Call of Duty Creators Say Oliver North Helped Make Their Game More Authentic
By Dr. Eleanor Vance | Published on January 01, 0001
Lt. Col. Oliver North is a polarizing figure in American history and, we found out, earlier this month, an advisor on the next huge Call of Duty game, Black Ops II North isn’t your average video game โค้ดเครดิตฟรีสมาชิกใหม่ล่าสุด consultant. He was one of the main actors in the Iran-Contra scandal that wracked America in the ‘80s. North helped the U.S. government sell weapons to Iran with the intent to free hostages, while transferring the money earned to back rebels in Nicaragua who were accused of human rights abuses. Both ends of the deals were suspect and potentially in violation of U.S. law. North testified to Congress about the affair in widely-televised hearings that marked one of the worst moments of the popular Reagan administration. He was later convicted on charges related to the shredding of documents relevant to the scandal but his convictions were reversed on appeal.(new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c&cid=872d12ce-453b-4870-845f-955919887e1b'; cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c" }).render("79703296e5134c75a2db6e1b64762017"); }); Since then, he rehabilitated his image, ran for Senate, wrote books and became a fixture on Conservative news shows and a favorite of the Republican party. In early May, North appeared in a Black Ops II mini-documentary. In the documentary, he speculated about a dark future where America’s most high tech weapons are used against us. He was, we reported, essentially shilling for the game. Some readers didn’t mind. Others were irate, labeling him a traitor to the nation. One of our writers wrote an editorial lambasting North’s involvement. https://kotaku.com/watch-oliver-north-shill-call-of-duty-black-ops-ii-5906866 In late May, I got a chance to chat with Mark Lamia, the head of Treyarch, the studio that makes Black Ops II and consulted with North. What follows is, with some interruptions, our exchange on the matter, one I thought was illuminating enough to present in full, with minor edits made for clarity’s sake: (It’s relevant to the exchange to note the set-up. Lamia and I sat across from each other backstage at an Activision showcase event. An Activision public relations rep sat nearby. Lt. Col. Hank Keirsey, who has served as military consultant for multiple Call of Duty games and who I have interviewed before, stood at the ready to the side, next to me.) *** Kotaku: Let’s talk about Oliver North. That was controversial when you guys used him in the roll-out. A lot of our readers and even some of our writers had strong reactions to him, felt he was a politicized figure and some of our readers were angry about his inclusion in the promotion. Did you guys expect it to be controversial to be using Oliver North as a consultant? Mark Lamia, head of Black Ops II development studio Treyarch: So, we used him for the game. When we create the fictions that we create, we do a bunch of research and try to talk to subject matter experts on it. And part of that research is reading and watching documentaries and movies and everything else. What can be a part of it is talking to people who’ve been through the experiences, people like Hank, and when you’re talking about doing something in the ‘80s, black ops, when we were doing research in the conflicts that we were covering and everything else and some of our conflicts … in any event he rises to the top as someone who was probably, obviously the most well-known covert operations [person]. So it made sense for us from a game development point of view to spend the time and be able to talk to [him]. One of the things we do is we have these brushes with history in our Black Ops fiction. That’s a signature, I think, to the way we create our historical fiction. We set you up with that. We put you in this place where it’s, ‘Ok, I’m in that part of history,’ and we have sort of that fiction we weave right through. Part of doing that has been and is getting a first-hand account whether that was last time in Black Ops, when we were highlighting parts of Vietnam, meeting with someone who was a real S.O.G. who did black operations in Vietnam
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