Let the games begin.

Published by You on 5 March, 2008 - 01:58

Clearly I have not been paying enough attention to the games industry.

Through [url= I followed a link to [url= which had news (and links to an interview) about a Mod created by "Artist" Wafaa Bilaal called Virtual Jihadi:

Quote:
Bilal casts himself as a suicide-bomber in the game (left). After learning of the real-life death of his brother in the war, he is recruited by Al Qaeda to join the hunt for Bush.

This is an "artistic mod" to a propaganda game called "Night of Bush Capturing", a first person shooter based on the [i]Quest for Saddam[/i] engine which was another propaganda game on the opposite side of the spectrum.

I wish I could make this stuff up. The original (not the mod) seems to be pretty standard fare, Probably ripped off of other games with an added dose of propaganda.

In an interview with the artist an interesting moral question was asked raised:

Quote:
don’t know if it crosses a moral line, because it’s still virtual, right? So, if games like “Call of Duty” or other games are fine, why should this be any different?

That is a quote from the article on [url= are sexy[/url] which has the full interview. Very interesting as it does show how the artist who made the Virtual Jihadi based his views on the real world:

Quote:
[b]GAS/NPD: Did your brother actually die, in Iraq?[/b]

BILAL: Yes, that’s how the idea of the paintball project came to life, because he was killed in my hometown of Kufa by a drone plane. And I watched the news after a year after his death, and a soldier in Colorado controlling these planes and dropping missiles in Iraq and when they asked her whether she had any remorse over people’s lives, she said “no,” because “these people are bad people, and I have complete trust in my government.”

I think the guy has a right to be a little crazy. Who else would lock himself in a room for 30 days and allow anyone on the 'net to control a paintball gun in that very same room?

And a link to a two year old feature on 1up - [url=. Tis a little boring, but it does go through a few different games targeted at Muslims (mostly in the middle east).

Now if you want (old skool) originality, go play (the pretty ancient) Serious Sam. That game had some unique enemies (The suicide bombers were inspired).

Disclaimer: No people were killed in writing this blog post.

Tags: 
games