Owing to spectacular speculative reactions from reactionary types in a typical fashion, Konami have decided to pull their support for the upcoming Six Days in Fallujah, currently being developed by Atomic Games.
One more tally mark for the column entitled ‘things that we expected to happen, but kind of hoped wouldn't as it's a bit of a rash, daft and kneejerk decision, much like the reactions of those who commented on the story to the usual tabloid rags’.
we're working on the title of that column.
But why did Six Days in Fallujah kick up such a fuss in world where games like Call of Duty, Full Spectrum Warrior and America's Army are allowed to go on existing?
It's not like they were making a game where a world-famous rap star goes around ?THE MIDDLE EAST? killing foreigners because they stole some of his sparkly goods in what would appear to be a complete flippant slap in the face to the soldiers and civilians involved in conflicts in the region, is it?
That kind of thing would be sure to be banned following an extreme backlash from the readers of the Daily Mail… right?
Oh no, wait.
No; instead a game that would ? according to the PR guff ? cover the events of the US Army?s battles in the Iraqi city in a fashion allowing simple gamers to see what things were actually like for the soldiers, the people and the insurgents has had its publishing support pulled.
Realism, respect and a lesson in the abhorrence of war. Nah, we don't want that in video games, do we?
Sergeant Kevin Smith, a former soldier himself, said these words:
“Let it be made, and hopefully it will bolster support for military veterans by giving civilians insight into what this war was actually like for them.”
But no ? instead of potentially offering gamers a genuine and mature take on real-world events, released through a major publisher and offered to as many people as possible, the game gets edged closer to the scrapheap thanks to popular, idiotic, opinion.
As Konami did gone say:
“After seeing the reaction to the videogame in the United States and hearing opinions sent through phone calls and e-mail, we decided several days ago not to sell it.”
So hey, let's stick with our fictional wars in ?THE MIDDLE EAST?, let's keep to our rappists shooting non-English speakers for reasons of greed and street-cred (or whatever it's called) and let's stick to our ridiculously disgusting recruiting tools for the armed forces aimed at 14-year-old boys.
They?re clearly a far healthier option than a (potentially) mature, deep and realistic take on a divisive and destructive conflict. Let's leave that to the real artforms like books and cinema to take on, shall we?
It's not like this medium needs to grow or anything. Sigh…
THIS WEEK: In preparation for the impending apocalypse at the combined hands of the credit crunch and swine flu, we revisited Fallout 3 for a training session. Does anybody know anywhere in Britain that offers Alien Blaster repair services and ammunition? It pays to be prepared.
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Ironlung says
holy shit that soldier is playing xbox!!?? JOIN ME JOIN MEUP!
aiming recruitment films at the elderly doesnt work so well. all they are really good for is cannon fodder. like the english for the americans (im sorry…..i just…im sorry)
LasVegasTVShow says
hahahahaha no thanks… I’ll play from home.
Tom J says
Funnily enough, it’s generally not cool to make war games about wars that are still in progress. You want to know the difference between this game and Call of Duty? Might be something to do with the fact that World War 2 was over 60 years ago.
Also, I find it very unlikely that you get “to see what things were actually like for the soldiers, the people and the insurgents”? Can you play as Iraqis and blow the shit out of Americans? Can you play as civilians, make your own IEDs then hide in the bushes for an hour before triggering it on some unsuspecting US convoy? Damn, I really hope so…
Ian Dransfield says
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare isn’t a WWII game, nor is Modern Warfare 2. Hard to believe, but they were the titles I was referencing.
The Dread Pirate Sausage! says
It occurs to me no one made a fuss about the 50 Cent game because…50 Cent sucks ass.
No one cared.
I think the problem is the capitalizing on a current war in which people are coming home veggies and whatnot. And these people aren’t going to get a cut of the money made by the game makers.
That’s a little on the sh*tty side of things, IMHO.
That said, American capitalism is boundless classlessness. Seriously. People need to know when to stop.