Slashdot Mirror
Iraq - The Computer Game
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out the Slate article called Iraq: The Computer Game, and subtitled "What 'virtual world' games can teach the real world about reconstructing Iraq." Written in a similar vein to an MSNBC article we covered a few weeks back, it looks in a bit more detail at how simulations "may offer useful lessons for rebuilding broken nations in the real world", mentioning the recent news that virtual world company There Inc. has been commissioned to create anti-terrorist training simulations, as well as Richard 'Lord British' Garriott's suggestion that "..games do clarify the essential rules for stabilizing a chaotic society."
. . . if it has a mushroom cloud button like "Lemmings".
One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
Global Deception, the information warfare game?
Rebuild Baghdad! Construct vast palaces and bunker networks! Make money from selling oil to France! Destroy the infidels with sand storms! All this and more in SimIraq 2003! Reserve your copy today!
There's an easter egg if you find the Weapons of Mass Destruction.
"Derp de derp."
Couldn't someone have just bought El Busho a copies of C&C Generals and SimCity? (in that order).
It would be a 1st person shooter. Mow down all the Hajis!
Dead Iraqi soldier 100 points.
Dead Iraqi male civilian 200 points.
Dead Iraqi female civilian 300 points.
Dead Iraqi child 500 points! Dead ragheads! Yeehah!
Once they are all dead, you help steal the oil.
How ya like dat?
...Use the shoe or the shovel to attack Allied troops at the Baghdad airport and they will commit suicide for triple points.
The whole game could play just like the classic "Rampart" except with a twist:
You play as the United "Coalition of One" States. First, in phase one, you send bricks and weapons to build the country and support the dictator. In phase 2, you bomb the piss out of them, then in phase 3 you rebuild with blocks, and score bonus points when you surround an oil well, installing puppet governments et cetera. After 60 seconds of building, the political climate changes and then you bomb them again!
There could be online play where you argue with other countries about who gets to do the bobmbing, and with expansion packs you can add other exciting locals like Cuba! Which would play the same except your trying to capture bananas and cigars or something.
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
Friends! Americans! Countrymen! Lend us your code! I come to bury Saddam, not to praise him.
Seriously: the Slate article suggests that Slashdotters could code and contribute to the peace effort in Iraq. Plotz describes a needed update/upgrade to Kingmaker, an old 1970's computer game. Assuming someone could get rights (or reverse-engineer what must be a reasonably simple game, considering that it's a board game), what are the chances that someone could make an open-source version of what DoD and our friends in Iraq need?
Your friendly neighborhood nitpicker
This is a great idea, but all joking aside it would most likely -not- prosper. First, there's too much in the way of sardonic treatment of the subject: the above posts, for one. Secondly...although Garriott's right on his point, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to define it as anything more than a loose simulation -- there's no way any game can incorporate every aspect of micromanagement and resources.
And what prospering game junkie would buy something titled "Iraq: Reconstruction" or the like?
As for stabilization, I hate to imagine what the state of Iraq if computer games were an accure depiction of reality. Ultima Online or Everquest, anyone? I'd hardly describe those as bastions of law and order.
Computer games might have some things similar with reality, but if you're going to use them for training, do it on either a smaller scale or a larger one.
I've noticed a lot of SimCity'ism in America's local governments over the years. 'Let's build a stadium to attact tourist' etc. For lack of an intellegent solution or really thinking about problems they resort to a 'Keep building' approch. I am certain there is a Modified copy of SimCity running even as we speak. It's a multi-player game online with players like, Dick 'the Trick' Cheney, and the execs at Haliburton. It only works then the city is virtual.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
Despite the fact that play hasn't completed, Iraq - The Computer Game will have an even more limited lifespan then that Afganasomething game. The people just want to play the Scott Peterson game, so that is all they will have until the Vietnam II mod becomes available for the Iraq game.