Hasan “HasanAbi” Piker is a prominent American Twitch streamer who discusses political topics extensively. Recently, he played through the campaign of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and labeled the game a “simulator for war crimes.” What is the truth behind this?
Who is HasanAbi? Hasan Piker is one of the largest Twitch streamers. He ranks 14th worldwide in viewing hours over the past 7 days (As of: 25.10.22 via sullygnome.com).
The Turkish-American is predominantly active in “Just Chatting”. He is known for his left-leaning political views and his willingness to engage in discussions. He gained significant attention during the 2020 US presidential elections.
Now, the political streamer has played the campaign of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and describes the story on Twitter as a “simulator for war crimes”:
CoD MW2: Campaign is Full of Forbidden Military Actions
Spoiler Warning: In the following paragraphs, we will reveal some passages from the story campaign of Modern Warfare 2. If you want to play the story yourself and not be spoiled, it’s best not to read further.
We at MeinMMO have already completed the campaign and can understand HasanAbi’s statement. We are not experts in humanitarian law, but the following actions could be considered war crimes:
- Intentional Killing
- In the mission “Wet Affairs”, we take out more than a dozen guards with a knife without official orders
- Unlawful Detention
- The alleged cartel leader Valeria is held by us without the consent of a court
- Use of Poison
- In the mission “Special Craft”, we use a toxic CIA mix to incapacitate enemies
- Intentional Attack on Civilian Objects Without Proportionality
- In the missions “Air Support” and “Position“, we control the weapons of an A130 bomber, leading to the destruction of many civilian buildings
These are just a few examples of the moments when we, as players, commit simulated war crimes. The site PCGamesN lists a total of 22 war crimes that can be digitally committed by players (via pcgamesn.com).
When you also count the actions of the villains, the list gets much longer: hostage-taking, using civilians as cover for military actions, and torture are other war crimes depicted in the story campaign.
The streamer HasanAbi takes the depicted scenes in the campaign with humor. “I don’t want to commit war crimes” – he says, grinning at the camera during the stream (via twitch.com).
What are your thoughts on this? Do games like CoD trivialize such crimes? Is it acceptable because it’s art, entertainment, or just a game? Leave a comment on the topic.
If you want to fight your way through the CoD MW2 campaign yourself, you can find out here how long it will take you: CoD Modern Warfare 2: Campaign Length – How many missions are there and how long do they take?
