http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzB9Q-qW7To
Simon Parkin investigates the proliferation of videogames in the aftermath of the Iraq war:
During Saddam Hussein’s rule, it was difficult to buy them, and only relatively well-off, professional-class families like [top-ranked game player Yousif] Mohammed’s could afford to import titles from Europe. Until the advent of disc-based video games in the mid-nineties, it was too difficult to pirate game cartridges. “The industry is still in its infancy in Iraq,” said Omar M. Alanseri, the owner of the Iraqi Games Center, one of only a small number of dedicated video-game retailers in Baghdad, which opened sixteen months ago. “But each year, more people get involved. I’ve seen the audience vastly increase, especially among teen-agers.” …
Many of these first-person shooters, often created with input from U.S. military advisers—a handful of Navy SEALs was punished for consulting on the 2012 video game Medal of Honor: Warfighter—are set against the backdrop of fictionalized real-world conflicts, often within Middle Eastern countries. Some have entire sections set within Iraq, like the Battlefield series. For [network administrator Mohannad] Abdulla, playing these games in their real-world settings isn’t problematic. “Any video game that’s set within Iraq and involves killing terrorists becomes instantly famous here,” he said. “Everyone wants to play it. We have been through so much because of terror. Shooting terrorists in a game is cathartic. We can have our revenge in some small way.” Alanseri agreed: “Any game that has a level set in Iraq is popular. They always sell more copies than other games because they are related in some way to our lives.” The games have even established a kind of empathy for foreign gaming partners that Alanseri said he would not otherwise have. “I have learned a lot of things, like Western-world values, culture, life style, and even the way that they think through video games.”
(Video: Gameplay footage of Six Days In Fallujah, a game set in the Iraq War that was pulled from development after controversy surrounding its content)
The Dish 