Is Six Days in Fallujah too soon?

Cosmonaut Zero

#1 – 12:14 PM April 14, 2009

I just think this is just another sign that games are gaining cultural significance. Is it too soon for a movie about Fallujah? I'd argue it's too late. In the end, it will either be tasteful or tasteless based on its depiction of the events and the people involved, not based on its timeliness.

Moreover, games are in a unique position to put you in the shoes of other people. Assuming they enforce the rules of engagement, and depict the very real breaches of the Geneva Conventions that happened in Fallujah in a negative light, this could be a great way to understand what the soldiers went through, as well as expose the errors that were made.

Andrew Ferguson

#2 – 12:32 PM April 14, 2009

Maybe I view this sort of thing differently because I'm Canadian, but I don't see this as 'too soon'.

I'm not saying it won't upset people, because it will. But it's far from too soon.

Art reacts instantly to the events of the world, and if videogames are to mature into a serious artistic medium then creation needs to be able to happen the same way.

Artists didn't suddenly put all their painting, photography, and other media aside until a 'respectful time' after the conclusion of WWII, for example.

This game seems more commercial than artistic, which may make the difference in some people's minds, but it's still a thin argument to create a ban on discussion "out of respect".

I'm an extreme example though; I see nothing wrong with releasing a game/film/painting/whatever the same day as the event/tragedy it's based on. An overly commercial release would disgust me, but it seems strange to force people to sit on their creations until some other tragedy captures our attention and we can safely have a mature conversation about the last one.

claud9999

#3 – 3:18 PM April 14, 2009

IMHO, only too soon if they make it a video game. Read: everyone's an enemy, shoot everything that moves, you win when everyone else is dead.

Personally, I think it'd be far more interesting to have innocent civilians and have serious consequences for killing innocents. But surely Konami's not known for their socially conscientious games...

Scypher

#4 – 4:25 PM April 14, 2009

I did some research on the developers of this game. It definitely doesn't sound like a game Konami Digital would suddenly develop.

Indeed, the game is being developed by American studio Atomic Games, who apparently have had a long partnership with the U.S. Marine Corps to produce training tools (via a division separate from their commercial dev team). In a recent GamePro interview, the president of Atomic Games said, "When they came back from Fallujah, they asked us to create a videogame about their experiences there, and it seemed like the right thing to do."

I'll spare the rest of the details, but from what I've read I believe Six Days in Fallujah will be more tasteful than not, based on the knowledge that the developers aren't new to basing a game off "real-life accounts," and that their previous Iraqi War shooters attracted no controversy.

Certainly not my kind of game, but I do feel better about the future cultural significance of games knowing that these guys are pretty legit.

ascii

#5 – 8:10 PM April 14, 2009

I might agree with Cosmonaut Zero in thinking this may come too late rather than too soon. Headlines today fade much swifter than they did in years past.

I think video games could have a powerful role to play in helping us understand conflicts, but I rather doubt this one will. Aside from my (possibly too cynical) assumptions that this will be barely more than a crass commercialization, cashing in on the Shock and Awe-style controversy-generating campaign it is already riding, I tend to think it will suffer the same pitfalls as many of our generally more trusted sources of information.

The need to move past the idea in games of black hats vs. white hats (i.e. kill all the baddies) is particularly pressing when dealing with bleedingly current issues like this one. I think games like these will only start to contribute something of real value when they are able to incorporate alternative viewpoints in synthesis with the default narrative. Far Cry 2, in my mind, stands out as one of the better efforts at portraying the moral vagaries of armed conflict.

benher

#6 – 6:41 AM April 15, 2009

Is it too soon for a 911 flight Sim? Less innocent people died there than in Iraq.

Video games are unique as an art form because unlike a painting, song, or movie, the consumer/viewer is also an active participant. So I think for people looking at this game as a typical FPS then yeah, they'll see it as insensitive... and those people have a point, because who wants to play "be nice to butterflies and learn about the Geneva convention?" Nobody in Konami's player demographic!

If you can play as a rebel (or ahem, insurgents) fighting to protect your family and friends from foreign invaders (or ahem, liberators) then I would say yeah, it's fair. If the object is 'kill the iraqis' then it's unbalanced to say the least... even without child rape and torture.

Davin

#7 – 9:06 AM April 15, 2009

I think this is a great project. Like any other form of expression, games should be allowed to hit on serious topics in many ways – if this is pulled off documentary-style successfully, it could be a great precedent.

Cosmonaut Zero

#8 – 9:24 AM April 15, 2009

As I'm hearing more details about the game, it's sounding less and less like a realistic depiction of the events, and more like your standard video game with regenerating health, wayyy too much life etc. Check out Nick Brecken's impressions on the latest Idle Thumbs podcast: http://www.idlethumbs.net/ (it's #25)

If that's the kind of attitude they're taking with it, I don't have much hope left for the game. I think gamers could stand to learn something about the Geneva Conventions. If nothing else, retraining yourself NOT to simply shoot everything that moves is enough of a step forward that I'd be happy to see it happen, even if the rest of it a just Gears of War in a desert city. Although, I suppose if they're trying to be realistic, this isn't the game to explore what it feels like to fight according to the Geneva Conventions since American soldiers completely disregarded them in Fallujah.

Even if it leans on unrealistic video game tropes, if they made you play as both sides it could be something progressive. There are people in the US that are pro-war as well as anti-war who could probably stand to spend a minute in somebody else's shoes. Interactive experiences like video games are uniquely suited to this task. It's a shame so few people are trying to do anything with it, and of the few that do most fail (Haze is a perfect example).

Benher: I would totally play a 9/11 flight sim/stealth game. I love tragedies, and I can only think of a few games that deserve the name. You could have a scene at the end showing your character surrounded by virgins in heaven, watching the American retaliation on Earth, crying "This is not what I wanted!"