Captain Price

Captain John Price is a major fictional character in the Call of Duty series and one of the two main protagonists, appearing as an experienced soldier and a strong leader in the series. He is somewhat compassionate, but can be ruthless at times. Price was well received by critics and fans alike, being listed as the 17th top video game characters of Guinness World Records 2011 Gamers' Edition.

Captain Price first appeared as a British soldier featured in Call of Duty and Call of Duty 2 as a member of the British Army and British SAS during World War II. He appears again as John Price in the Modern Warfare series, where he is playable in two flashback missions in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and in the final mission of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. He is one of the three characters that appeared in all three Modern Warfare games. The others were John "Soap" MacTavish and Nikolai.

Character design

The character is said to have been based upon British SAS soldier John McAleese, who was involved in the Iranian Embassy siege and also co-hosted the television series SAS: Are You Tough Enough? in 2003. He is also a reference to a similarly looking character in the famous war film A Bridge Too Far. Price's callsign, Bravo Six, is a direct reference to the 1986 war movie Platoon, in which Captain Harris' callsign is exactly the same as Price's. John Price was voiced by actor Billy Murray, while Price from World War II was voiced by Michael Gough.

Call of Duty

Call of Duty is a first-person shooter video game franchise. The series began on Microsoft Windows, and later expanded to consoles and handhelds. Several spin-off games have been released. The earlier games in the series are set primarily in World War II, including Call of Duty, Call of Duty 2, and Call of Duty 3. Beginning with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which is set in modern times, the series has shifted focus away from World War II. Modern Warfare, released November 2007, was followed by World at War and Modern Warfare 2. Black Ops, released November 2010, takes place in the Cold War, while Modern Warfare 3, released November 2011, takes place in a near-future setting. Black Ops II, released November 2012, takes place mainly in the year 2025. Call of Duty: Ghosts was released in November 2013. In May 2014, Advanced Warfare was announced. On April 9, 2015, Treyarch announced Black Ops III.

The Call of Duty games are published and owned by Activision. While Infinity Ward is still a developer, Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games also develop several of the titles with the release of the studios' games alternating with each other. Some games have been developed by Gray Matter Interactive, Nokia, Exakt Entertainment, Spark Unlimited, Amaze Entertainment, n-Space, Aspyr, Rebellion Developments, Ideaworks Game Studio, and nStigate Games. The games use a variety of engines, including the id Tech 3, the Treyarch NGL, and the IW engine.

Modern warfare

Modern warfare is warfare using the concepts, methods, and military technology that have come into use during and after World War II and the Korean War. The concepts and methods have assumed more complex forms of the 19th- and early-20th-century antecedents, largely due to the widespread use of highly advanced information technology, and combatants must modernize constantly to preserve their battle worthiness. Although total war was thought to be the form of international conflicts from the experience of the French Revolutionary Wars to World War II, the term no longer describes warfare in which a belligerent use all of its resources to destroy the enemy's organized ability to engage in war. The practice of total war which had been in use for over a century, as a form of war policy, has been changed dramatically with greater awareness of tactical, operational, and strategic battle information.

War in modern times has been the inclusion of civilians and civilian infrastructure as targets in destroying the enemy's ability to engage in war. The targeting of civilians developed from two distinct theories. The first theory was that if enough civilians were killed, factories could not function. The second theory was that if civilians were killed, the enemy would be so demoralized that it would have no ability to wage further war. However, UNICEF reports that civilian fatalities are down from 20 percent prior to 1900 AD to less than 5 percent of fatalities in the wars beginning in the 1990s.

Captain

Captain and Chief officer are overlapping terms, formal or informal, for the commander of a military unit, the commander of a ship, airplane, spacecraft, or other vessel, or the commander of a port, fire department or police department, election precinct, etc. Captain is a military rank in armies, navies, coast guards, etc., typically at the level of an officer commanding a company of infantry, a ship, or a battery of artillery, or similar distinct unit. Chief officer may be used interchangeably with captain in some situations, as when a Captain-ranked Navy officer is serving as the commander of a ship. The terms also may be used as an informal or honorary title for persons in similar commanding roles. In mining (esp. Cornish), it is an honorific given the superintendent or manager of a mine.

The term "captain" derives from katepánō (Greek: κατεπάνω, lit. "[the one] placed at the top", or " the topmost") which was used as title for a senior Byzantine military rank and office. The word was Latinized as capetanus/catepan, and its meaning seems to have merged with that of the Italian "capitaneus" (which derives from the Latin word "caput", meaning head). This hybridized term gave rise to the English language term captain and its equivalents in other languages (Capitan, Kapitan, Kapitän, El Capitan, Il Capitano, Kapudan Pasha etc.)

Captain Hook

Captain James Hook is a fictional character, the antagonist of J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and its various adaptations, in which he is Peter Pan's archenemy. The character is a pirate captain of the brig Jolly Roger; Barrie describes him as Blackbeard's former bo'sun. His two principal fears are the sight of his own blood (supposedly an unnatural colour) and the crocodile who pursues him after eating the hand cut off by Pan. An iron hook replaced his severed hand, which gave the pirate his name. After getting a taste of Hook, the crocodile pursues him relentlessly, but the ticking clock it has swallowed warns Hook of its presence.

Creation of the character

Hook did not appear in early drafts of the play, wherein the capricious and coercive Peter Pan was closest to a "villain", but was created for a front-cloth scene depicting the children's journey home. Later, Barrie expanded the scene, on the premise that children were fascinated by pirates, and expanded the role of the captain as the play developed. The character was originally cast to be played by Dorothea Baird, the actress playing Mary Darling, but Gerald du Maurier, already playing George Darling (and the brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies), persuaded Barrie to let him take the additional role instead, a casting tradition since replicated in many stage and film productions of the Peter Pan story.