[Air-l] arcade games as a political weapon

[Frank Thomas]

Today the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel writes about the deliberate 
conception and use of arcade killer games in the Near and Middle East 
conflicts and provides some links to the relevant websites:
a Syrian game: http://www.underash.net/emessage.htm
a game produced by (or for) the Hisbollah: 
http://www.specialforce.net/english/indexeng.htm
the chase for Talibans as a screen leisure : 
http://www.novalogic.com/games.asp?GameKey=DFTFD
the most recent US military "acts of patriotism and bravery" as a civic 
education play : http://www.kumagames.com/kumawar.html
The author also mentions a pro-Israeli war game "Israeli Air Force" 
without giving a link.

But is there anything special to the Internet in these games? I 'd say 
these are only the most recent developments within a long tradition.  I 
remember tin or plum soldiers in the play boxes of my friends decades 
ago which had survived the war. They were conceived in the 1930s to 
mentally prepare the German youth for war.  And I guess, there were also 
glorious British and French tin soldiers refighting past victories in 
the same era. Today's generation of plays to mentally prepare the war of 
the cultures is just a more recent version. Nothing special to the 
Internet, I guess, besides the increased incitives to identify with the 
Good.

Die Hisbollah shootert zurück

Von Christian Stöcker <mailto:dr_stoecker at web.de>

Dass das Pentagon Spielefirmen sponsert, um jungen PC-Fans das Militär 
schmackhaft zu machen, und gar Ego-Shooter für das Training nutzt, regt 
kaum mehr jemanden auf. Mit Ausnahme der Hisbollah, die dieser 
US-Propaganda nicht länger zusehen will: In ihren Computerspielen 
fliegen die Kugeln in die andere Richtung.l

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzkultur/0,1518,267090,00.html


Cheers
Frank