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Games based around realistic, modern, combat rightly seek to have a story line that seems right off the CNN ticker. And sometimes it doesn’t go well. Six Days in Fallujah, a game based around the bloody combat that took place in that Iraqi city, being made in extensive consultation of dozens of Marines, active and retired, many of whom fought in Fallujah, was dropped by the publisher, Konami.
The controversy was huge, and the developer, Atomic Games, has been looking for another publisher since (see this article for the difference between developers and publishers). Based on the number of military personal working on the game, and that the game had only just been announced and little about it beyond the title was known, it seemed to be a pretty big jump to make the assumptions many political groups made. While a television show or movie could be expected to treat the Iraq war with the utmost respect, a video game would automatically be “glorifying,” “trivialized,” “an extremely flippant response,” and that “to capitalize on the death and injury of thousands is sick.”
The flack interestingly came from very dissimilar sources. Veterans’ and anti-war groups both toted out their spokespeople, deciding that someone making a video game about the war was a larger issue than the mundane goings on of the actual war. Tansy E Hoskins of Stop The War, who knew the game would be “sick” just days after it was announced, knows all kinds of interesting things, like “The American led assault on Fallujah pretended there were no civilians left in the city. Although 60 000 refugees were able to flee, over 50 000 people remained in their homes and took the brunt of the violence and chemical weapons.” (Tech Report)
You would think that accusing the organized army of a democratic nation of using chemical weapons on civilians would be a show stopper. You would think the Veterans’ groups would be rather displeased. But when a video game is involved, things like war crimes apparently take a back seat.
