Homegrown Heroes and New War Warriors: Post-9/11 Depictions of Warfare in Call of Duty

Marcus Maloney; Scott Doidge

doi:10.1007/978-981-16-5588-3

Homegrown Heroes and New War Warriors: Post-9/11 Depictions of Warfare in Call of Duty

Marcus Maloney
, Scott Doidge

Australian Catholic University

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

451 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

More than twenty years following 9/11, America and the West are still coming to terms with its impact. In order to further comprehend the political/military ramifications of the event, in particular the impression of 9/11 and the ensuing ‘War on Terror’ on popular cultural texts, this chapter examines the military ‘first person shooter’ (FPS) video game franchise, Call of Duty. As the most profitable military FPS franchise of all time, Call of Duty is often examined as an example of the ‘military-entertainment complex’. In contrast, the chapter examines the various Call of Duty games as mythmaking, a reflection of ‘elemental drives and anxieties’(Heins 2013: 3) that lie beneath even the ideological substructure. We chart Call of Duty games as they project a vast temporal span of past, present and future visions of war. We pay particular attention to interpreting the most recent entries in the franchise and their odd amalgamation of antagonists that suggests America is no longer even sure who it is fighting against, let alone why.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Militarization and the Global Rise of Paramilitary Culture
Subtitle of host publication	Post-Heroic Reimaginings of the Warrior
Editors	Brad West, Thomas Crosbie
Publisher	Springer
Chapter	4
Pages	57-74
Number of pages	18
ISBN (Electronic)	978-981-16-5588-3
ISBN (Print)	978-981-16-5587-6, 978-981-16-5590-6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5588-3 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5588-3_4
Publication status	Published - 13 Oct 2021

Bibliographical note

Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.

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Cite this

Homegrown Heroes and New War Warriors: Post-9/11 Depictions of Warfare in Call of Duty. / Maloney, Marcus; Doidge, Scott.
Militarization and the Global Rise of Paramilitary Culture: Post-Heroic Reimaginings of the Warrior. ed. / Brad West; Thomas Crosbie. Springer, 2021. p. 57-74.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review

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Homegrown Heroes and New War Warriors: Post-9/11 Depictions of Warfare in Call of Duty

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