghost sexualized”, there are now many clips aimed at absurdly illustrating the discussion. They point out that people are upset about sexualizing Ghost as a soldier – while it’s generally accepted with female military and police characters like D.Va and Tracer from Overwatch, Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy, or Jill Valentine from Resident Evil (via TikTok).
The discussion is currently blowing up, and it seems the divisions are hardening rather than a compromise being found. Fortunately, most community members seem to stay out of it or provide more pleasing news:
CoD MW2 fan sells free skins on eBay – earns over $4,000 for the birth of his child
