Desert Storm II: Back to Baghdad

I was struck today by an article I ran into whilst perusing the 'back page', so to speak, of my RSS feeds. I stick my head into the gaming feeds once in a while because I do enjoy watching the amazing creations of modern gaming. I had a gaming console once, before it disappeared in the hands of a highly shifty moving company & I remain fond of the many memories I have of being cider-drunk & playing Twisted Metal II with my closest friend.

There are moments when I pause & wonder about whether the violence is Bad. If you've never even paused, then you are a scary person - I concluded that violence is just fine so long as it isn't Rape the Women III being played by a six-year old, but that doesn't mean I didn't pause. There is some intensely scary shit out there & let me tell you I cut my teeth on Doom & her sisters.

So, in my usual, long-winded fashion, I now arrive at the subject of today's perusion: Gotham Games. More specifically, their new release, Conflict: Desert Storm II - Back to Baghdad.

Gotham Games' own motto is "You are what you play". In this case, you are playing a shoot-'em-up game of unprecedented violence - it has, incidentally, received excellent reviews from the gaming community - set in, that's right, Iraq. "At the height of the 1991 Gulf War in the heart of Iraq, you must command your squad of Special Forces operatives to strike at Iraq's evil dictator," says their website.

I suppose you can see where this is leading. Isn't it extremely tasteless, from the perspective of both US soldiers serving in Iraq and of the Iraqis, for a software company to release a killing-spree game that is a childish revisiting - nay, a rewriting - of the conflict that led to the one in which 367 US soldiers have died?

You're right. I'm going there. How can I not? So many good people have died. Heck, so many people have died in general that I cannot understand how reviewers & players could possibly enjoy this game in good conscience. This isn't Doom, it's a crude & appallingly simplified resketch of a current conflict in which people have suffered & died - & the war is far from over.

I don't want to sound like the same naysayer every generation has. "Things are worse than ever!" My point is far from decrying video games. I hold the same scorn and disgust for any other presentation of questionable materials, whether it is a radio show, stage play, movie or television show, that depicts in such light the deeply troubling involvement of the United States in ugly mercantile wars like the Iraq conflict(s).

For god's sake, there are still men & women on the front lines in Iraq; bombings and hand-to-hand combat continues. Regardless of your political views, the simple fact that people are playing a video game that makes light of the very conflict in which their fellow citizens are involved is beyond my ability to express.

I don't think the company should be penalised or the game should be banned. I don't want to infringe on anyone's freedom of speech. I do, however, think that individuals should make clear their feelings about this video game. Anyone out there lose a family member? Anyone out there immigrate from Iraq or come from an Iraqi lineage? Anyone out there have a family member stationed in Iraq? Write them a letter and tell them how fucking appalling their taste is so they know it.