We’re never sure about games about wars. When we were kids, games with war-related themes tended to restrict themselves to portraying wars from the distant past (1942, Wolfenstein) and imaginary conflicts (Ikari Warriors, Operation Wolf). In any case, technological constraints prevented the games from being too sophisticated or realistic, and so they were not criticised: well, at least not by us – we were eight.
Now, with three dimensions the standard and consoles and graphics cards ever more sophisticated, it’s no longer technology but imagination that limits what worlds can be made in videogames. The number of games offering their own interpretations of that most lamentable of human pastimes - war - increases every week. Games publishers act a little like a herd, and different wars have had their turn as flavour of the month – Vietnam, The Gulf War, and most persistently World War II. Is there any war too recent to be made into a game? Hardly. Games set in the Gulf, Afghanistan, Somalia and Lebanon are increasingly common. The US Army itself released a videogame as a recruitment tool.
These days the ‘War on Terror’ is the most common excuse for the commencement of hostilities. And the worldwide crusade is considered fair game (ahem) by publishers too. Scheduled for release early next year is War On Terror, the latest effort from the Hungarian developers Digital Reality, the people that brought you Desert Rats vs. Afrika Corps. A real-time strategy game which challenges you to address the worldwide threat of terror with a capital ‘T’, the game will be co-published by Koch Media (Deep Silver) and Monte Cristo. Yes, a German publisher and a French publisher!
In a slow week for games news, why not take part in a little moral debate? Are world events in which real people die suitable material for games which bored, spoilt westerners play? Or could games be a way of exploring and debating serious global issues? Let us know, if you like, in the forum.
Now, with three dimensions the standard and consoles and graphics cards ever more sophisticated, it’s no longer technology but imagination that limits what worlds can be made in videogames. The number of games offering their own interpretations of that most lamentable of human pastimes - war - increases every week. Games publishers act a little like a herd, and different wars have had their turn as flavour of the month – Vietnam, The Gulf War, and most persistently World War II. Is there any war too recent to be made into a game? Hardly. Games set in the Gulf, Afghanistan, Somalia and Lebanon are increasingly common. The US Army itself released a videogame as a recruitment tool.
These days the ‘War on Terror’ is the most common excuse for the commencement of hostilities. And the worldwide crusade is considered fair game (ahem) by publishers too. Scheduled for release early next year is War On Terror, the latest effort from the Hungarian developers Digital Reality, the people that brought you Desert Rats vs. Afrika Corps. A real-time strategy game which challenges you to address the worldwide threat of terror with a capital ‘T’, the game will be co-published by Koch Media (Deep Silver) and Monte Cristo. Yes, a German publisher and a French publisher!
In a slow week for games news, why not take part in a little moral debate? Are world events in which real people die suitable material for games which bored, spoilt westerners play? Or could games be a way of exploring and debating serious global issues? Let us know, if you like, in the forum.
Companies:
Deep Silver
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Comments
OptimusP 12 Oct 2005 17:59
1/4
Where's superman when you need him he...
DoctorDee 13 Oct 2005 11:08
2/4
There is no war on terror.
On one side there is a set of people who have been disenfranchised by global events that treat them as commodities. By governments who see their lands not as homes to countless peoples, but as nothing more than dirt covering vast mineral wealth.
On the other side, you have governments who need to keep the voters compliant and unthinking, by creating an enemy. Used to be communism, now it's Muslims.
If you take away a mans voice, he will find some other way to be heard.
On one side there is a set of people who have been disenfranchised by global events that treat them as commodities. By governments who see their lands not as homes to countless peoples, but as nothing more than dirt covering vast mineral wealth.
On the other side, you have governments who need to keep the voters compliant and unthinking, by creating an enemy. Used to be communism, now it's Muslims.
If you take away a mans voice, he will find some other way to be heard.
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Greg2k 13 Oct 2005 14:36
3/4
I personally think the best videogames ever made are based on fictional stories and there's hardly ever a real-world connection at all in them. I understand making games with ties to the real world sells rather well, but I still prefer games where I have to save a princess from an evil monster than trying to do what I see others do in the 9 o'clock news.
I think software that falls under this category should be called 'simulations' more than games.
I think software that falls under this category should be called 'simulations' more than games.
Pilot13 13 Oct 2005 23:57
4/4
There is no war on terror.
On one side there is a set of people who have been disenfranchised by global events that treat them as commodities. By governments who see their lands not as homes to countless peoples, but as nothing more than dirt covering vast mineral wealth.
On the other side, you have governments who need to keep the voters compliant and unthinking, by creating an enemy. Used to be communism, now it's Muslims.
If you take away a mans voice, he will find some other way to be heard.
On one side there is a set of people who have been disenfranchised by global events that treat them as commodities. By governments who see their lands not as homes to countless peoples, but as nothing more than dirt covering vast mineral wealth.
On the other side, you have governments who need to keep the voters compliant and unthinking, by creating an enemy. Used to be communism, now it's Muslims.
If you take away a mans voice, he will find some other way to be heard.
Did you happen to catch that documentary on BBC called 'The Power of Nightmares'? Basically the neo-conservatives built up a vision of America as the ultimate force for good in the world and Communism as the ultimate evil. It also charted the rise of the islamic fundamentalists.