“Islamic Militants are Using Video Games to Train Recruits”
May 6th, 2006
I’m getting tired of all this talk of tech-savvy militants leading al Qaeda’s cyber-terrorism department. Perhaps there is a room full of Islamic extremist hacker nerds somewhere preparing their weekly status report for Osama, but if that is the case, then I seriously doubt that they are focusing their activities on modifying computer games, as Yahoo suggests.
The makers of combat video games have unwittingly become part of a global propaganda campaign by Islamic militants to exhort Muslim youths to take up arms against the United States, officials said on Thursday.
Here is the shocking truth: whenever a new game is released, a number (directly proportional to the popularity of the game) of buck-toothed, short-sighted computer gamers immediately knuckle to down to the business of modding. From Barney Deathmatch Classic to Zombie Horror - sometimes its for the fame, sometimes to provide something valuable to the community, sometimes as a learning experience, sometimes its just for a laugh, but please find me the kid who thinks his mod is going to contribute to the destruction of the Western World, I would like to interview him for my book.
The ESRB would also do well to take note. Bethesda Softworks, the makers of the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, have been battling since the game got its rating bumped up to M for Mature last week due to a third party modification which created topless characters. Slashdot have been covering it for a few days now, and they point out that the ruling has required Bethesda to pull all of the current stock of the game to relabel.
John Romero blames the modders, for “financially screwing the company they should be helping” - which is possibly the stupidest thing I have heard since “Islamic militants are using video games to train recruits and condition youth to attack U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq”.
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May 6th, 2006 at 11:31 am
Has Bethseda actually pulled any product? Apparently this ESRB is an “independent” body, ie has no real authority, and its rating system is voluntarily subscribed to by developers.
According to the ESRB FAQ, the ratings are decided by three random and independent people who are not expert in computer games. It seems they haven’t been able to make the intellectual leap between the product actually supplied and a mod over which the developer has no control.
It will be a bad day for open game code if Bethseda and the rest of the industry take this lying down. And for sales. Mods give games a bit more longevity and make them attractive to potential buyers.
Romero’s point is moronic, I agree. To any intelligent person, it must have been unforseeable that a mod could retrospectively affect the rating of a game. Someone in his comments pointed out that it was the same thing as re-rating a movie because a member of the public added an extra scene to it on his computer and made it available, perhaps on You Tube, or something.
May 6th, 2006 at 16:01 pm
I don’t know if they’ve actually recalled it or not - I just took that off Slashdot. I didn’t realise ESRB lacked real authority - I would hate to see Bethesda lose money over it. I would have expected John Romero to be on their side, considering how his 1996 Quake is still being extensively played 10 years later thanks to the open game code allowing for QuakeWorld, Fuhquake, etc.
May 6th, 2006 at 18:54 pm
[…] :James Galvin Yeah, well, you know, that’s just, like, your opinion, man. « “Islamic Militants are Using Video Games to Train Recruits” Derka derka, Mohammed Jihad. Baka sherpa-sherpa. May 6th 2006 @ 6:53 pm General, Games, News, Internet […]
July 11th, 2006 at 8:29 am
Islamic Miltants? what next? the US Army? oh wait, that’s right Delta Force by NovaLogic was developed from an peice of simulation software used by the US Military, and what’s this about America’s Army, a FREE game made by the US Military…
oh come on now people, wake up and smell the Brazilian Coffee.
People will bitch and whine about anything they have no control over.
the reality is that Modding will never go away, to rate a game based on the potentional MODS that MIGHT be made is like Killing your Kids, so they wont get AIDS.. (eg MindBoggelingly Stupid)
ok so an M rating would not hurt most games, the problem here on Oblivion is more the fact that Bethesda would be at a loss of revenue in relabling the boxes.
however to think that this indipendant body of 3 random people have such virtual power over a company is also Mindboggling Stupid.
but the real issue here is why that Sexual material is evil and taboo, while Crime and Death is seemingly fit for consumption by minors.
and think the Western World disdains those nations who use Child Soldiers..