Attention to those of you planning to play Modern Warfare 2. Read this first, so that you can play — and discuss — the game with the rest of Kotaku.
Last year, Kotaku experimented with its own version of a Book Club and we will be bringing that back next week for Modern Warfare 2.
We are hoping to curate a community discussion about what has already been a provocative game. As Brian Crecente put it last year in his Kotaku Game Club announcement: "My hope is that it will get me and you and all gamers who participate to look beyond the graphics, the gameplay, the routine and perhaps think about games the way people think about a good book or a good movie."
There's an added element I want to emphasize: The idea of having a shared experience. Any fan of good weekly TV series knows the pleasure of knowing that millions of people are experiencing the same new hour of a show at the same time and then joining online or in person to talk with some of them about it. That experience is not easy to recreate with a video game, but I think we've got a shot with Modern Warfare 2.
So here's the plan, subject to change if you have a better idea or if Modern Warfare 2 proves to be structured differently than its predecessor:
-Wednesday, November 11: The Kotaku Game Club for Modern Warfare kicks off, with a post that will kick off a discussion about the game's first three levels. Those levels... and nothing else. So please try not to play past that, as hard as that will be. (Play multiplayer instead or something). I will start the conversation and then hang out in the comments for an hour so we can chat about those first three levels. I will post a reminder on Tuesday.
-Friday, November 13: The Game Club continues, with another post kicking off a discussion of the game's next three levels.
-We will pick back up on Monday, the 16th, then Wednesday, Friday, and Monday all over again. We'll keep this up until we finish the game.
The Game Club will be for people who want to discuss and debate shared experiences, who want to appreciate and examine a game in a close way, who want to think — and who can resist the urge to play ahead!
Join me on Wednesday.