'Blackwater' Videogame Courts Controversy, Lawmaker and Critic Call Game 'Terribly Offensive'

[RamboLiberal]

Source: ABC News

A lawyer representing the families of Iraqi citizens killed by contractors from Blackwater Worldwide said a new videogame inspired by the company and bearing its name is "terribly offensive" and never should have been made.

"Innocent people have been killed by this company. Imagine yourself as a mother or father of someone who has been killed, and now it's a videogame?" attorney Susan Burke told ABC News today. Burke was lead counsel for the dozens of victims and family members affected by a deadly shooting by Blackwater employees in Iraq that left 17 civilians dead and many more wounded in 2007. Blackwater settled out of court with the families in a civil suit, but the employees involved in the shooting still could face criminal charges relating to their actions that day.

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In the game, which 505 Games said was "developed in conjunction with former members of the Blackwater team," players assume the lead role in a Blackwater operation to protect a fictional North African town, "battling dangerous warlords and fighting back two opposing militia forces."

Erik Prince, the former head of Blackwater Worldwide and ex-U.S. Navy SEAL, made a rare public statement in the same release to say the game "will give players a chance to experience what it is like to be on a Blackwater team on a mission without being dropped into a real combat situation."




Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/505-games-blackwater-videogame-courts-controversy-critic-calls/story?id=13812778

[Blandocyte]

1. Holy crap

What a soul-decaying game that one must be.

[Liberal Veteran]

2. Well, that should take some heat off my release of "The Sims: Manson Family House Party"

[Union Scribe]

6. !

That's wrong, that's just... :rofl:

[mokawanis]

9. oh my gawd

that's the funniest comment of the day right there! :applause:

[SemperEadem]

3. instead of playing a lame video game like a wanna-be

they need to sign up for the US military and go do it.

[KittyWampus]

4. Depraved.

[Hugabear]

5. They should name it "Call of Action: Freedom Duty"

There would be no controversy, and it would sell a few million copies.

Sounds like this game is just like every other modern military shooter, giving gamers a chance to shoot at Middle Eastern folks.

[ButterflyBlood]

8. Uh what?

EVERY other modern military shooter? The most popular first person shooter series in the recent era is Halo, which most certainly doesn't take place in the Middle East. Neither does any Call of Duty game except for about 1/3 of the first Modern Warfare and two levels in the second. The most recent Medal of Honor was in Afghanistan, but all prior ones were set during WWII. And it was banned on military bases, so you're going nowhere if you want to accuse it of being "rah rah patriotic".

Not to mention in the multi-player versions of these games you can play as Middle Eastern folks and kill American soldiers.

[Posteritatis]

13. You need to work the word "medal" into there somewhere to properly genericize it, I think

Or just take the CoD series to its logical conclusion and call it Grenade Of Grenade: Grenade Grenade.

[marasinghe]

7. ah! the snuff artist, formally known as prince.

hopefully, he'll get to enjoy some traditional desert hospitality from the princes of Abu Dhabi, real soon.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/unitedarabemirates/5304192/Abu-Dhabi-royal-under-house-arrest-over-torture-video.html

[jmowreader]

10. I have to wonder,

what happens if you murder the wrong people?

It would be pretty cool if you came back from a mission and a platoon of Iraqi cops grabbed your ass, threw it in the same cell as some guy you raped while trying to extract information from him, and his buddies from the next cell beat you to death.

It would also be really kewl if you came back from a mission, went into your Halliburton-built barracks, and got electrocuted in the shower.

Needless to say, they didn't ask me for advice on what to put in this game. But they should have.

[and-justice-for-all]

11. I'll take MW3 or Battlefield 3 over that nonsense...nt

[Posteritatis]

12. I "love" statements like that

Erik Prince, the former head of Blackwater Worldwide and ex-U.S. Navy SEAL, made a rare public statement in the same release to say the game "will give players a chance to experience what it is like to be on a Blackwater team on a mission without being dropped into a real combat situation."

Now I might just be an ignorant civvie - and worse, one who generally likes evil violent videogames - but I'm pretty sure immersion in games isn't quite to the point where you can say something like that and not be completely bloody ridiculous.

I imagine anyone who's ever actually heard rounds whiz past them - or stopped a few, or saw someone else do the same - has some opinions on people who try to spin FPSes into even an approximation of actual warfare.