Call of Duty® (2003)

This Might Be the Last Cosplay You'd Expect from JapanWhen you think of Japan and cosplay, you probably imagine ladies dressed in skimpy anime outfits or dudes in Gundam gear. And you'd probably be right! That type of cosplay is prevalent, sure, but it's not the only game in town—especially with more and more Japanese players totally digging Call of Duty.


Recently on Japanese bulletin board 2ch, one cosplayer showed off his latest creation: a Juggernaut, which first appeared in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's Special Ops Mode. The outfit weighed a hefty 20 kilograms—30 kilograms when carrying weapons—and took thirty minutes to put on.


Some wondered where someone would go dressed like this, while other said the outfit appeared better when it wasn't being worn. "Isn't this somewhat off balance?" asked one commenter. Added another, "It looks cool. But heavy."


The get up does look better with a large firearm. Running around between warehouses helps pull off the outfit, too.


In case you missed it, here is Kotaku's roundup of some of the best Call of Duty cosplay the internet has to offer.


コスプレ衣装作ったったwww [2ch via ラビット速報]



Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

This Might Be the Last Cosplay You'd Expect from Japan This Might Be the Last Cosplay You'd Expect from Japan


Call of Duty® (2003)

Modern Warfare Map Returns, Minus the Offensive ImageryEarlier this month, one of Modern Warfare 2's most popular maps, Favela, disappeared. The reason was that the map contained imagery some players found offensive: holy teachings written in a bathroom.


As previously reported, in a single room on the map, two paintings had been hung whose frames contained a decorative representation of a quote attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, which reads "Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty". Those paintings were hung in a bathroom, one right above a toilet, and didn't appear to be found anywhere else on the map.


Modern Warfare Map Returns, Minus the Offensive Imagery


According to MP1st (via (Eurogamer), the map has returned in a recent 17MB update for the PS3 version. The picture frames remain, but the decorative quotes have been removed. You can see the edited version above. There's a pre and post edit comparison below.


Modern Warfare Map Returns, Minus the Offensive Imagery


Favela Returns [MP1st via Eurogamer]


Call of Duty® (2003)

The Continued Popularity of Call of Duty's Two, Three and Four Year Old Games Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's record-breaking, first-day sales are impressive, but almost more impressive is the life these Call of Duty games seem to have online.


This morning I hopped online to see how the past four year's worth of Call of Duty games were doing online. Yes, people still do play the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. I did the same thing at the beginning of the year, to see how the games were doing. Let's compare.


Each of these games show the current number of online players when you log in to find a match on the Xbox 360. I happen to only have all of these games on this platform, so I wasn't able to check out the PC or PS3. Here's what I found:


Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 had 776,152 people logged in shortly before 11 a.m. eastern on Veterans Day, a work day for many. Last year's Treyarch-developed game, Call of Duty: Black Ops, had 196,648 players logged in. The previous Infinity Ward-developed game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 still had 62,541 people playing it. Remember, that's a 2-year-old game and it's a weekday. Call of Duty: World at War, a game set during World War II, still had 5,800 people playing it. Finally, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the game that helped propel the series into the stratosphere, was being played by 3,309 people four years after the game was released. Not bad.


Back in January of this year I had the same idea of looking at how many people were still playing this dated Call of Duty titles. One evening on Jan. 30, I logged into all four Call of Duty games, from the original Modern Warfare to the then most recent Black Ops to see how many were playing. Comparing those numbers from almost a year ago to today's, I'm a little surprised how little they have changed.


Here's a quick run down:


Black Ops: 757,237
Modern Warfare 2: 174,059
World at War: 15,079
Modern Warfare: 15,361


What's it all mean? Well judging by these numbers, it looks like the series has a strong fanbase that like to stick around.


Call of Duty® (2003)

One Female Gamer Records A Warfare in Words The latest Call of Duty's out today and there's going to be lots of trash talk and cuss words among the many fans who'll be cutting class, calling in sick and otherwise shirking their duties to play the latest entry in Activision's best -selling FPS series. But, as Jenny Haniver can attest, there's a special kind of trash talk reserved for female players. It's filled with casual sexism, vulgar slurs and an angry dismissiveness of any skills a woman playing an online game might show.


As a longtime fan of first-person shooters and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in particular, Haniver—which isn't, by the way, her real name—has heard the vitriol of online competitive play for years now. But she's doing something a bit different than other female gamers: she's recording it. Haniver archives the saddest, most misanthropic chatter she's confronted with on Not in the Kitchen Anymore, a blog that grew out of an art project she did last year. That project plastered excerpts from the verbal harassment she'd run into onto the walls of an exhibition space and Jenny's continued that same work in digital form. Not in the Kitchen Anymore holds up a mirror to those who've supposedly got skills in the headshot, grenade toss and melee arenas and shows what it looks like when they lack simple human decency, the most basic skill of all.


So, on the day of release for the latest Modern Warfare, Kotaku asked Jenny to share the most angry recordings that she's made playing MW2—as well as other FPSes— along with some of her own commentary.


Two Chicks That Play Xbox
If you are a female who plays online games, it's an almost automatic guarantee that some guys will assume that you are fat. Or that you have nothing better to do, because you're forever alone. But if you try and turn it around and suggest that, perhaps since they're on the same game, at the same time, maybe THEY'RE fat loners too… That's just madness!


Oh, so that's how it works.
Occasionally, guys will admit that you legitimately have some skills at whatever game you're playing. At first, this can seem promising, but hold on- don't get too excited! This sort of comment is almost invariably followed by an insult.


Wow, how did you know?
Another typical male comment is that girls online sound like 12 year old boys, or men. This is supposed to be degrading to the female gamer ("Oh no! Some guy on the internet thinks I sound like a boy?? Time to cry myself to sleep again."), but is mostly just humorous.


Non et non.
It seems outrageous that female gamers like to game just because it's fun! Surely it must be for an alternative reason? Perhaps you're secretly just hoping to meet the perfect man over Xbox live. If that's the case, lucky you! There are persistent fellows willing to pitch virtual woo at you, even from across the world.


Girl on girl Action
And, of course, guys are not the only perpetrators. From time to time, you will run into The Only Girl On The Internet. Since women are an acknowledged minority in the gaming community, a few girls can get territorial about their gamer status. This leads to a Highlander mentality (there can only be one!). It can be disastrous for all parties involved if another woman stumbles into the same lobby as one of these girls.


You can read and listen to more of Jenny's recordings at Not in the Kitchen Anymore.


Not in the Kitchen Anymore



You can contact Evan Narcisse, the author of this post, at evan@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
Call of Duty® (2003)

California Man Pleads Guilty to Trading Video Game Cheat Codes for Child Pornography A 22-year-old California man pled guilty today to child pornography charges for getting a 10-year-old boy to send nude pictures of himself in exchange for Call of Duty "cheat codes," according to U.S. Attorney court records.


John Kenneth Calderon Basto, also known as Tribal x MoDzz, of Long Beach, California, pled guilty to causing the distribution of child pornography, according to Sanford C. Coats, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.


Basto and the elementary student met while playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox Live, according to court records. Basto and the boy talked online, and he eventually invited the boy into a private chat room, where they exchanged cell phone numbers. Through phone calls and text messages, Basto asked the boy for pictures of his genitals. In exchange, Basto promised to send the boy 20 cheat codes, which, according to the court papers, give a gamer "elite weapons, unlimited lives, and other advantages."


After the boy sent pictures with his cell phone to Basto in California via text message the 22-year-old told the boy to delete his text messages and pictures so he would not get caught. But the child's mother discovered the text messages from an out-of-state number and alerted authorities.


Basto is currently in federal custody. He will be sentenced on February 8. He faces not less than five years and up to 20 years in federal prison, lifetime supervised release, and sex offender registration.


This case was part of Project Safe Childhood, the flagship program in the Department of Justice's National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction, and was the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Oklahoma and California. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Hale.


Call of Duty® (2003)

One of the highlights of the Call of Duty XP convention was its paintball field recreation of "Scrapyard," a multiplayer map plucked from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. I took a few stinging paintballs to the thigh and bicep for your enjoyment, if you couldn't make it to Los Angeles this past weekend.


Armed with one paintball gun, some light protection and a GoPro Hero helmet camera—provided by the fine folks at GoPro, thank you very much—mounted to my chest, I ran the "Scrapyard" course for one game of real-life Domination that lasted about seven minutes. Five minutes of that session allowed for infinite respawns, with the last two minutes "sudden death" for Team Black and Team Khaki.


As you watch the above video, keep a few things in mind: we totally kicked ass; I was shot at least six times, hence my frequent trips to the red "respawn point"; yes, I really should have mounted that GoPro on my head, not directly behind my gun; people lined up for hours to experience this Call of Duty recreation and for good reason—it was a hell of a lot of fun.


Take a look at the pint-sized "Scrapyard" recreated for Call of Duty XP above and pray that Activision has the good sense to do this again next year—only bigger.



You can contact Michael McWhertor, the author of this post, at mike@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
Call of Duty® (2003)

One of the many activities on hand at this weekend's Call of Duty XP event—activities that earn attendees badges of honor—is Juggernaut Sumo. The game? Put on a bulky fat suit gussied up to look vaguely like a Juggernaut from Modern Warfare 2's Spec Ops mode and... fight!


Lines are long, rounds are short. You can see just how quickly the battle between Call of Duty XP attendee Ryan and his grandfather, a man with a flair for falling over, lasts. But it may not end the way you expect.



You can contact Michael McWhertor, the author of this post, at mike@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
Call of Duty® (2003)

A Remote Controlled Airplane Took This Real Call of Duty PhotoCall of Duty XP is an official COD gaming event that promises to do more than let players play Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer. They'll also get a shot at running a real version of The Pit time course and experiencing the Scrapyard in-game map.


Snapped by website Pro Paintball, this is an overhead shot of the Call of Duty XP paintball field, built by the Hollywood Sports Paintball Park.


Like something out of modern warfare, a remote controlled airplane was used to take this photo.


As previously posted, the real world COD maps look to be the convention's highlight. There will be a full-scale version of the Scrapyard map from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer. There is also The Pit time course from Modern Warfare 2, complete with pop-up wooden enemies and civilians.


Call of Duty XP kicks off Sept. 2 in Los Angeles. Here is a first look at what to expect (minus the people—expect them!).


Sneak peak at the Call of Duty XP Paintball Field [Pro Paintball]



You can contact Brian Ashcraft, the author of this post, at bashcraft@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 2 (2009)

Earlier, British TV star Billy Murray, who voices Captain Price in Modern Warfare, was charged with assaulting his wife and 27-year-old daughter. Charges were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service, reports the Mirror, ceasing any further actions. [Mirror Thanks, Tom!]


Call of Duty® (2003)

[Updated] Last night, the fury took over. The first time in three weeks he fired up the Xbox 360, and some little shit was griefing him in Modern Warfare 2. Hell, he normally plays Battlefield. As the two yelled at each other across Xbox Live, Cody, 17, heard the voice of his antagonist's mother coming over the mike.


"Your mom's there, hearing this, and she's not screaming at you?" he demanded. Next thing he knew, he was getting an earful from some lady in a tawk-like-dis Long Island accent, and he called her a "dumb whore." To memorialize his outrage, he captured the argument and uploaded the video to YouTube.


Then the sun came up.


"When I woke up and saw what had happened, I saw this was making me look like an asshole," Cody said. "I realized I probably should apologize."


Cody, 17, spoke with Kotaku this evening about his role in the ugly "Modern Warfare Mom" incident, which can be heard in the video above. It's a mortifying lesson generations of young men have learned, just in different venues. Now they're learning it in video games.


Some things are not worth it.


Ignore him. Leave the room. Who cares how wrong he is.


Hang out with people you know, and just move on.


"It's what I usually do, someone starts yelling at me, I'm like, 'OK,' block, mute and hop off," Cody said. "But because my friends were around, I was trying to act tough."


In the end, he just looks bad, and Cody knows it. This morning over Xbox Live, he tried to find the target of his fury to apologize, was intercepted by a friend of the guy who wanted to extend the conflict, and ultimately Cody gave up.


"When this stuff happens, you might think it's OK to scream back and record it but in the end, you're just going to be labeled as an asshole," Cody said. "It's just not going to help. The best thing to do is report the player, leave the game, and move on."


Also, regarding the use of "faggot." Cody now understands that's a self-defeating insult, too, and that it doesn't really matter how he intended for it to be heard, it's offensive—gravely—to people who aren't even involved in the dispute. It can only make him look like a contemptible bully.


"I was reading the comments and was like, 'Wait a lot of these guys are in their 20s or their 30s so they might put that in the wrong context,'" Cody said. "No, they're putting it in the correct one. I'm not meaning to use it in a way that offends people who are homosexual, but of course it can be portrayed that way."


Same thing goes for "retard," says Cody: "When people say 'retard,' maybe they don't mean it," he said. "But you wouldn't call somebody that in front of someone who is developmentally disabled."


Cody understands that military shooters like the Call of Duty series have a terrible reputation for this sort of hostility and abuse in multiplayer. While he thinks that game makers could do more to moderate the behavior (he cited Halo: Reach, in which a frequently muted player can lose his voice chat privileges), ultimately, it's on the community.


"When people act like this, it draws players away," Cody said. "If I was older, like, 33, and I joined a game and heard people yelling and screaming, I would never play."


Therefore, only immature players are left. So don't be one, Cody says. Don't be like him last night.


Editor's note: After Cody replied to Kotaku's request for comment, this story was comprehensively updated from its original version. The original text is below.


Earlier today, a 90-second clip of yelling by people who totally deserve each other was removed from YouTube on grounds it was a "depiction of harmful activities." That would be a 17-year-old getting into it with an irate mom, evidently after he had a dispute with her minor son during a match in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.


We've been contacted by the young man involved, who promises a 12-minute full context version of this is coming, provided you really want to hear all of that. Meantime, this is what he has to say for himself.


First off, I used the word "Faggot" just to insult the kid, I don't have any problems with homosexuals or anything. I have a few gay friends, and if people are that upset about the usage of the word I apologize.
Secondly, I'm usually not disrespectful towards adults, I'm almost 18 and I've never had an argument like that before. It started out as a kid joining our lobby pretty much talking trash to me and other people right from the get go. Then we started calling him names and he got his mom on the mic. I was like "Yeah your son" and then she cut me off saying "What do you fucking want, douchebag?". From there she was attacked by almost everyone in the lobby.


So, there you have it. We've reached out to both sides to mediate this dispute, Maury Povich-style. Stay tuned.


...

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