Anti-Terror Games Allow Indians to Express Patriotism

An interesting article on the Times of India website details a series of games based on the 2008 Mumbai, India terrorist attack and goes into why, perhaps, people are drawn to play them.

The columnist writes that, “In India, the Mumbai terror attack has caught game developers' fancy in a big way,” before referencing a pair of games based on the tragedy.

Hang Kasab (pictured) is a simple game devoted to letting users attempt to lynch the sole surviving terrorist from the Mumbai incident as many times as possible, while Operation Mumbai is a more traditional web-based shooter that lets players blast away at terrorists.

Noting that these games, both developed by India’s 7seas Technologies Limited, have been played over 5 lakh (500,000) times, 7seas Managing Director L Maruti Shankar stated, “Gamers are playing this game at least once to show their patriotism.”

A more advanced game of the first-person shooter variety, named Terror Attack: Project Fateh!, was developed by a 14-year old Sai Shivam Gupta, who invoked a patriotic rallying cry in urging gamers to play his title. A message on the website for the game, which is also based on the Mumbai attack, reads, “The sole purpose of this game is to unite you all to stand up against terrorism. This is a war we need to win.”

At the end of the article, the author touches on the recent Medal of Honor controversy, rightly wondering why the EA game took so much flak while the Kuma War series of games, which are based on actual events from America's war on terror, “had no such problems.”