Gaming Life In Iraq

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Posted by simoniker on Wednesday October 29, 2003 @05:11PM from the business-as-usual dept.

Thanks to GameGirlAdvance for pointing to a Healing Iraq weblog entry about the state of gaming life in Iraq. The Baghdad-based author says: "Videogames are a huge part of our society. Almost everyone I know, regardless of their socioeconomic status, either owns a console or has regular access to one", and goes on to note that "The most popular console in Iraq is the Sony Playstation. Dreamcast and the PS2 also have their devoted fans. The Xbox and Gamecube aren't very popular here." The games industry may not be raking in much money from Iraq, though: "We have a special gamers district at Bab Al-Sharji at the heart of the city where you can find hundreds of videogame vendors. Of course all the games we get are copies and we rarely find originals."

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If they've got bandwidth... by redgopher · 2003-10-29 17:15 · Score: 1

...they should start playing Desert Combat.

IMHO, shooting up virtual Iraqis is better than the real thing.

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Insert clever one liner here.
1. Re:If they've got bandwidth... by exick · 2003-10-29 17:16 · Score: 1
  
  And why, pray tell, would an Iraqi want to play as an American soldier and shoot virtual Iraqis?
2. Re:If they've got bandwidth... by 0x0d0a · 2003-10-30 02:53 · Score: 1
  
  Although, frankly, it might be kind of neat to harness nationalistic feelings and allow folks to play as either side, internationally, in games like these. And wargames aren't the only possibility -- I expect multiplayer international soccer games might do well.
  
  --
  May we never see th
Re:If they've got bandwidth...followup by redgopher · 2003-10-29 17:17 · Score: 1

Of course, that'd be on the US soldier perspective.

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Insert clever one liner here.
Lets see.. by Izanagi · 2003-10-29 17:38 · Score: 1

1.Create "Saddam Hunter" game.
2.Sell to the people of Iraq.
3.???
4.PROFIT!!!

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SCO (noun.)- A Slimy Corporate Ogre. Often seeks free money.
1. Re:Lets see.. by shaitand · 2003-10-29 18:52 · Score: 1
  
  I dunno how far that would get since well into the 90th percentile of iraq's population felt he was a good ruler. He certainly had a higher popularity rating than any ruler in the US ever did.
2. Re:Lets see.. by Ohreally_factor · 2003-10-29 23:18 · Score: 1
  
  Where are you getting your numbers? And, just as important, when were these numbers collected?
  
  --
  It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
3. Re:Lets see.. by Acidic_Diarrhea · 2003-10-30 01:51 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  He's just basing it on the elections they held for Saddam! I mean, the guy didn't get a single vote against him! The people must have loved him.
  Leave it to a liberal to make a statement that a leader who gassed his own people was loved.
  
  --
  I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
4. Re:Lets see.. by kalidasa · 2003-10-30 02:11 · Score: 1
  
  I dunno how far that would get since well into the 90th percentile of iraq's population felt he was a good ruler.
  
  More likely 90% of the Iraq's population felt it was safest to say they felt he was a good ruler. The reason US leaders have such low popularity ratings, comparatively, is because US leaders don't as a rule have dissident citizens shot.
5. Re:Lets see.. by duffbeer703 · 2003-10-30 04:31 · Score: 1
  
  It is easy to be popular when you are the only choice.
  
  --
  Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
6. Re:Lets see.. by DAldredge · 2003-10-30 04:41 · Score: 1
  
  Do you have any basis in fact for those numbers, or are you just talking out your ass?
7. Re:Lets see.. by Ohreally_factor · 2003-10-31 14:52 · Score: 1
  
  Leave it to a poster named Acidic_Diarrhea to make blanket statements about a political leaning. I guess you're proof that "you are what you eat".
  
  --
  It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
OH NO!! by arrow · 2003-10-29 17:57 · Score: 5, Funny

They can't find originals? That means their games are... pirated.

Now we know the real reason as to why we invaded them. Weapons of mass Infringement. Maybe the MPAA, RIAA, and BSA can help foot the bill too.

--
symetrix. We are building a religion, a limited edition.
Maybe I missed something by Quixotic+Raindrop · 2003-10-29 18:00 · Score: 1

but I recall there being an article (on PBS-TV, maybe?) about how few Iraqis, outside of the Baath party members, had TVs.

If you don't have a TV, how can you play a console? Or, perhaps, this only addresses former (current?) Baath party members?

--
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. (Einstein)
1. Re:Maybe I missed something by Quixotic+Raindrop · 2003-10-29 18:25 · Score: 1
  
  Interesting, coming from one of your clearly superior intellect, that you should choose name-calling.
  
  Offer some evidence. I at least gave some information about where my idea came from. You ... what, distrust the media? Sure. We all do. Do you have more than that? Or are you just name-calling because being Anonymous is Cowardly and offers some modicum of protection?
  
  --
  Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. (Einstein)
2. Re:Maybe I missed something by umofomia · 2003-10-29 18:33 · Score: 1
  
  I believe you're thinking of Afganistan (s/Baath/Taliban). Iraq was actually one of the most modern countries in the middle east until its economic downturn in the 1990s. Many people there have consumer electronics and the government didn't ban them.
3. Re:Maybe I missed something by Anonymous Coward · 2003-10-29 18:51 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  The Iraqi middle class in the major cities live in townhouses or apartments and have air conditioning, mains electricity, televisions and cars. They go to school and university, watch the news, play video games and surf the internet (typically in cafes because internet access is still relatively expensive). There are computer shops, malls, gyms (one of which even renamed itself the The Arnold Classic after he won the California recall). It's quite suburban in fact.
  
  Or at least, they did have all of this until the US bombed the crap out of the infrastructure and power plants prior to invading - and now extremists keep blowing up all the power lines whenever they get them repaired.
  
  Of course, much of the country is desert, and there are still uneducated country peasants (the lower class) who want to shoot rocket launchers at anything that moves because Saddam told them to. Kind of like the redneck US stereotype, but without beer to pacify. Sure, there are some people like that, but by no means everyone.
  
  (Uneducated armchair statements from somebody who's been paying attention to the news outlets that report things about Iraq other than "stuff blows up").
4. Re:Maybe I missed something by Dr.+Bent · 2003-10-29 19:36 · Score: 1
  
  Or at least, they did have all of this until the US bombed the crap out of the infrastructure and power plants prior to invading - and now extremists keep blowing up all the power lines whenever they get them repaired.
  
  Actually, power in Iraq is back to pre-war levels.
5. Re:Maybe I missed something by JAYOYAYOYAYO · 2003-10-29 20:59 · Score: 1
  
  power maybe back but theres barely anything left to be able to use the power, let alone the infrastructure to distrobute it...
  going back to the original poster, he is correct. pre-desertstorm iraq was doing well, but it goes back further; pre-gulfwar (iraq vs iran) iraq had THE best schools and one of the highest standards of living of any middle eastern nation. its easy to understand why these people were (and are) fed up with USA and Hussein.
6. Re:Maybe I missed something by ThumbSuck · 2003-10-29 21:05 · Score: 1
  
  If I remember correctly, TV's were allowed and actually pretty cheap and well available. What could be a better way to spread propaganda anyway. The thing that was banned was satellite receiver because you would get channels that had 'something' that the regime didn't want you to see. However, many people simply had an extra 'air conditioning' box on their roofs which contained the hidden receiver.
7. Re:Maybe I missed something by JAYOYAYOYAYO · 2003-10-29 21:24 · Score: 1
  
  actually the original poster was incorrect and that skewed my response to the linked article about power... i thought the original poster was talking about pre-desertstorm iraq. he was not. he is incorrect, post-desertstorm iraq was still a pretty shitty place to live. the linked article says that power is back to above pre-USAinvasion levels... which is good news, but it is NOWHERE near pre-desertstorm levels. blame it on USA, blame it on Hussein; its both of their faults and Iraqis are suffering the consequences.
8. Re:Maybe I missed something by superyooser · 2003-10-30 02:06 · Score: 1
  
  No, that's how it was thirty years ago before Saddam ruined the nation.
  The only place in Iraq before March 20 like what you describe was Baghdad, where the palaces of Saddam's family stood. Much of the rest of Iraq didn't even have electricity, potable water, or paved roads.
  The U.S. made careful plans to destroy as little of Iraq's infrastructure as possible. The U.S. is rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure. Not rebuilding what we destroyed, but what Saddam let fall into disrepair over the last 30 years. The mainstream Iraqis are on our side. Heck, one of them married an American soldier. Some prominent Iraqi Muslim leaders have told the people to cooperate with Western troops. Now, foreign Saddam-loving terrorists have come in and keep blowing up Iraq's infrastructure while the United States is trying to fix it... at its own expense, paid with American blood and money.
9. Re:Maybe I missed something by 0x0d0a · 2003-10-30 03:14 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I hate to say it, but you're more than a little rattling off US-based media output, which carries a very heavy US slant.
  
  Yes, after the severe PR issues in the original Gulf War where the US deliberately wiped out as much civilian infrastructure as possible, they were much more careful in the last round of bombing.
  
  The mainstream Iraqis are on our side.
  
  No. The mainstream Iraqis don't necessarily want a harsh dictator running things, but neither do they want to be occupied by the same country that's been blockading them, restricting their air service, and bombing them for years. It's not an either/or proposition.
  
  Heck, one of them married an American soldier.
  
  You *definitely* go for the whole American media thing, don't you?
  
  The *only* poll (loudly trumpeted) that I've seen that vaguely supported the US was one put out by the occupational authority (and how would *you* vote if soldiers from an occupying nation showed up at your door and asked you to fill out a form about them, eh?) that claimed that a majority of residents of Baghdad felt that they were better off after Saddam's overthrow than before. Sure as hell doesn't mean that they want continuing occupation.
  
  Now, foreign Saddam-loving terrorists have come in and keep blowing up Iraq's infrastructure while the United States is trying to fix it... at its own expense, paid with American blood and money.
  
  American blood tends to be armed and behind guarded barriers. Remember that the first set of obstacles into the occupational authority's compound is through a checkpoint manned by hired unarmed Iraqis -- ironically enough, the US uses human shields just as much as Saddam did.
  
  As for American money, Iraqi oil was supposed to be taken and used to pay for reconstruction, giving the US control of a lucrative nation with little cost. As it happened, massive damage to national infrastructure caused by a combination of a decade of war and blocked trade (by the US), in addition to imperfect management by the Hussein regime, has meant that oil won't begin to cover the costs for years to come.
  
  The US occupation in Iraq was not the freedom-bringing thing that many American citizens think it is, bringing glorious democracy to the Iraqi people. The occupational authority does not allow the basic rights that the American people enjoy, such as that of free press. Arabic media that criticized the occupational authority was banned from operating. US soldiers enforce curfews with assault weapons.
  
  To be fair, this is not all a particularly US trait. Invading and occupying an unwilling country and then blitzing your own citizens with happy propaganda about it has happened for many, many, many years, with other countries taking the US's role (think of Nazi Germany, for instance). Brutal treatment of the people of that country is not unheard of, either. And sabotage (not terrorism -- terrorism is defined as controlling civilians through terror, which if anything the US is doing more than Iraqi car bombers) of the occupying country's military installations and attacks on collaborators is not unusual either (again, see World War II).
  
  Hell, I remember going back and watching WWII propaganda material (on both sides -- the US and England certainly had as much bogus material as Germany did) and wondering how amazingly gullible people had to be to buy into it back then. Well...now I'm seeing it in action, and it still amazes me.
  
  --
  May we never see th
10. Re:Maybe I missed something by hookedup · 2003-10-30 06:48 · Score: 1
  
  Kind of like the redneck US stereotype, but without beer to pacify.
  
  Beer to pacify?
  
  Maybe _I_ missed something...
Fodder for Dubya's next speech... by wrinkledshirt · 2003-10-29 18:38 · Score: 4, Funny

Of course all the games we get are copies and we rarely find originals.

Well, at least the White House can now prove SOMETHING illegal has been going on in Iraq.

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Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
Re:Hate to say I told you so by skinfitz · 2003-10-29 19:18 · Score: 1

PS2 = CHEAP MISSLE GUIDANCE COMPUTER Did you know there was a story about that?

I did actually - however wasn't it the original Playstation and the more I think about it I'm sure they were banned from being exported to somewhere like Iraq as the graphics chips were allegedly being pulled for being "so powerful" that they could be used in missile guidance systems.

It could, of course, simply have been Sony's marketing department again.
I can see them iraqi boys by utslive · 2003-10-29 21:13 · Score: 1

playing fifa soccer 2002 in a small house, except that they don't play the english premier, they play france.. eh?

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underthesun
Of course all the games we get are copies??!! by floydman · 2003-10-29 23:27 · Score: 2, Insightful

So you guys wanna tell me that even if thy did have the originals they are gonna buy them. They are gonna actually gonna spend money on games instead of food, shelter, medicine...

besides, the whole idea of such a survey is obssured, can you tell me how many sick kid is in Iraq without medication, how many elder is threatened to die beucase of lack of medicine/food????
No instead we go and see how many of them pay games, on what stations, of what type....

PLease give me a break..

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The lunatic is in my head
1. Re:Of course all the games we get are copies??!! by Crockerboy · 2003-10-30 01:50 · Score: 1
  
  There's plenty of kids in the U.S that are sick and dying because of lack of food or healthcare, but that doesn't stop the priveleged from buying video games with their spare money. People are all the same, regardless of the country. This article was just an attempt to highlight that aspect of Iraqi life and show they aren't much different than us, except for the whole no alcohol thing.
  
  sweet, sweet alcohol
2. Re:Of course all the games we get are copies??!! by qa'lth · 2003-10-31 20:18 · Score: 1
  
  Actually, you might not believe me, but I know a guy in Pakistan who faces the same problem: Damn near everything he can find is pirated media, for only a few rupees each title. Finding original software is hard for him.
  BUT
  what he does find, he does buy. Which is really quite amazing.
Forget that WMD stuff!! by vaguelyamused · 2003-10-30 02:06 · Score: 1

Pirate video games in Iraq!!!
I bet they pirate CDs and DVDs also.
Now I know why we invaded, be beware the long arm of the MPAA, RIAA, etc

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STOP ROCK VIDEO
Nothing illegal went on in Iraq by Rayonic · 2003-10-30 02:43 · Score: 1

Since there were/are no copyrights, it's not illegal.

Actually, under Saddam, many things weren't illegal. Like feeding people feet-first into shredders, and developing strains of Congo Crimean Hemmoragic Fever.

So technically you are right, the Baathist regime committed no crimes in Iraq, since they defined the law and were legally immune to it anyway.

--
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
1. Re:Nothing illegal went on in Iraq by Rayonic · 2003-10-30 05:59 · Score: 1
  
  Would head first have been better?
  
  Actually, head-first is better. Less pain, and you die instantaneously. Qusay Hussein would opt for head-first shredding whenever he felt merciful / bored.
  
  --
  [PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
PlayStation 2s in Iraq by moof1138 · 2003-10-30 02:48 · Score: 1

Back a few years ago the Feds released a report that PS2s were being shipped to Iraq to build a military supercomputer. They were able to double-demonize Saddam, since they claimed that not only were the consoles being used to power weapons systems, but they also were adding to the scarcity of the systems.

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Hyperbole is the worst thing ever.
Hahahah! The irony! by Hackie_Chan · 2003-10-30 03:49 · Score: 1

To think... Maybe one of those gaming caffe's have Red Alert 2? Then Iraqies can play as themselves in a war game!
But to their disappointment, they're on the bad side! :-)

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What's so bad about being lazy? What if there was a war and nobody showed up?
Gaming in Afghanistan by Hecubas · 2003-10-30 06:29 · Score: 2, Funny

Well if this story is any indicator of the situation of gaming in the Middle East, it doesn't look good. I'm suprised we haven't heard any more updates from Junis. Wonder if he's anxious to play Halflife 2?

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hecubas

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Hecubas
1. Re:Gaming in Afghanistan by n0wak · 2003-10-30 08:01 · Score: 1
  
  Well, based on all the legitimate games they're playing in Iraq right now... he's probably already playing Half-Life 2?
  
  What? And you thought the source code was stolen by some domestic kids?? Pfft.