Iranian Game Developers Make Anti-U.S. FPS
So some Iranians made an FPS game with U.S. and Israeli troops as the bad guys called, "Rescue the Nuke Scientist."

Big deal.

Okay, the propaganda angle does annoy. I haven't played the game, and as far as I know it could be very offensive to me. But every single communications medium in history has been used for propaganda purposes. Including games. I think this just validates the contention that games must be protected free speech.

I don't relish the idea of yet one more medium that portrays Americans as "The Enemy" in the Middle East, but who else would you expect them to use to portray as the ultra-powerful enemy? And after all, we Americans have been blowing up our own military forces in our own games for years. Whether it was because they were sent there to "pacify" the Black Mesa facility in Half Life I, or we were locked in aerial combat in various flight sims, nuking ol' Abe Lincoln in Civilization or Rise of Nations, or we find ourselves on opposing side in multiplayer Battlefield games - we take pretty much equal glee in blowing up our own forces as anybody else's. We just need to take a look at our allies' uniforms (or the color of their names) before leading the base, and we're ready to rock.

Is that any different from, say, enjoying the wild naval adventures of Alexander Kent's Richard Bolitho novels, fighting on the "opposite" side of the revolutionary war (from an American point of view)? I think its usually a healthy thing to take a look at events and views from opposing perspectives.

Which brings us to another interesting point. Mohammad Taqi Fakhrian is quoted as saying that this game was created as a "defense against the enemy's cultural onslaught." What does this mean? Are Iranian kids playing Rainbow Six Las Vegas, Gears of War, and America's Army right now (while watching downloaded episodes of The Sopranos, Lost, and The Family Guy)? Is this an attempt by Iranian traditionalists to stop the "Western Drift" of the younger generations? Do they see video games as a means of reinforcing official state dogma? Or is it simply an angry reaction to being portrayed as bad guys in modern military games like Kuma\War?

And then there's the more important question that is undoubtedly on many gamers minds right now: Is this game actually any good?

Probably not, based on the gameplay footage (can U.S. soldiers walk through walls and pillars now? Cool!). That is more likely to earn gamer ire than political offensiveness.


Hat Tip to GamePolitics.com for the link!

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* Games As Editorial Content
* Do Games Matter?

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Labels: Politics

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 10:41 AM (Permalink)