[Talon]

Games blur news and entertainment

Some game developers are trying to get players to expand their horizons by reflecting on news events in computer games.

Ambiguity is not a quality that most of today's popular computer games embrace.

Take a title like Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. It is a classic first-person shooter game set during World War II that pits you as an American GI against the German army.

The rules are straightforward. You are the good guy and the Nazis are evil and it is your task to shoot as many of them as possible.

This is the kind of black-and-white view of the world that gamers, and game developers, have thrived on over the years.

But some, like Gonzalo Frasca, are looking at getting more out of games.

News influences

A games developer from Uruguay, he studied computer science in the US. Once he graduated, he landed a job writing for CNN's Spanish language website.

While he was working there, he came up with the idea of making computer games tied to current events.

"They're kind of a half-breed between political cartoons and games," he said.

"You have to capture the essence of the moment, you can't elaborate very much on it."

Mr Frasca moved back to Uruguay in 2002, where he and a group of friends set up a site called newsgaming.com

By early 2003, the team already had an idea for their first online "newsgame".

Titled September 12th, it was based on the US-led invasion of Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks.

"It looks just like a shooting game," explained Mr Frasca.

"You have this view from the air, and you have this Middle Eastern town, and you have this target.

"You see civilians walking on the streets, and these little black and white characters that are supposed to be terrorists."

No win situation

The game has some straightforward instructions. Players can shoot, or not. If you decide to shoot, a missile will smash into the targeted area.

You may kill some terrorists but there is a catch - you will almost certainly kill innocent civilians too.

"What happens is when you kill a civilian, you destroy the houses and environment, but then you see people coming by the dead bodies and they start crying," said Mr Frasca.

"After a while, they transform themselves into terrorists. So, the more you shoot, and the more you destroy, you may kill terrorists, but you will encourage more and more people to become terrorists."

In other words, September 12th is a game you cannot win.

In spite of this, hundreds of thousands of people across the globe have played the game.

They have spread the word about it through online forums and chatrooms.

Teaching tool

For some, games like September 12th herald a new era in gaming.

"Digital media, and particularly digital media of a game simulation type, is going to become one of our staple kinds of expressive media," said Noah Wardrip-Fruin, co-editor of First Person, a book on computer games.

"Newsgaming, instead of some kind of passing fad, is just the tip of the iceberg.

"We're going to see a lot more types of expression that use things we're used to seeing in games, but using them in ways that the normal gaming industry wouldn't see as a market opportunity."

Some players love September 12th. They see it as a great teaching tool about the war on terror.

Others hate it, either because they cannot win, or because they feel it dishonours those who died on 11 September.

The team behind the game welcome the resulting debate.

"We're happy when people agree with us, but we're even happier if this can trigger interest in international politics," said Mr Frasca.

The team have already developed a second game commemorating the attacks in Spain on 11 March earlier this year.

Just called Madrid, a silent computer screen shows a group of people holding lighted candles.

The people wear T-shirts reading, "I Love Madrid", "I Love New York" and "I Love Baghdad", - all places where terror has struck.

Your task is to move your mouse and click on as many candles as possible.

When you click on a candle, the flame burns brighter for a brief period of time. The object is simply to create as much light as possible.



http://news.bbc.co.u...ogy/3653294.stm

"What happens is when you kill a civilian, you destroy the houses and environment, but then you see people coming by the dead bodies and they start crying," said Mr Frasca.

"After a while, they transform themselves into terrorists. So, the more you shoot, and the more you destroy, you may kill terrorists, but you will encourage more and more people to become terrorists."

Sounds like what the left have been arguing in current affairs all along.

[Janiel]

i, for one, actually like that idea.
it sounds like it makes for a very interesting game...

[Talon]

There are some people out there who I think should be FORCED to play it

[Arashi Ravenblade]

Neat.

[Seraphina]

this does sound like a very good idea indeed....and perhaps having such an interactive role in it will better demonstrate the point, rather than simply having it explained.

I've tried to explain myself over, and over and over that the manner in which we've tried to deal with terrorists is just going to lead to more of them...every single time I'm accused of being a coward, or a lefty (is a lefty as it happens, and is proud of it).

And I agree with Tal...I can think of a few people who really should be playing it Not that they'd get the message

[Seraphina]

http://www.newsgamin...mes/index12.htm


I encourage everyone to play it....see if you get the message.

[Blood Angel]

I just played that, its fairly accurate to iraq, and the continuing violence in israel.

[Celumnaz]

Just played it. Man that was kinda fun! And so one sided!

What would have made it better, is if as I was playing it some terrorists came into my house and blew themselves up.
Why are those cowards hiding behind innocent women and children trying to peacefully go about their business?

Most important,
Why doesn't it accurately show what happens when you don't shoot back?

I guess some things are just to hard to program.

These people are tyrants, murderers, they mutilate humans... where's the comassionate people crying out against that? Where are the womens rights activists all ticked off when a boss says 'you're looking pretty today hon'?

Why doesn't it show them stealing aid intended for the people to support their holy war. They're holy war. They're war. The war they took to us over years that we never responded to with force?

Mostly, instead of the usual them shooting first from a temple or behind children like it really happens, these cartoons don't shoot at all, they don't take their people hostages, and it's tough to hit a dog in that game.

[Erikl]

Although it does sound like a game which expresses exactly what the left says - it's all that, a game.
The truth is that it's not really a game too, it's an animation which you play based on a known script.
The problem is, that in reality there is no such thing.
This game is, unfurtunately, more of a propaganda tool than a real intelligent game.
I mean, you already know the script - you try to take out terrorists, only you kill civilians, and they become terrorists.
But this script is based on a certain political view.
What if, for example, you do not kill civilians?
Would they still cry for the terrorist's death?
Certainly.
But doesn't that mean that there's something wrong in those civilians' minds?
Also, this game doesn't offer a real strategy to fight terrorism.

This is why it isn't a real game - it's as political and black-and-whitish as Medal of Honour is claimed to be in this article.

And the fact that certain people with certain political agendas are pushing this game and prepare comments in advance to people who will reject it, just proves this.

This game could have been a good one if it wasn't so political and one-sided.

If you are an anti-war-on-terrorism kind of person, you'll enjoy this game very much.
But if you understand that this game is nothing but a propaganda tool, or a political criticism, and doesn't offer real solutions on how to deal with terrorism, only criticise the fight against terror, then you'll get it pretty fast.

Other than that - everyone are welcome to play it.
After all - it is just a game. Nothing to take serious.

[Talon]

.... knew you'd say that

[Erikl]

.... knew you'd say that

Knew you would responde like that...

[Talon]

We know each other so well

[Seraphina]

If you are an anti-war-on-terrorism kind of person, you'll enjoy this game very much.
But if you understand that this game is nothing but a propaganda tool, or a political criticism, and doesn't offer real solutions on how to deal with terrorism, only criticise the fight against terror, then you'll get it pretty fast.

I don't think you'll find anyone in the western world who is "anit war on terror" Erikl...clearly, you've missed the point

The game underlines the commonplace objection to the METHOD of the war...the very same analogy I've used, of using a broadsword to try and cut a tumour of a patient. All that ends up occuring is doing more harm than good.

If any take on the war on terror is black and white, it's your own. You believe that blowing up terrorists will end terrorism...all it does is make more. That's not a supposition, it's a fact. If my family was killed by an occupation force, then the first thing I'd do is get a gun, and try and get them out of my country.

Terrorism needs to be ended by, for one thing, being far more selective in how we remove them....dropping bombs into traffic, or sending a cruise missile into the middle of a street, as your own country has been known to do, is not the best solution in the world If you want to kill a terrorist, kill the terrorist; not the terrorist and everyone standing around him.

Secondly, the reason for terrorism needs to be addressed....last time I checked, your government had begun to make some moves towards this, which is, at the very least, a start.

Blasting a group of people over and over in the hope of killing a minority group (that being the terrorists), destroying their homes, their families, and their livelyhoods, is not the answer. If you honestly believe it is, then it scares me that your country has put a gun in your hands and taught you to use it.

[Xenojjin]

why dont we just snipe them as opposed to using rockets ? Have our troops grown so cowardly that they must save their own lives with modern technology at the cost of civilians ?

A better solution though would be to try spamming them with anti islam-fundamentalist propaganda and get them to see that islam isnt about blowing yourself up for virgins .

[Seraphina]

why dont we just snipe them as opposed to using rockets ? Have our troops grown so cowardly that they must save their own lives with modern technology at the cost of civilians ?

That is a question I've asked myself many times....sometimes, it seems like the very strategy to kill these people isn't DESIGNED to cause as much civilian death as possible