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.
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).
...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