9/11 - The Game.

First things first; I realise there are people on this site who are quite rational people up until someone mentions 9/11, and their brains run away from them and are immediately swept up with feelings of anger, patriotism and sadness or whatever. I call it stupidity. Please don't make this thread be for debating over what happened on 9/11; only this game.

Anyway, I was reading through the latest copy of Edge (very much respected gaming site here in the UK), and they had an article on a group of people who'd made a mod for Unreal Tournament based around 9/11. For anyone interested and for the sake of this topic, the address is http://kinematic.org/911.html

I quote from the said article:

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Edge said:

On seeing a firstperson shooter at a demo day last year, a curious Edge asked the developer how it felt about profiting from a situation in which lots of people died. Its response was that this could be seen as both entertainment and education; that by painting very real interactive pictures, people could understand the horror of the events, and the bravery of those who experienced them. Or, to put it another way, videogames can take the role of a modern day encyclopedia, allowing situations otherwise ethereal, bringing them to people who otherwise might never know.

No space for complex moral debate here; is it disgusting to base a game around the destruction of the World Trade Center, or could it be seen as a tribute? Could it show with terrifying - and perspective shifting - clarity some of the horror of those events, make them more real to those whom it's just a spectacular special effect, or is it as morally outrageous to recreate the death of some 3,000 people for free as it is to make money from the thousands who died in the D-Day landings?

9-11 Survivor is an Unreal Tournament 2003 mod which traps players on random levels of the burning building and challenges them to escape. The catch? Sometimes there's no way out, and gamers have to decide whether to perish in the flames or throw themselves from the upper levels. "Luck decided who lived and who died in the World Trader Center," the website reads. "and [so it will] in 9-11 Survivor."

Disgusting? Misguided? Hoax? Possibly all three, but the questions it provokes are still unanswered.

Click to expand...

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Edge's points about making money from games like Medal of Honor who effectively deal with similar issues of war and death is also interesting. I was playing on a demo of Conflict: Desert Storm II on my Xbox earlier this evening, and whilst I was killing Iraqi soliders with an assault rifle, it made me wonder; what if a game was released in which the gamer would play the role of an Iraqi Republican Guard soldier whose duty was to kill American soliders and eliminate these "invaders" from "your" country? Would their be outrage, and could that outrage be justified? Or would it merely be two-faced, mindless violence? As in, switch the roles and it would be okay. After all, a game called Freedom Fighters has been released in which a gamer plays the role of Americans who must reclaim their city from invading Soviet Forces. Is that okay, but my fictional proposed game in which killing Americans not so okay?

Your thoughts on these issues? Are we attempting to stick to what we see as morally right, but are we in the process being too narrow minded as to what we so and what we don't see as acceptable?

EDIT: Fixed quote problem, thanks Lightning.

Quotes don't work unless you go {quote=source}quote{/quote} with [], of course. x_X; I dunno why. :o

Anyway, that's a pretty good point. I've often found that many (but not all) Americans are overly patriotic. x_x; I agree that there would probably be a lot of controversey on a game in which Americans were the victims. But how is it any different from current games like the one you were playing? x_X; Same general plot, except with the tables turned. T'would be interesting.

I only read some of it and I am appaled! It's sicking!

That idea is just sickens me.. I dunno why they make a game that based on 1,000,000 INNOCENT people died, airplane crashing into the building... etc. This really sickens me if you like this game. We as america will never forget 9/11 and we will never forget it as a sad day.

Hmm, as of now, the 9-11 game apalls us, but in 10 years, no one will care cause it'll be as old as all the WW2 first person shooters (and there are a LOT) and all those games depicting pearl harbor...what about GTA vice city?

BOO ya!

SuperPsycoDragoniteLover said:

I only read some of it and I am appaled! It's sicking!

Click to expand...

Do you feel as passionately as that about all games involving war you see?

Laden just said in a tape released today:

"On the second anniversary of the raids on New York and Washington we challenge America and its crusade, which is teetering from its wounds in Afghanistan and Iraq," the speaker says. "We tell them that we do not seek to kill, but we will chop off the hand which seeks to inflict harm on us, God willing."

Click to expand...

One it is not a crusade as the war is not holy. Two, they attacked first. Until 9/11, we didn't lay a hand on them.

DS / StarCaliber said:

Do you feel as passionately as that about all games involving war you see?

Click to expand...

No, it's just I basicly lived at teh World Trade Center, my dad used to work there (he lived), and I know a lot of people that, died that day.

"We shall never forget September 11th, 2001."
~Unkown

Well, you see how many innocent people died on 9/11. It's very sad. Alot of families lost their loveones because of this. So noone should forget 9/11. Tell what happened to your children when you become old. Then the children can understand what really happened that was sad to the children.

I say we hunt down and kill all terrorists like the dogs they are! Wait a minute that would be an insult to canines so instead I should say "like the barbarians they are."

I saw this elsewhere on one of the FPS forums I visit... When I saw that, I was quite shocked and angered at how somebody could actually make something like this... I know its important to remember, but we don't have to relive it!
OK, since I can't seem to find my original post on the other forum, I'll just end it here (I'll quote it if I can find it)

This game gonna be kawaii ^^; Imamage if your Osamu, you have to order some soliders to hijack all around the world by firing all officials...hehehe

I think the poll is a little misguiding. It should've asked whether it is Wrong to make a game.
Some people can feel that, while a game of this nature isn't right, it isn't wrong either.
Just a thought.

Haruka said:

That idea is just sickens me.. I dunno why they make a game that based on 1,000,000 INNOCENT people died, airplane crashing into the building... etc. This really sickens me if you like this game. We as america will never forget 9/11 and we will never forget it as a sad day.

Click to expand...

Unless I've been getting the wrong statistics up here in Canada, millions of people didn't die from 9/11. o.o And also, what about all the innocent people who die in wars like most war games are based on. If they can't make a game about 9/11, I don't think they should be able to make any games with violence that could affect others.

I know that 9/11 was a big shock for people - and I'm sure it still is. It's only been two short years since it occured, but honestly people, there are worse things that could happen. o.o Be glad you're not staging a war in your home country or something.

War games are history which shows battles which countries are proud to have won. A terrorist attack has no pride in it, just hate and anguish. Wars of course have this too, but it's the pride that a country won a fight which helped everyone. Thats what makes shooting Nazi's enjoyable, as it is a remake of the 'fighting for good' feature of a war. Is it fair to make a game which has nothing good about it. I mean it sounds intriguing, don't get me wrong, it's just not fair to make money out of something so wrong. Also i have played and enjoyed many a violent game like MoH:FL. But to make money out of a needless attack.....it's not right. Isn't it almost helping the terrorists! It's helping publisise them. Do we really want that?
btw I'm english not american, so this is really an 'outsiders' view

I come from forums built on snide, sarcastic, offensive humor and they all think this game is hilarious.

No offense to Haruka or anyone else but they said the same "never forget" stuff about Pearl Harbor, and you don't see anyone from this generation really caring about that. 9/11 will be forgotten just like every other tragedy in history, and children will neither care nor understand. Why push it on them? Why would you want the whole world to stay sad about it?

I wasn't involved and I don't personally know anyone who was, so I felt pretty much nothing when it happened other than the sheer surprise of the event itself occuring. You have every right to be outraged and hurt if you were somehow connected to it, but I'm pretty tired of people insisting that if I'm american, I'm obligated to have cried over it, when it's not like I can force myself to care. I think it would be a lot worse if I tried to fake it like the rest of america with their memorial bumper stickers and T-shirts and similarly empty gestures (no offense to people who really mean it when they hang up flags and stuff, but you all know there are millions who were/are doing it just thoughtlessly)

....which of course, is just what this game is. It's obviously a joke (the developers are probably the same school of people from my usual forum I mentioned) crudely disguised as a tribute. I'm incapable of being offended by the media so I don't care either way, but I won't be playing it...it's pretty lame.

What would be the point of the 9-11 game anyway...it's not like you can win or anything if they want to make it realistic...

SHIKES!