Gaming Life In Iraq

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."

Comments

OH NO!!

[arrow]

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.

Fodder for Dubya's next speech...

[wrinkledshirt]

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.

Re:Maybe I missed something

[Anonymous Coward]

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").

Of course all the games we get are copies??!!

[floydman]

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..

Re:Maybe I missed something

[0x0d0a]

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.

Gaming in Afghanistan

[Hecubas]

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