Night of Bush Capture - the other side of the coin
In the name of research for my thesis, and at great personal risk to my sense of security and privacy (the NSA, HS, FBI, CIA and a guy named Bob are now no doubt watching my every online activity) I got my hands on a copy of “Night of Bush Capture” released by the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF) - who I need to find out more about - and played through the first 30 seconds of the game.
From reading other “reviews” of the game, my general understanding is that you have to find and kill George Bush, Tony Blair, and various other decadent western evil types.
For my interests, however, I’m more interested in the language used, representation of the enemy other, game mechanics and in game graphics.
My favorite two notables of my 30 seconds of gameplay are the replacement of “Loading” with “Jihad Beginning” and the fact that US soldiers take only 1 shot to kill.
two possible mesages intended by these: jihad, much like the game, required the player to kill in order to win, that killing is the only way to win and that anyone who gets in your way will try to kill you unless you kill them first. A fairly simple message, standard accross most games in this genre where choices are limited to shoot now or shoot later.
the second message which is more subtle is that us soldiers are not as strong as you, the jihadist. Now, I am in no way claiming that anyone would be naive enough to think that they could take multiple shots without any noticable effects where as us soldiers will die at a single shot in the leg, but it gives the overall impression that jihad is easy, the jihadist is superior not only in cause but also in physical ability and that enemies will simply roll over infront of you.
I do not subscribe to the camp that says “violence is caused by video games” nor do I believe that the “it’s just a game, let it be” camp is facing reality. Games plant ideas, in the same way stories have for millenia. By looking at the stories games people play tell we can perhaps begin to understand a part of the prevailing mentality, atmosphere and attitudes of different sides of similar conflicts.
dont know why this was here, or why or when i forgot to hit publish, but here it is in its possibly unfinished form
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Communalism, not just an Indian Phenomenon
OK, so this may seem way way off topic (and it is a bit) but my other area of interest is Development Studies in South Asia (I officially study socio-political development and underdevelopment in rural India).
One of the many areas which fascinate me about India is the ‘phenomenon’ of Communalism. To simplify - the antagonism and polarization of various communities along perceived identity lines, often resulting in violence and often identified with religious and/or ethnic groups.
It’s just really interesting stuff, particularly the creation of these groups and antagonisms.
I’m posting this here because it is interesting, in my mind, to compare the real world politics of ethnic outbidding and communal violence with emergent game play, guild politics and game system design. How long will it be before the role-play of antagonism between guilds takes on more of a Communal dimension. If Spillover to physical spaces happens in economics and individual cases, will we see the political/communal spill over in group/guild cases at some point?
What lessons are there to be learned from the physical world? Is it the responsibility of game companies to watch for tell tale signs or is it “just a game” with a game company who is just out to make money for its stock holders?
The paper feels more like an extended introduction than a full argument, and it might be used as that in a later paper, but here it is in it’s current form:
Communalism: British Creation, Indian Perpetuation
To Masters or Not to Masters…
So, interesting chat with the Graduate adviser here at NUS. Seems I would have “little trouble” being accepted to the Communications and New Media graduate programme here if I applied. I’d get to write on virtual world politics and community management, get paid (not much) and get credit for it and more importantly, I’d get to focus on it rather than my other love (Indian socio-political development) which I have spent the last 5 years or so on.
The Singapore gov’t is throwing money at research into New Media here too, so lots of funding for weird and wonderful projects, equipment and labs to be had.
But then, if I do this it means a hold on the motorcycle-across-the-world plans and the paying-of-the-student-debt necessity which are getting rather urgent.
Ah choices choices, I do hate making them for myself.
EverLab: Using Virtual Worlds as Testbeds of Social Science Theory
This is a paper I wrote for a course on Information Societies. While it wasnt AS related to the course as it could have been it is an interesting thought to design virtual worlds specifically to test certain theories that governments use on a daily basis without actually knowing what the outcomes might be. A few people have attempted to create such worlds, but none on a scale which would provide the kind of results which would be useful. For that to happen, the world would have to be a game, marketed as such and designed in a way which the main reason people participate is because they want to be there, not because they care about the outcomes.
Lets face it, commercial endeavours are much better at getting mass particiaption than research projects - even if one is pay-to-play while the other might be pay-you-to-play .
Just another reason for academics and industry to collaborate.
Generation (O)utsource: The impact of outsourcing on middle class Indian youth
A paper on outsourcing might seem a little odd here, but seeing as all community management, story writing and game mastering could potentially be outsourced to India (or another country) understanding the social impacts of the industry are vital to understanding the politics and design implimentation of moving to an outsourced back-office.
After all, if we are looking at the politics and impacts of community formation in-game, we should look at the same in the out-game which surrounds it.
Computer Games and their (potential) Role in Intl. Development Policy
This was more of a brain fart than an anything meaningful, but here it is anyway.
This serves as a starting point for why games might be important when thinking about Development Policies at a governmental level. I am not implying that games directly impact politicians, but rather public opinion can be shaped and changed through the portrayal of events, theories and skills which players are otherwise unfamiliar with and are then faced with in the physical world.