Slashdot Mirror
Operation Iraqi Freedom - The Game
Thanks to the Dallas Business Journal for a brief article announcing the release of F/A 18: Operation Iraqi Freedom, an Atari-distributed PC flight combat game that's just about to ship, less than 4 months after the start of the real-life campaign. The game's official website has more information on the title, which allows you to "..jump through your television directly into.. the F/A-18 Hornet.. load up with precision guided munitions and bring the forces of freedom to bear on the Iraqi regime of terror." And yes, this upgrade of GraphSim's earlier popular F/A 18 Hornet flight sim really does exhort you to "Kick Some Ba'ath" on the features section of its site.
Sad, and disturbing. Sad because, once again, game companies are exploiting jingoism to sell games. Disturbing, because whatever popularity this game amasses may bleed over into the Bush Administration's efforts to hide the truth.
I wonder if the game will mention the civilian casualties caused by the bomb-dropping. On a much more serious and perhaps even scary note, I wonder if the game will have missions to "destroy the weapons of mass destruction" and then reward the player with feedback indicating that yes, indeed, weapons of mass destruction were destroyed. If so- *if*- then I am saddened to think that the game will further contribute to the misinformation that many Americans still suffer from.
Heare are the leaked cheat codes.
Type IDONTGIVEASHITTOTHERESTOFTHEWORLD to toggle God Mode on.
Type IDOGIVEASHITTOTHERESTOFTHEWORLD to plant fake nukes and bombs, so they can be found.
Type F117 for stealth mode
Type ELECTIONSAPPROACHING to have access to all budget, all weapons, ammo and 200% armor
Type CHEMICALWEAPONSHOAX to get beserk strength
Type IAMSADDAM to get temporary invisibility
Type IAMTIRAQIINFORMATIONMINISTER to boost the mood of your troops
To be really realistic, when you win the game, you should be required to buy and play an endless series of "occupation" games!
The Sims Hosed Economy expansion pack.
You'd get laid off and watch CNN all day. You'd get
to do awesome stuff like hunt for jobs with 750
million other players. You'd get to watch the
Gov't spend billions on foreign "concerns" while
not taking care of things at home. I'd also like
to see a Sims Decreased Corporate Oversight
expansion pack, and a Sims Operation Civil Liberty
Removal one too.
For every annoying gentoo user, are three even more annoying anti-gentoo crybabies. Take Yosh from #Gimp for example.
Orwell's 1984 is overquoted so much today that it's unreal. And yet every single time I look at the news I am so starkly reminded of it. We are at war with Oceanina. We have always been at war with Oceaninia, and the earth itself will open wide and swallow us all if we didn't bomb Iraq to hell so we could free the people from the very beginning. What the hell is this? When exactly did I start having to defend the fact that what happened a year ago actually happened? Nobody says crap about WMD, it's all about freeing the people. Screw the Iraqis, until we find a big assed nuke with "Hi there!" painted on the side we've just taken out a government for no good reason other than "they pissed us off". But nobody cares. We freed some people! We are America, our farts smell of petunias. Everytime I hear someone state that we had the right to bomb the hell out of a nation of people "just because we're the U.S." my faith in humanity dims.
This game sickens me. Here is a video game based off government propeganda and bad news reporting. Take the most basic BS about this war, toss it into a 3D engine, and BOOM - you've undoubtedly got millions of idiots willing to shell out $50 so they can stop watching CNN and start blowing the hell out of some brown guy in the privacy of their own home. Gotta love the Iraqi war. If the face of freedom is a nice big bomb, then I must have really got some lovin' back when Lisa Campbell racked me in the nads back in the 8th grade.
I love the principles that America was founded on. That's why I'm ashamed to call myself an American.
I really need a fattie. Too bad the shnizt's illegal.
Ethnocentrism is a word coined by William Graham Sumner in an attempt to capture the generalized attitude that one's own group is comparatively superior. It is a generalized concept that encompasses such blights as racism, sexism, nationalism, and religious intolerance.
In our culture it is not acceptable to create a sexist game where men hunt down women nor is it acceptable to create a racist game where whites hunt down blacks. Yet we can create a video game where Americans can kill the foreigner du jour. Although currently it is unfortunately culturally acceptable among some of the population to participate in this nationalism, it is in no way different from the less acceptable forms of ethnocentrism such as racism and antisemitism.
Before you come out in support of such a game, realize that, this is group-exclusive hatred and just like McCarthyism, it is only a matter of time before it falls out of favor with the general populace. Then what will people think of your posts?
Michael.
Linux : Mac