I don't see it as a downside, it's a good way to get a message out, Bogost does it with persuasive games, the U.S. government does it with America's Army and Hezbollah does it with Special Force 2.

The one in the video was way behind the technology curve. The fact that they promote this crap is sickening.

@ ffalcon

First of all remember that this game wasn't created by Bungie or Epic. If they employ old technologies to make the game it's most likely due to lack of resources. And, while I'm no expert, I would assume that the PCs in Lebanon aren't exactly brand new. Trying to run brand new hardware on old computers isn't something I see as possible.

Not all terrorist groups think that...

I am using my free speech right just like some of you guys acting like the game designers are bad guys teaching the children to be terrorist because you guys did use the word terrorist a few times. The Israeli's was taking a great deal of the Palestinians land without permission especially since Israel has all that power. Then Israel started acting like they had control over the neighbors and when a Palestinian got tired of the Israeli's pushing them around with the Israeli power they started forming a group just like the group Hezbollah was formed. What I am trying to say is Israel is not totally innocent when it comes to power and killing for Israel's cause. If we hear about Israel doing something severe when it has even been said by the media in America most people in America do not throw the terrorism subject in Israel's face and yet if Arabs start defending themselves when Israel invades them then they are terrorists. I just thought that I would get that issue out of the way because something needs to be said especially when this game issue occured. Just using my freedom of speech rights. Do research before you say those comments.

Is it just me or did those graphics look like first year N64 crapola.

[...] Por un lado tenemos a la organizacion terrorista favorita del este. Hezbollah, que va a sacar la continuacion a su exitoso juego en Arabia Saudita, Special Force. Ahora niños malcriados de toda Europa (en Iran nadie tiene una PC, usan Mac) van a poder sentir lo que es jugar al Rainbow Six pero del otro lado. Es como un counter, solo que la AK-47 es mas barata y pega como la AWP. [...]

For the record, Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization, they were formed during the Lebanese civil war during which time several similar military organizations formed, they mainly fought against the Syrian occupation of Lebanon and Israeli expansionism.

@ John Kanders
This game is to be sold in Lebanon not the Palestinian refugee camps, we don't give that much aide to the Lebanese people it's a pretty well advanced country much like our own, just because they all look like a bunch of Arabs to you doesn't mean they are all the same people over there. We do give aide to the Lebanese government to resist Syrian and Iranian influences but that's largely because the U.S. doesn't like Syria or Iran.

@Marlowe
"For the record, Hezbollah is not a terrorist organization"

I think that more important than a group's origins is its current stance and actions. Not applying any labels either way, but just because they may have been formed to resist Syrian advances against their own country does not preclude the possibility that they are acting as a terrorist organization right now.

@videogamerjw

It's obvious that English isn't your primary language. There's certainly nothing wrong with that, but as a bit of advice, I would recommend becoming a little more familiar with the rules of punctuation, and the use of paragraphs, in English standards if you want to post on English-speaking forums. It makes your message much clearer and more likely to be read by everyone else. Just a bit of friendly advice!

Anywho...

"I am using my free speech right just like some of you guys acting like the game designers are bad guys teaching the children to be terrorist because you guys did use the word terrorist a few times."

Um...yeah, yeah they ARE "bad guys" by virtue of trying to use a game to teach children that violence and hatred toward another group of people. That's not limited to the Palestinians or any other one group; it's universal.

I remember reading about a board game in certain countries in the middle east where the objective was to "kick 10 Jewish kids out of your clubhouse". A BOARD GAME. With a clubhouse? Tell me that isn't wrong, that it serves NO purpose other than instilling hatred and intolerance in the next generation.

I don't know about you, but none of the games I play, as an American, have ever advocated the widespread hatred or extermination of another race or religion (I'll note that I've never played, nor do I support, Last Stand). Granted, most of the games I play are RPGs and fighters, but I've played my modest share of FPS and 3PS games, too.

This really isn't the forum to be raising the Israel vs. Palestine debate, outside of the context of video games, I think, so I'm not going to address those aspects of your post. As far as the game goes, it's ok to have soldiers, armies, etc. in a shooting game, just be aware when you make it what you're allowing and encouraging your players to do (slaughter/torture innocents & civilians, etc.).

I agree that it is propaganda, and they do have a right to publish it, but it does instill hatred and fear in people.

@Terrible Tom -

As someone mentioned above, this isn't a political forum, but in all honest Israel has a right to defend themselves from near daily rocket attacks and kidnappings. I don't ever recall Israel going on daily bombing runs for no reason or having civilians walk into crowded areas and blowing themselves up.

So Game POLITICS isn't a political forum... well technically it isn't a forum its a blog. But its about game related politics. And since this particular game is based off real politics I guess talking politics would be acceptable.

Israel bombed Lebanon a few months or so back and the targets were apartment buildings and businesses. Not exactly military targets.

I am a former Israeli voulenteer (meaning I am a Jewish American who served the Iraeli governement in a civilian manner... Mostly meeting with troops stationed in various bases and giving them something to do when they were stuck in the base.) and I would like to set the record straight from my views that were developed with my own eyes.

1) Hezbollah IS a terrorist group. I know, cause they shot at me while I was in the Golan hights in a civilian bus. THe thing that saved me was the fact that the bus was bulletproof and the base was nearby so the response to the attack was fast. They shooters were identified as Hezbollah agents.

2) Ya know, if Hezbollah gave a crap about Palestinians then I guess Israel would not be the biggest employer of Palestinians in the entire middle east. At this point in time there is only one reason for Hezbollah to exist... Kill Jews. How do I know this? Well, hearing one of the surviving attackers that day saying something along the lines to "death to the jews" is kinda a tip.

@ Terrible Tom

It is kinda hard to target a military target when the group you are trying to get is a terrorist group. They kinda don't use bases and the such. They like to use civilian buildings because it provides good camo from military action and it also is an instant bad PR for anyone who goes after them. It is not a coincidence. But then, you tell a pissed off nation that has been attacked one too many times to stop and think about how it is going to look.

@Everyone

I look at this and even if I take away all my personal views about my herritage and the conflict that is not getting any better... I still have one complaint about this game. Here is a situation where not only is the game violent, but they are specificaly targeting kids so that the kids can play the game and go and attack Israel. This is not a free speech issue. This is a warped presentation of a noble hobby. This is a -cringe- murder simulator. This game has the aim to make children into fighters for the cause of the distruction and fear mongering of a nation. This game is truely the dark side of gaming. This game is not meant for entertainment, but to indoctrinate children into killers.

I quote "Through this game the child can build an idea of some of… the most prominent battles and the idea that this enemy can be defeated. The features which are the secret of resistance’s victory in the south have moved to this game so that the child can understand that fighting the enemy does not only require the gun…. It requires readiness, supplies, armament, attentiveness, tactics."

Marketed to kids, to promote violence. THis is agaisnt everything we stand for here.

That and the fact that the tech curve leaved this game far behind and thus makes this game truely evil, in nothing but graphics alone.

The Israeli's are the ones who started all of this trouble in the first place when they took a majority of the Palestinians land. For so many years the Israeli's have not given the land back even when all of the tension was happening with the Palestinians. The Israeli's would act like they control the surrounding areas by invading them if they dont like something, just like how they invade Lebanon, and the people in Lebanon needed someone to defend them from the Israeli's destruction.

Since this is a political website because it is called gamepolitics and this issue I am going over involves the situation with the Hezbollah game and the fact that a few people come on and start this terrorist issue.

The Israeli's have constantly been getting off on the bad stuff they do because they have alot of support from America by which they have all of this high powered weaponry and so on. People go on about how the Palestinians are bad because they blow themselves up in Israel and yet I dont see the American media keep on going on about the Israeli soldiers bulldozing innocent people's houses down, shooting children in the head that happen to be in a protest when it is reported that the children did not have a weapon, when tension is down and there is peace for a few weeks the Israeli's start missions were they are targeting suspected Hamas members, they invade other areas just like Lebanon and kill a mass majority of innocent people just like how they kill a great deal of innocent people in Palestine when they go after suspected Hamas members after there was peace for a while.

There is some of the true facts I just felt the need to type down since this issue is somewhat related to the game and the fact of what some of you was saying that caused me to let you know about the issue.

In games, as in other media, the glorification of the 'white, militaristic, supra-class male' is part of a wider ideological presence, it simply sets out to portray the imperialist, paternalist, interventionalist policies of the ruling classes as normality or 'common sense'. This presence manifests itself in numerous contexts and conflicts be it the recent 'war on terror', the Second World War or more recent imperialist ventures under the guise of 'democracy'.

Take any WWII shooter for example, there is much glorification of 'ordinary men' fighting the Nazis and Fascists, yet there is nothing to address the fact that for all the talk of 'democracy' it was still a war primarily based around imperialist ambitions. A war in which working-class people were slaughtered in their millions carrying out imperialist aims. I think my mentality is best demonstrated by the title of a Surrealist tract- 'Neither Your War Nor Your Peace!'.

I do not believe most video-games could get away with concretely using recent conflicts as their subject matter, instead they are very implicit, they condition with an apparently 'neutral' tone (neutral of course being the upholding of the current bourgeois system). Certainly with Iraq a game could not openly be based on it, firstly because it would cause uproar among both the anti-war movement and those connected to the armed forces, and secondly, because the occupying forces are being routed by the Iraqi resistance.

A final note, yes it is true that in some games you can play as the 'terrorist', however these are mere avatars devoid of any personality or human traits; they are just a medium for the player. It highlights a deficiency of the medium that most games fail to explore the emotions and morality of the protagonist let alone the supposed 'enemy', an enemy so often reduced to a mere 'target' or 'hostile' which the player must not kill or murder, but simply 'neutralise'.


Haruspex

"came from Lebanon"
"I support Israel in their war with the Hezbollah terrorists."

realy you are a very sick pig

give me a break a half of dozzen of countries believe that hizbollah is a terrorist group only the USA england ISRAEL and thats it Most in the Arab and Muslim regard Hezbollah as a legitimate resistance movement
if hizbollah was a militia he woulda killed other lebanese ppl but he doesnt and wont even in the most extreme cases wat ppl dont know is that israel holds the shebaa farms a part of lebanon planted 10 000 mines on the border and kills tens of palestinians a day

hollywood made delta force, so what's the big deal?