Whether in war or peace, video games involving blazing guns and bloody conflict are as popular as ever in the US, with more than six new war games set to hit the shops in the coming weeks.
Games makers and industry analysts say that war against Iraq, whether people support it or not, should do little to diminish consumer appetites for the games.
They point to the last week of February, when tensions between Washington and Iraq escalated and three of the 10 best-selling PC game products were either war games or add-on packages for war games, according to the NPD Group, a firm that tracks the industry.
PHOTO: AP
Moreover, three of the top 20 best-sellers for the full month had military themes.
NPD Group analyst Richard Ow said game publishers delayed or revamped many games after Sept. 11, 2001, to remove anything that might offend people, such as images of New York's World Trade Center twin towers. But, gradually, they returned to the themes that have made war games so popular.
"Over time, [as] consumers and the comfort level returned close to normal, you're seeing those games come back into the light," Ow said. "Now they're being released with something of a fervor."
Of the more than a half-dozen war games set to be released in a few weeks, many put players in historical situations such as World War I, Vietnam or the US incursion in Somalia.
While war themes are common, there are very few games based on the 1991 Gulf War, the most notable of them being Conflict: Desert Storm, released last year by Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.
A spokesman for Take-Two said it saw no impact on its business in the run-up to the new war, and it had no plans to delay the coming Vietnam-era title Vietcong.
On the Internet, it's easy to find simple programs like UN Weapons Inspector and War Against Irak (sic) that let the user commit various acts -- unspeakable or otherwise -- against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his regime.
There is one side, though, that is often missing -- the perspective of the people generally portrayed as the enemy in such games.
Special Force is an exception: Players use guns and other munitions to kill enemies and make the world safe for like-minded people, but the enemies are what the game calls "Zionists" and the theme is jihad. Designed by the Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbollah, its Web site at http://www.specialforce.net/english/indexeng.htm claims it will "render you a partner of the resistance."
The US considers Hizbollah a "terrorist" group and blames it for the 1983 suicide bombings on its Marine Corps barracks in Lebanon and its Beirut embassy, as well as kidnapping Westerners in the country's 1975-1990 civil war.
The game's Web site says it was designed in response to the predominance of Western pro-American games.
"The problem behind these electronic games ... is that most of them are foreign made, especially American," the site says. "In addition, some enfolds humiliation for many of our Islamic and Arab countries; where battles are running in these Arab countries, the dead are Arab soldiers, whereas the hero who kills them is -- the player himself -- an American."
The video game industry has plenty of direct links with the US military. Last year, the Interactive Digital Software Association, a trade group for the US industry, organised a drive to equip each of the 72 submarines in the US Navy fleet with a video game console and 20 games each.
Games are also used for military training. Navy pilots in flight school often use a modified version of a commercial flight simulator game to hone their skills.
"One guy on the course used this program a lot and at the end they looked back and said, `Holy cow, your grades are amazing,'" a Navy pilot aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln said.
"They said `How did you do it?' He said, `I have this video game at home.'"
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