The tragedy in Itaewon turns into the scene of "Decisive Moment"? Victims’ families criticize game developers for lack of empathy

Four years have passed since the deadly stampede in Itaewon, Seoul, South Korea on the 29th. The families of the victims criticized the popular video game series "Call of Duty" for using images related to the stampede tragedy in its latest version, which showed "an extreme lack of empathy."

"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4" is a first-person shooting game launched in 2003. The background setting of its latest version "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4" is that the North Korean army launched a surprise attack to invade South Korea.

To show the devastation caused by the invasion, one scene of the game used real images of the 2022 Itaewon stampede that killed more than 150 people to depict the horrors of North Korea's attack. The picture only shows people busy doing CPR, police and firefighters controlling the scene, and the bodies of the victims lined up along the street; the developers also added monochrome and noise filters to make it look like it was caused by the raging war.

Cho In-young, a lawyer and member of the Itaewon Victims' Families Organization, told AFP that the use of these images "shows (video game developers) a complete disregard for the pain of the victims' families, victims and people who witnessed the tragedy, and a complete lack of consideration for the dignity of the deceased."

Zhao Inying also said that some family members of foreign victims are currently attending a memorial ceremony in South Korea. "We plan to formally raise this matter after collecting their signatures."

The victims' organization and a coalition of citizen groups issued a joint statement on the 28th, alleging that video game developers directly used the chaotic and desperate scenes from the Itaewon tragedy to recreate video game graphics, "which shocked us beyond measure"; using the Itaewon stampede tragedy as video game material for entertainment purposes was "very inappropriate and ill-considered... If game developers still have any respect and empathy for the victims of the Itaewon tragedy, they should make corrections as soon as possible."

Activision, the publisher of the video game, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in an interview with South Korean media Yonhap News Agency, it said that the Itaewon footage was used as an element to convey the fictional story described in the video game and "in no way deliberately mentioned or belittled the Itaewon disaster or any other real-life tragedy."

On the evening of October 29, 2022, more than 100,000 revelers, mainly young people in their 20s and 30s, poured into Itaewon, a well-known nightclub district in Seoul, to participate in the first Halloween event after the new coronavirus epidemic; due to the lack of crowd control and excessive crowding, a stampede tragedy occurred in a sloped narrow alley between bars and nightclubs, resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries, including foreigners, making it the deadliest stampede in modern history in South Korea.