Kotaku: Iraq

Suprisingly Competent Blackwater Kinect Title Could Be Its Own Greatest Victim

Drew Cohen — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 18:40:00 EDT

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This week was the first time we heard of publisher 505 Games' Blackwater, an FPS that would cast you in the role of Blackwater Worldwide mercenaries. The topic seemed thorny—the mercenary company, now renamed Xe Services LLC., has been at the center of a multiple of controversies and the subject of highly critical Congressional hearings. Blackwater has been linked to the deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians, and the alcohol-fueled fatal shooting of a security guard in the employ of the country's vice president. According to 505, the game was designed in consultation with former mercenary agents, and with Erik Prince, the founder and former head of the hot-button security contractor. Some gamers have been piqued; a NeoGaf thread devoted to the topic of the game was titled "Somewhat murderous scumbag PMC Blackwater gets an FPS." Is 505 Games trying to court controversy? More »

The War Game Where Nobody Gets Shot

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 07:30:00 EDT

If I told you a game cast you in the role of a US soldier in Iraq, would you simply assume you'd be spending your time shooting? You probably would. Which is why I like this game. More »

Iraqi Video Game, Begun In 1994, Released In 2010

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 01:30:00 EDT

In 1994, some Iraqi students decided to develop a video game for the Amiga. It was never released on that system, thanks to economic sanctions and the demise of Commodore, but now, in 2010, it's out on the iPhone! More »

U.S. Army Trains with "SimCity Bagdad"

Owen Good — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:30:00 EST

Army officers are practicing counterinsurgency strategies for Iraq with using a video game plainly inspired by SimCity. In fact, a frustrated officer unprepared for the fall of Baghdad asked for such a thing by name years ago. More »

Weekend Reader: Questions Asked by a Virtual Jihadi

Owen Good — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:00:00 EDT

Typically, the controversy over "Virtual Jihadi" - a mod of a skin of 2003's budget-bin jingoist shooter Quest for Saddam - deals more with free speech and abuse of authority rather than what the game asks its players to consider. More »

Virtual Jihad Game Sparks New York Civil Liberties Union Lawsuit

AJ Glasser — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:20:00 EDT

The New York Civil Liberties Union is suing the city of Troy, New York and its Public Works Commissioner, Robert Mirch, over shutting down controversial video game exhibition, Virtual Jihadi. More »

Still Collecting Games For Troops

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:00:00 EDT

Earlier this year, we brought word of the Cheap Ass Gamer drive to collect games for the US military troops in Iraq. Just a reminder that the drive isn't over and strong. Kevin Stewart, the fella in charge of the Donation Drive, is an independent contractor in Iraq and comes from CheapAssGamers website forums. He has taken up the task of running the donation drive after the previous community member and US Marine Shane Neuhaus stepped down due to his tour in Iraq being over. Over at CAG, Kevin Stewart says: More »

Games For Heroes Collects Games For Heroes

Mike Fahey — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:00:00 EDT

It's no secret at this point that there are a ton of gamers in the armed forces over in Iraq and Afghanistan. Handheld video games are among the most requested items from our troops stationed in the Middle East, right up there with a home cooked meal and possibly going home sometime soon. There have been games for troops movements in the past, notably Fun For Our Troops and Cheap Ass Gamer's efforts, but this one's from the kids. Peter Gallagher and Jack Wilson created Games For Heroes after organizing a letter writing game to help cheer up the troops. Realizing that letters are nice, but video games are better, the two teens created Games For Heroes, now working in conjunction with MarineParents.com to gather 10,000 new and used handheld systems and games and ship them to the fighting men and women abroad. It's amazing what teens can do when they aren't busy playing video games all day, isn't it? Hit the link below for details on how you can help! More »

Major General Hammond Invokes Pac-Man

Mike Fahey — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:20:14 EDT

U.S. Major General Jeffery Hammond, delivering a press briefing on the progress of the 4th Infantry's efforts in Iraq, revealed the inspiration behind their current strategy for dealing with Al Qaeda operatives and Shiite extremists.

"I believe they have been degraded, we continue to PacMan, like the video game, away at their efforts, at their different levels," Major General Hammond said.

While it's nice to see a video game reference made by high-ranking military officers, I have to wonder exactly what this means. I get this bizarre mental image of an overhead view of the streets of Baghdad, fruit carts spilling into the streets and the military struggling to pick up the produce for extra points. Are we the ghosts, or are we Pac-Man himself? Are power pellets sanctioned under the Geneva Conventions? With so many questions, one thing remains quite clear - we need to air drop Billy Mitchell into the war zone immediately, hot sauce and all. More »

Fake Pikachu Brings Iraqi Children Happiness

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:00:44 EST

This one is for a good cause. For the kids. Blog A Geek By Any Other Name was watching a fluff CNN piece about an Iraqi kids TV show. The clip showed how the show was a refuge from the war and let kids be, well, kids. Fair enough! Then guess who appeared? PHONEY FREAKAZOID PIKACHU! Yay!! A reporter interviewed one of the Iraqi kids who said that she really loved Pokémon. We bet she'd love the real ones even more. More »

Former Marine's Disappearance Possibly Linked to COD

fdemarco — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:05:00 EST

Former US Marine Eric W. Hall went missing last Sunday after leaving a relative's house in Deep Creek, Florida. According to his family he had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder since returning from from Iraq three years ago. Hall had returned home with a severe leg injury sustained from a bombing that also killed a close friend. Relatives report that Hall had been playing Call of Duty shortly before his disappearance and they believe that the game may have triggered some bad memories of wartime. While it is not a definitive fact that the game had this effect on him, given the amount of realism that is put into games these days it certainly seems a reasonable possibility. More »

Cheap Ass Gamer Collecting Games For Troops

Mark Wilson — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 14:00:45 EST

While Super Tuesday is over, the roles and consequences of the US military's involvement across the globe are left fresh in our mind. We'll save you the patriotic one-liners and instead just point out that Cheap Ass Gamer (yeah, we just said "ass") has organized a collection of used, current gen games for the troops in Iraq. The neat part is that after you mail the game(s), the troops will post a picture of themselves with the boxes. It's a nice way that the troops say thanks for us saying thanks for not being the ones in constant danger of bullets, bombs and "sand to butt hole infiltration." More »

Fun For Our Troops Sends Gaming Relief

Mike Fahey — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 12:20:59 EST

While a lot of us are safe at home playing Call of Duty 4 on our game consoles, a sizable portion of the US military is overseas right now living it - but that doesn't mean they aren't gamers. There are tons of video game addicts in the military, and now there's an organization dedicated to getting them their fix. Created by military wife Stephanie Doctor Shea, whose own husband was just redeployed to Iraq, Games For Fun is an organization that plans on raising money to supply our troops with video game goodness. She and partner Dana Blackman Brady believe that the comfort of video games will do our forces a world of good.

"What they really appreciate over there is the true comforts of home," Blackman Brady said. "The stress relief and the escapism involved in these games, we really think could be beneficial."

Iraq Vet Writes Of His Return Home, Return To Gaming

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 21:20:00 EDT

The New York Times has been running a series of opinion pieces under the "Home Fires" banner, in which U.S. military veterans of the Iraq War write of returning to their lives after serving overseas. While some lean toward the intense, including contributions from a soldier blinded in a roadside bomb attack and one from a vet who responded to a bloody police station bombing, the most recent from former Marine Jeffrey D. Barnett writes simply of his love of gaming. It's not filled with earth-shattering revelations or the unique insight that only a Marine hardened by battle can provide, it's simply a thoughtful, down to earth op-ed from a rational gamer, one who just happens to be a foreign war vet. More »

Phantom Limb Gameboy Survives Gulf War

kotaku.com — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 09:40:54 EDT

Crecente could probably confirm, but this scorched, decayed, melted and exploded Gameboy managed to survive the Gulf War and get shipped home. As a vet? It lounges around the New York Nintendo Store all day, playing Tetris. "The horror!" Florian Eckhardt More »

Islamogaming in the Muslim World

kotaku.com — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 08:00:09 EDT

1UP has a truly fascinating feature up called Islamogaming: Looking for Videogames in the Muslim World. It's an absolute must read. More »

Virtual Reality as Therapy

egauger — Wed, 31 May 2006 22:40:00 EDT

Very serious website Serious Games Source has a feature on VR being used as therapy for those suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: More »

WoW Watch: Orcs, Dwarves and the Axis of Evil

Brian Crecente — Tue, 02 May 2006 13:00:11 EDT

By Wagner James Au More »

Gesture War Training

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 14:24:08 EDT

A military sim trainer without weapons? Tactical Iraqi focuses not on body counts, but body language. Soldiers learn things that might be offensive in the US are not necessarily in Iraq and vice versa. More »