Bad Journalism: The MW2 controversy

For those of you who don’t remember, you can look up the controversial Modern Warfare 2 level “No Russian” if you want. It created an annoying but relatively minor moral panic about violence in video games online. The level was censored in the Russian version of the game and also was edited to be less offensive in a few other countries, which I think is pretty ridiculous. This particular post is about a journalistic mistake and rumors that console versions of the game had been recalled in Russia, however. That never happened.

The story seems to have spread from this Russian blog post (know no russian, can’t translate): https://web.archive.org/web/20091115114631/http://www.gotps3.ru/article/vsjo_pravda_call_of_duty_modern_warfare_2_podvergnuta_tsenzure

A Hellforge blogger picked it up here: https://web.archive.org/web/20091126073405/http://hellforge.gameriot.com/blogs/Hellforge/Console-Versions-of-Modern-Warfare-2-Banned-in-Russia

Two days later, Jim Sterling put the story up on Destructoid, linking to the Hellforge post: http://www.destructoid.com/russia-bans-modern-warfare-2-recalls-all-copies-of-game-155211.phtml

The next day the story spread even further. Gamerzines cited Destructoid as its source: https://web.archive.org/web/20110930044255/http://www.gamerzines.com/xbox-360/news/modern-warfare-2-russia-banned.html

A Techcrunch writer also cited Destructoid: http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/16/wherein-we-discuss-no-russian-the-controversial-modern-warfare-2-level-and-the-games-subsequent-banning-in-russia/

And a writer on The Escapist posted the same story, citing the original Russian blog post and the Hellforge post, although he did mention that “it’s a bit tricky” to verify if it’s actually banned by the government and did write “according to Hellforge”: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/96136-Modern-Warfare-2-Recalled-in-Russia

Even mainstream news websites rolled out several pieces containing this inaccurate information: http://www.cnet.com/news/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2-banned-in-russia/ https://web.archive.org/web/20091119054740/http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology/2009/11/16/russia-bans-modern-warfare-2-over-airport-terror-level-115875-21827102 http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2009/1116/modern-warfare-2-apparently-nixed-by-russian-authorities

Then, on November 17th Eurogamer wrote that this may actually be wrong, as Activision reports the claims to be erroneous: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/modern-warfare-2-banned-in-russia

The Escapist writer who wrote the first story on the Escapist later published another story, correcting himself and citing the original Eurogamer article: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/96173-Modern-Warfare-2-Not-Banned-in-Russia-Says-Activision

Note, GameSpot wrote on the 16th already that the story seems questionable as every single article on it links to the same Russian blog post: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/modern-warfare-2-censored-in-russia/1100-6240352/

Additionally, Joystiq properly labeled the story a ‘rumor’ on the 16th and called for clarification: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/11/16/rumor-mw2-recalled-in-russia-due-to-no-russian-scene/

Most of the listed websites either retracted their articles, edited them with updates or posted a new story with the corrections. The ones I have archived were the stories that don’t exist anymore.

Conclusion

Points for Eurogamer for waiting for the Activision comment on the matter. Also points for Joystiq and GameSpot for handling the matter well. The Escapist writer could have waited for the facts to come in, but it could have been worse. A few smaller gaming news sites and blogs reported this as fact when it really was just a rumor, but it’s pretty minor in comparison to the mainstream news websites. It’s obvious they didn’t care much to fact-check. Additionally, Destructoid had the biggest fail moment with Sterling reporting as if the blog post was an authority on the matter, which led to several other outlets reporting that Destructoid says it is so. This is how misinformation can spread due to sloppy online journalism. Journalists everywhere, please be more rigorous! A lot of people depend on you to do your jobs well.

For the record, it seems like the original Hellforge blogger mistranslated the Russian blog post, which created the rumors. The fact was that on November 10th Activision released only a PC version of MW2 in Russia. This PC version did not have the level No Russian, but Activision themselves had made the decision not to include it in the Russian version.