04.07.09 FALLUJAH VIDEO GAME MAKES ME CONFLICTED
We occasionally bend the definition of “sports” to take a look at video games here, and today the off-topic focus is on Atomic Games and Konami, which are making Six Days in Fallujah, a third-person shooter in which players adopt the roles of real Marines who were in the battle of Fallujah in 2004. From the LA Times:
The idea for the game… came from U.S. Marines who returned from the battle with video, photos and diaries of their experiences. Instead of dialing up Steven Spielberg to make a movie version of their stories, they turned to Atomic Games, a company in Raleigh, N.C., that makes combat simulation software for the military… “The soldiers wanted to tell their stories through a game because that’s what they grew up playing,” said John Choon, senior brand manager for the game at Konami Digital Entertainment.
One is Mike Ergo, who was in a Marine infantry battalion during the battle in [Fallujah] and is a consultant on the game. “Video games can communicate the intensity and the gravity of war to an audience who wouldn’t necessarily be watching the History Channel or reading about this in the classroom,” said Ergo, now 26 and a junior at the University of California at Berkeley. “In an age when everyone’s always online or playing games, people’s imaginations aren’t what they were, sadly. For this group, books may not convey the same level of intensity and chaos of war that a game can.”
I dunno. As much as I keep reading compelling essays about how video games are the next great platform for story-telling — the new wave to unseat books/movies/TV — I’m still not really comfortable with people getting entertainment from a battle where people I know (for example) lost an eye to an RPG and got shot in the arm. But then, maybe that’s just a sign I’m getting old.
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There are 9 comments about:
FALLUJAH VIDEO GAME MAKES ME CONFLICTED
It makes one feel better to believe that you can change the outcome of past events.
Perhaps as well it will teach historical and tactical lessons to our children in the coming War on Robots.
I’ve certainly got a boner right now.
This is Fallujah shit.
Press A to be greeted as liberators.
Badass
guy hurting himself…roid speculation…video games…any chance of seeing some actual, real-life, tangible SPORTS on this supposed sports blog? Or has Walter Sobchak taken over for the week?
They should come up with some kind of rumble pack that makes you feel actual pain when your character gets shot.
I don’t get it, where are all the Red Falcon guys in that shot?
i disagree with ergo. fallujah is not “game” material. it began when four american contractors who were delivering food were pulled from their cars, beaten, set on fire, then drug through the streets before eventually being hung publicly from a bridge. all non-combatants were asked to leave the city or travel to designated safe zones. the marines then were given the task of clearing the city of all hostility at the cost of 100 american lives. 1400 insurgents were killed. many of whom were not iragi; simply there to kill americans. most of the city was destroyed leaving the majority pro-american populous without schools, homes, etc. this was not a “war game”. those wishing to experience “the intensity and the gravity of war” should suit up.
“Some people live an entire lifetime and wonder if they have made a difference to the world, but the Marines don’t have that problem.”
-Ronald Reagan
I’ll now step off my soap box as i am close to level 65 in call of duty and I can’t wait to get the flamethrower.
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