Gaming Cafe Scene In Iraq Illustrated

Otter writes "An Iraqi weblog has a series of pictures of the gaming cafe scene in Baghdad. Lots of Counter-Strike and Medal of Honor, apparently." The photographer also uses the comments to respond to questions about the lack of women in the pictures: "The reason you don't see women at these places is that Iraqi women (at least my age) don't have that much interest in gaming... Another thing is that I'm a bit cautious about photographing women due to cultural issues and misunderstandings they might get me wrong and think I'm using the pics for... err 'other purposes'." We previously reported on earlier comments about gaming in Iraq.

Comments

PS2s

[Rubbersoul]

So that is why they wanted all those PS 2s. Here we thought they were building bombs and such, but in fact it was for kids to play games. Boy we feel silly for invading the country now.

Re:PS2s

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, Half-Life is just practice for getting to and from work/school.

Life in Iraqi...

[gustgr]

... seems to go on.

The war might have affected a lot of people, mainly the poor ones. With those pictures we can see that even with the 'civil guerrila' the people are trying to move on [at least eh younger] and enjoy their life.

It is nice to see those pictures for another reason too, which is that give us a shot of what developing countries really are. Iraqi isn't all about caves and deserts, no country is. Of course there are several problems and poors, but people are usually happy [self experience].

The picrutes are great by the way.

so much for video games making people killers...

[*weasel]

this seems to be clear cut evidence that gamers prefer virtual gunfights to real gunfights, even when the latter is cheaper and more widely available. ;p

Terrorists!

[nepheles]

Counter Strike? Oh My God, people -- these people really are involved in terrorism!

Nice to know this war is now justified. I can just picture Colin Powell in the UN with another glitzy PowerPoint presentation showing these pictures.

Re:No room for Gamecube?

[NEOtaku17]

Would find them on P2P? I find them on P2P all the time. Ever heard of eMule or used Bittorrent? PS2 games are ripe for the picking. They are everywhere! But then again that's on my internet. What about yours?

Server IPs

[NEOtaku17]

Does anyone know where I can find a list of all the Iraqi server IPs? I would really like to play with these guys and welcome them on to the internet and to online gaming. Stupid question following: Do alot of the people that would be playing speak any english(or will I have to learn a little of their langauge).

Re:Server IPs

[Cruel Angel]

I busted a nut laughing about this post. It seems that in the 'Western' world we still feel that in other parts of the world people need/ want someone to 'welcome' them to the internet and online gaming. I understand your sentiment, and think you almost have a great idea. I'd hope you meant to say that you'd like to welcome them to online gaming in the UK, or NorthAm, or whereever you are from, and that welcoming them to the internet was just a misprint.

The other thing that made me laugh was the notion of a self appointed online welcome wagon. "Welcome to the internet, here's 200MB of free porn, 100MB of MP3s, you RIAA subpoena, and your first emails. There's one from Melissa, and she loves you. As well, someone thinks you may need some, err, enhancements."

Re:No Women

[rylin]

You're wrong.
I work at a lan cafe, and we regularly have girls ( 15 - 24-ish ) playing during the nightgibs.

No women

[aliens]

Yeah, there are no women because it's just in Iraq that girls don't really get that into gaming.

That's the ticket, continue to believe that in the West girls far out number guys at our gaming cafes. That's one way to make young geeky Iraqi teens want to be more like us. ::)