Homegrown heroes and new war warriors : Post-9/11 depictions of warfare in call of duty

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.

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