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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