Slashdot Mirror
Game On War In Syria Explores Ongoing Conflict
arclightfire writes "So while games have come under spotlight via the debate about the causes of the tragic school shootings in the U.S., it is worth remembering that games are now a broad medium and far from all games are FPS games. Even those about war are not now just about shooting, as Endgame:Syria shows by covering an ongoing war; 'The subject matter for Endgame: Syria should not however be looked on from a trivialized angle; people and civilian casualties are dying every day over in Syria.'" The game is part of a series from Auroch Digital.
Rob responded to my ad to be interviewed for an article I was writing concerning Slashdot editors and, in particular, one Michael Simms. What follows are the transcribed notes of that interview.
Questioner: I hope you won't be offended if I ask you to prove to me that you're really CmdTaco of Slashdot fame so that our readers will know that this isn't a fake.
Rob: Sure, no problem. (stands and unbuckles pants and drops them to his ankles, revealing a smooth, shaven crotch with only a thin scar to show where his genitals once were).
Q: Thank you. That's a remarkable sight. You sure are a true Linux aficionado.
(laughs and pulls pants back up). Most people think so.
Q: What made you decide to become a nullified website owner?
(pauses). Well, it really wasn't entirely my decision.
Q: Excuse me?
The idea wasn't mine. It was my lover's idea.
Q: Please explain what you mean.
Okay, it's a long story. You have to understand my relationship with Michael before you'll know what happened.
Q: We have plenty of time. Please go on.
Both of us were into the leather Linux lifestyle when we met through a personal ad. Michael's ad was very specific: he was looking for someone to completely dominate and modify to his pleasure like a one-off Linux distro. In other word, a slave.
The ad intrigued me. I had been in a number of B&D scenes and also some S&M, but I found them unsatisfying because they were all temporary. After the fun was over, everybody went on with life as usual. I was looking for a complete life change. I wanted to meet someone who would be part of my life forever. Someone who would control me and change me at his whim.
Q: In other words, you're a true masochist.
Oh yes, no doubt about that. After all, I love Linux. My favorite browser is Lynx. Anyway, we met and there was instant chemistry. Michael is a few years older than me and very good looking. Our personalities meshed totally. He's very dominant. I went back to his place after drinks and had the best sex of my life. That's when I knew I was going to be with Michael for a long, long time.
Q: What sort of things did you two do?
It was very heavy right away. He restrained me and whipped me for quite awhile. He put clamps on my nipples and a ball gag in my mouth. And he hung a ball bag on my sack with some very heavy weights. And he made me stare at a Windows ME cd-rom. That was probably the worst.
Q: Ouch.
(laughs) Yeah, no kidding. At first I didn't think I could take the pain, but Michael worked me through it and after awhile I was flying. I was sorry when it was over. Michael enjoyed it as much as I did. Afterwards he talked about what kind of a commitment I'd have to make if I wanted to stay with him.
Q: What did he say exactly?
Well, besides agreeing to be his slave in every way, I'd have to be ready to be modified. To have my body modified.
Q: Did he explain what he meant by that?
Not specifically, but I got the general idea. I guessed that something like castration might be part of it.
Q: How did that make you feel?
(laughs) I think it would make any guy a little hesitant.
Q: But it didn't stop you from agreeing to Michael's terms?
No it didn't. I was totally hooked on this man. I knew that I was willing to pay any price to be with him. Anyway, a few days later I moved in with Michael. He gave me the rules right away: I'd have to be naked at all times while we were indoors, except for a leather dog collar that I could never take off. I had to keep my head shaved. And I had to wear a butt plug except when I needed to take a shit or when we were having sex. I had to sleep on the floor next to his bed. I ate all my food on the floor, too.
The next day he took me to a piercing parlor where he had my nipples done, and a Prince Albert put into the head of my cock.
Q: Heavy stuff.
Yeah, and it got heavier. He used me as a toilet, pissing in my mouth. I had to lick his asshole clean af
Basically it's a FPS based on Q3 engine or similar where you you are a janitor in a school armed only with a single pistol and you have a limited timeframe to find and neutralise a hostile shooter who enters the school with a random kit of weapons and starts killing kids or taking hostages.
Too soon?
I think if someone is so detached that they need a game to understand the news, then perhaps I would rather they just stayed playing traditional games and let the adults in the room discuss the news of the world.
Honestly, this is the funniest flamebait / troll I have ever seen. Had you made any attempt at all to tie it in with the story, and had you posted it using an account, I would have modded this up. Seriously. Only for the demonstration of your talent. You have serious potential here my friend. try to find a good use for it.
Meanwhile, I've modded your create down to -1. No direct link to the article at hand and adds no value to the conversation. Perhaps someone will disagree. Meanwhile, feel free to try again.
+1 loved it. Would read this person's next post for sure.
Yes, thats exactly what it is. Todays world has new tools for propaganda apart from newsspin.
This game portrays the Syrian fight against terror in simplistic black and white just like most mainstream media likes to show it.
However, nothing in this world is as simple as that.
What you will not see in that game is:
* leading Syrian terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra (categorised so by none other than US of A)
* daily beheadings done by islamist rebels (aka al-Qaeda)
* teaching beheadings to their children (will not post link as anyone can find it if (s)he so wishes)
* daily kidnappings for ransom by islamist rebels (aka al-Qaeda)
* killing of christians en masse by islamist rebels (aka al-Qaeda)
* destruction of churches by islamist rebels (aka al-Qaeda)
* all war crimes imaginable, mostly by islamist rebels
Just some links:
Fate of Christians in Syria
US designates Syria's Jabhat al-Nusra front a 'terrorist' group at lightning speed
#OpSyria v.2.0
How many games include post-WWII Israel?
Probably none. Why?
And drink the milk of paradise !! That'll turn them all to sissies, and the war will be over !!
Of course this raises the moral question of "what's off limits for a game" - but also - "what's a game?".
Does something have to be "fun" to be a game? Is this the definition of a game (as opposed to say a "simulation"). Or is a game a "simulated environment where there is a win condition"?
Interested to hear slashdotters thoughts.
Ancient troll is...ancient. That story (even though it's based on fact, Malda really is a eunuch) goes back more than 10 years during the golden age of /. trolling...
There doesn't even need to be a win condition. Some of the classic games go on forever - pacman, tetris. The objective is to either maximise a score or keep the game going as long as possible.
I can't define what a game is, but I know that chess works even when stripped down to the bare mechanics... and if you stripped these games down to their bare mechanics, they might still be games, but most of them would be more or less identical (at least if you consider the maps as input to the game just like players are, not as not part of it's rules). Because of that I'd say they are definately nowhere near as much the games they're perceived as.
What is called "game" these days often enough is just a vehicle for story-telling, super idiotic story telling at that. You know, you wouldn't be able to sit through most of these stories as movie, unless there was a lot of action or hot people in it. And you wouldn't be able to take it as a slideshow on the computer/console, either! So you get to mash a few buttons; that way you feel involved and stay on the petri dish.
That wouldn't be a problem if the people who told stories and their stories amounted to shit -- I am sure you could make a "pseudo-game" about (the effects of) war that has something to say... those games probably exist, they're just rarely hyped, are they.
But you cannot make an actual war game, not really, since war isn't so much about the pong/galaga/pacman mechanics that are used to portray them, as they are about propaganda and using the masses -- and not in an RTS way either, that just simulates the "general grunt" instead of the "infantry grunt". War is waged by planning in super comfy rooms with huge desks -- it's about profit and numbers, not about individual actions. Knowing that it's pretty much clear than 99.9999% of all war games obfuscate war, not explore or simulate it. They are just extensions of power, they are part of those wars. They keep even the people who are not currently out there being hired killers safely embedded in the fabric of war.
Replying off-topic but the summary doesn't mention this very relevant bit of information: The game is not an FPS, it's a card strategy game. Like Magic or something.
Which is disappointing, I was hoping it was an FPS and that some Russians and Iranians could play from the rebels' point of view.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
There are about as many definitions of what a game is as there a re people who've given it serious thought. Personally, I'm a fan of raph koster's:
Playing a game is the act of solving statistically varied challenge situations presented by an opponent who may or may not be algorithmic within a framework that is a defined systemic model.
The world is going to have to do something serious about islamists. Either bitchslap them all hard. Real hard. Or join them.
They are not compatable with the rest of the people on the planet.
The longer you wait the harder it will be to fix...
I don't wanna join them...
. . . half the schools in the world would be empty by now. Just think of how many people in the world play these games.
Recently, the Connecticut killer has been labeled "a basement dweller." Maybe basements are the cause, and should be outlawed . . . ?
Ancient cultures have always played some sort of war games in tribal ceremonies. It prepares the young for the real thing.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Does something have to be "fun" to be a game? Is this the definition of a game (as opposed to say a "simulation").
Why ask us when you can ask WOPR?
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet." (Juliet)
So what's in a game? The subject has been discussed by folks far more eloquent and persuasive than I; but hey, this is Slashdot so what the hell. In some ways trying to define what 'game' means is akin to defining art; grasping at the wind. I think you're pretty close to the mark with your latter definition, although as sibling posters suggest the win condition is not necessary, and the concept of winning itself has been toyed with as a mechanism (see UnwinnableByDesign). "Fun" is hardly a necessity either, witness RPG grinds, for example. And how 'fun' would Contra be without UUDDLRLRBA?
That leaves "simulated environment", which I think approaches the heart fo the matter. Games (not just video games here) are a simulacrum, an approximation of a scenario. Some are more complex than others - Snakes and Ladders versus Dwarf Fortress or MilSim-du-jour - but all distill a scenario/environment into a set of rules. Fun and winning are usually part of the arrangement, but not by necessity.
Sibling post hit the mark too in saying that a significant proportion of gaming is there as a vehicle for storytelling. It's easy to be cynical as there are some bad stories out there. But there is good storytelling too, if that's your thing. Planescape: Torment* has a particular focus on story; and there are times where the line between 'game' and 'interactive story' are pretty heavily blurred. Dear Esther is an example which PA Report recommends quite highly:
Dear Esther is a $10 PC [note: currently on sale on Steam for £1.74 for the next two hours at time of writing] experience that toys with the concepts that make, or don’t make, a game. You are a man exploring a deserted island, and every so often you’ll trigger a voice over that helps to explain what you’re doing there and describes other characters you never see. It’s a desolate, lonely game that funnels you into one specific ending that’s impossible to escape. It takes around 90 minutes to finish, depending on how much of the island you choose to explore.
At the end of a day if someone creates something that is a representation of something with at least some semblance of interaction, and calls it a game I'm quite happy to believe them until proven otherwise.
*Planescape was recently discussed on /. and it was mentioned that GOG had it for ten bucks, which was nifty. Now they've discounted it to five bucks, which is at least twice as nifty by my calculations.
If all you have is a grenade, pretty soon every problem looks like a foxhole -- MightyYar
US and other western governments are actively supporting, sponsoring, arming and training those rebels. Should they not do that, Assad would propably crush them quickly in some cruel way BUT thousands upon thousands of civilians would still be alive. It's sad to see our politicians being ultimately responsible for most of killed civilians and sponsoring those killings with mouths full of crap about "bringing democracy". If Norymberg precedents would be honored in today's world, most of our leaders would be already sentenced and jailed (or hanged).
I don't wanna leech karma off Ian Bogost and Jonathan Blow, who for me are the Noam Chomskies of gaming haha, so if you found this post interesting, you will LOVE these two lectures, and maybe more you can find under related videos, exploring indie games, and what games are or could be:
Ian Bogost on Serious Games
Theoretically, there could be other forms of interactive art that's not a game. I just haven't seen one, maybe we got too fixed on the gamer mindset to think about anything else.
No Risk
Take the reigns of a banking giant, too big to fail and certainly way too big to held accountable for laundering money from terrorists and drug lords. Whatever happens, you can't lose!
CatholicCraft
As the vicar of Christ, you'll remain true to Christ's teachings by amassing incredible amounts of money and hushing up years to inaction against known pedophiles. When caught, blame secularism for years of Church sanctioned abuses.
World of Youtube Debate
Take control of a typical YouTube master debater as he enriches the Internet with his sideways take on life. Buy the Game of The Year edition to receive a free game controller with pre-defined comments, including "lol", "gay" and "fuk u".
GTA - Riyadh
Play the role of a Saudi woman, rebelling against society by carefully driving her husband's car unescorted by a male keeper. How long can you drive responsibly before being hauled out of the car by the Mutaween, and beaten by your son.
I despise the 'Witch Hunt" style analysis of the affect(or is it effect?) of video games on children. That's like the 'church' in medieval times saying things were bad just to say they were bad. I'm sure they said 'Studies find that....' right before they sentenced someone to death too...
The point here is, video games are n o t t h e p r o b l e m. The problem is the lack of familial support for the nations troubled children / adults. Families are far more detached now than they have ever been... I think this perpetuates crime and violence through lack of guidance.
That's my two cents.
I know this is slightly off topic for the post but it needed to be said. That is all.
Something about this sentence unsettles me. I don't quite know what.
Of course this raises the moral question of "what's off limits for a game"
What's "raising" this question?
Look at the network-related news. That's all you see is articles about Syria, just like we saw about Iraq and Afghanistan, as if any of they needed our help shooting them. This big issue about Syria is: they fed soldiers and materiel into Afghanistan and Iraq. We're still reading from Paul Wolfiwitz's big book of war. Stop it!
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
I will never forgot the map of the eastern Mediterranean after playing the old game Conflict: Middle East Political Simulator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict:_Middle_East_Political_Simulator. It runs beautifully in dosbox and is available at abandonia http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/24764/Conflict+-+Middle+East+Political+Simulator.html Air Force Commander burned the map of the middle east into my brain at a very young age. It also runs in dosbox and I found it at the home of the underdogs if anybody is interested http://www.hotud.org/home/44-war/21074?lang=en%2Findex.php%3Foption%3Dcom_realtyna%2F%2Findex.php%3Foption%3Dcom_realtyna
A game has to be fun to be relevant. If it isn't fun, it might still be a game, but it doesn't matter since no one's going to play it unless forced to, and if they are, they'll just go through the motions while daydreaming.
But of course the straightforward answer to your question is: it depends entirely on how you define a game, and thus varies depending on the context. Which, in this case, is "convenient scapegoat".
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
As a child I was an introverted little nerd kid. My father was a police officer who retired from the department when I was four or so. We had a snub nose 38 police special in my parent's closet, loaded and unlocked, and I always knew where it was. I was taught what it was, how dangerous it was and that I wasn't to handle it without my father present.
As I grew older I of course played games. I was given a modem at one point, and on a BBS I found the anarchist's cookbook. It told me how to make all sorts of dangerous things. My father gave me gifts like pocket knives, and I was even known to play with matches!!! My uncle taught me things like mixing iodine and ammonia. My older brother taught me the value of lighter fluid and a tube of tennis balls. What you may not realize is how much interaction I had with my family on these dangerous subjects, and ultimately how I was allowed to explore things with proper supervision. Playing with fire all the while confined to the fireplace.
I once set a fire outside the home. I was caught and sent to my room. When my father came in to the room I figured I was going to get it. Instead he tossed a box of matches at my feet and asked that if I was going to burn the house down to at least let him know so he could get my mother and sister out safely. Today I own MANY guns and know how to make MANY dangerous things.
I have NEVER had a thought of hurting a bunch of people I don't know, nor anyone I do know. My favorite game is GTA and I also play some Saints Row.
I don't know why anyone ever does, and it saddens me that this keeps happening. Some firearms legislation is quite positive. Never fear a guy who has a dozen weapons, fear the person who has never had one but needs one right NOW. Putting a delay on new ownership is a VERY good idea and I support it even if it seems counter to at least the spirit of the constitution of the United States.
I think the problem stems from at least two things. First, that those who do these things feel isolated from a world of people they believe are indifferent to them or perhaps even hostile. We didn't have that feeling so long ago as communities associated with each other more closely. Technologies that keep us entertained in our home do far more damage then collaborative multi player games like Call of Duty ever will. The violence upon the imaginary has less of a negative impact then the violence in movies and seen on TV that are set upon real live actual people. These murderers are most often known as loners even when in small groups.
Second, I've come to believe that our news media takes the lion's share of blame in these acts of mayhem against the populace. They fall short of glorification, but in the end everyone knows the names of these perpetrators. They spend months rehashing this news. Nancy Grace goes on and on spewing her dramatic bile. So... wanna be famous? Well, at least infamous. Just kill a bunch of innocents... the more terrible the better! Everyone in the world will know your name! Then we'll throw a friggin pity party for your corpse going on and on about how hard your life was, poor poor you. We always seem to get copy cats after these tragedies, and I am disgusted that the media's profits increase from this coverage. They collect their blood money from the misery of the victims.
So, I ask everyone, what new gun law can we pass that would have prevented the loss of all these children? The guns were owned by the mother, legally, and for quite some time. What new restrictions on games could keep them away from someone in their 20s with an internet connection, hmmm? What legislation could we introduce that would have actually stopped this murderer? So far the only suggestion that may have has some impact was given by the NRA and mocked by the media.
I wonder how those in the media can look at themselves in the mirror in the morning. I could never be a part of that... but I guess I was just raised better..
rather run the world's most oppressive and brutal totalitarian state than risk submitting to the whims of a Muslim population. And given a choice, they'd rather fight to the last Muslim...
In the Middle east the main problem is sectarian supremicism/violence/oppression/hatred. Muslims may be at the root of that, but it's not just them. EVERYONE uses the Jews as their safe scapegoat. And you might say Alawites are Muslims... but they're probably not, but because of the violence it's better for them to pretend to be and for their allies to pretend they are too.
I could give you examples, but basically things in the Middle east aren't worse than you imagine, they're worse than you CAN imagine.
Can this not be framed into a category of obscene material? This and violent video games? I know this raises touchy First Amendment issues here in the US.
Obscene material alone is considered a touchy subject, child porn is generally universally accepted as obscene and not protected by the First Amendment. The act of producing it in the US and most of the world is criminal.
With regards to this particular circumstance, I feel that a violent videogame about a current violent actual real life tragic event is no worse than the actual real life events unfolding in front of us right now in real time. The fact that some people are using this event to cash in is crass.
Thank you for mentioning the old DOS Conflict. I spent many an enjoyable hour playing that game. Only now in hindsight do I realize how nice it was to have a fun yet challenging game that wasn't a cliche side-scroller, RPG, or FPS.
It's kind of funny... often when I played Conflict, I'd try to nuke somebody and still win the game... never succeeded. Perhaps that was the game designer's subtle way of saying the nuclear option is a no-win scenario?
Anyway, this new Endgame Syria bears a striking resemblance to Conflict, almost to the point of being a rip-off -- Conflict had newspaper headlines too, influenced directly by your political and military in-game decisions. But if Endgame Syria raises awareness of the Middle East's issues, I guess I can forgive the author.
DRM 'manages access' in the same way that a prison 'manages freedom'