Arab GameSpace

Bill Moyers explains:

2012-02-04T10:42:00.000-08:00

Kuma Games

2012-02-03T10:49:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/user/KumaGames/videos?sort=dd&view=u&page=1

Iran Says U.S. Video Games Are CIA Propaganda

2012-02-03T10:05:00.001-08:00

Haram Games

2012-01-27T12:47:00.001-08:00

Video Game Says Islam is the Light

2012-01-27T12:45:00.000-08:00

Latest Game From the Islamic World

2012-01-13T11:10:00.001-08:00

Marketing in the Muslim World: Understanding the Hajj

2012-01-01T03:26:00.000-08:00

Marketing in the Muslim World: Understanding the Hajj

2011/11/07 · Shelina Janmohamed · Responses (6)

The Arab Spring is opening a new frontier for brands hoping to engage the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims. To mark this week’s Eid al-Adha festival, Ogilvy Noor’s Shelina Janmohamed looks at the hajj – the annual Muslim pilgrimage – and what it means for marketers.

The world’s most diverse annual pilgrimage is about to end in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Last year, numbers for the Islamic hajj reached an epic 2.8 million people from 181 countries.

The hajj is one of the defining events of the global Muslim community. Islam is the only religion where it’s compulsory to undertake a pilgrimage at a specific time, in a specific place, with specific rituals so that it’s in unison with other Muslims.

Any brand hoping to have an impact in the Muslim world needs to understand the power of this occasion in the collective Muslim consciousness along with the values it embodies.

Image by Al Jazeera English via Flickr

Engaging the ummah

It’s hard to overstate the significance of the hajj in Muslim life. When Muslims stand for their five daily prayers they face in the direction of Mecca no matter where they live. Not only does this create a deep-seated yearning to visit the holy site, it’s also one of many factors that bind together the global Muslim nation known as the ummah.

Ummah is a word that is often repeated in the Western media but which can be difficult to grasp in an era of modern nation states and defined borders. Like the hajj, the ummah is about togetherness, a form of global connectivity that disregards geography, culture and language.

The Quran talks repeatedly about how Muslims are “one ummah.” The traditions of the Prophet Muhammad explain that the ummah is like a body: If one part is in pain, the whole body feels it. Acknowledging this sense of collectivity is crucial for marketers.

Investing in the hajj

Devout Muslims will start saving for the hajj as soon as they can afford it. In some nations governments will support hajj savings schemes or set up hajj investment funds.

In 1963 the Malaysian Parliament launched the Malaysian pilgrim’s management fund as a response to unscrupulous operators who were targeting potential pilgrims, especially the poor, who may have saved for decades.

The fund now has 5 million members, and at 23 billion Malaysian ringgit it’s the world’s largest Islamic savings institution. It even bailed out large Malaysian corporations during the financial crisis.

It’s a simple, effective concept, but surprisingly it has not been adopted outside Malaysia, despite the prevalence of dishonest hajj brokers around the world.

This year Islamic banks in the United Arab Emirates have been offering 12-month interest-free loans to prospective pilgrims. The Sharjah Islamic bank says that offering this service “without any profit or fee is part of our commitment to catering to consumer demand for Islamic products” and to “products that serve the social, health, educational and spiritual aspects of society.”

In Indonesia banks have been marketing hajj savings funds as their primary product. Catering to potential pilgrims is a great way for banks – and perhaps other brands – to attract long-term customers while being perceived as community-oriented and Muslim-friendly.

Branding the hajj?

As pilgrims leave their hometowns, entire communities will be there to bid them farewell. In Muslim countries high-ranking ministers will often show up at airports and the media will cover various delegations of pilgrims as they depart.

Marketers may have their marketing ears perked at this point. Are you wondering whether pilgrims are handed out company goody bags? Are they given access to special branded lounges at the airport? Are there photo opportunities to have the white-clad pilgrims snapped in front of some corporate logo?

Not so fast. Pilgrims wear white clothing to erase all trace of worldly existence, to become a “simple soul” that focuses only on the spiritual. Any brand plastering itself across a hajj convoy risks a serious backlash.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities for marketers, but they must be handled subtly and with pure intentions. Pilgrims will see right through veiled attempts to buy or brand the hajj.

One opportunity is to assist potential pilgrims for whom hajj costs might be prohibitive. This could be done by matching their savings, or even through a corporate scheme to pay for a certain number of hajj pilgrimages.

Another idea might be to ”sponsor” the family that remains behind when a pilgrim heads to Mecca. Wealthy individuals already fund poorer pilgrims. Brands can do the same.

The hajj is a wonderful microcosm of how Muslims feel connected to their wider nation, the ummah. The best way for brands to be welcomed into the ummah’s fold is to show Muslims they are willing to go the distance for them as well.

Islamic system will rate video games

2011-12-31T13:11:00.000-08:00

Islamic system will rate video games

Eugene Harnan

Nov 30, 2010

ABU DHABI // Parents who are concerned about their children playing violent or offensive video games will get a helping hand in the form of a new, Islamic-based rating system.

From January, the Entertainment Software Rating Association (ESRA) will assess the minimum age for which each game is appropriate: six, 12, 15, 18 or 25.

Although they will not have any legal force for now, the ratings will be displayed on a website to help parents decide whether games are appropriate for their children.

The rating a game receives will be determined by rules drawn up by the Iran National Foundation of Computer Games, in concert with Dubai-based Index Holdings. They have spent the past two years discussing the guidelines with Islamic clerics.

The criteria include sex, nudity violence and the use of drugs and tobacco.

Dr Behrouz Minaei, the managing director of the Iran National Foundation of Computer Games, said the aim was to maintain "the balance of children and player's psychological behaviour".

"The system works as a monitor for the games' content and makes sure that games should indicate education and entertainment at the same time," he said.

Several games have fallen foul of regional moral standards in recent years. The Grand Theft Auto series, for example, was banned because it depicted prostitution, gambling and alcohol.

Dr Minaei said there were games that depicted Muslims as terrorists, while others were frightening for younger players.

He said the top age bracket was necessary because "there is a difference between an 18-year-old Muslim and a 25-year-old". The latter, he said, "is more than likely married and some games are more suitable towards married people".

Anas al Madani, vice president of Index Holding, said the system would help maintain the conservative aspect within the society.

"We are keen on encouraging game developers and publishers to use the ESRA system," he said. "It enables publishers to understand the nature of the Islamic society and the different aspects that it emphasises".

David Reeves, the chief operating officer of Capcom, the company behind the Resident Evil series of games, said the guidelines would only help the industry.

"In the past it was announced just before games were shipped or even when they were in the process of shipping to the UAE or Saudi Arabia that they were banned."

He said the rules would give developers a benchmark, helping them develop regional versions.

"It also gives developers and publishers a forum to talk to about what works and what doesn't," he added. "If there is a possibility of a game [being] banned, the developers will have something to work against and make changes to it."

Saeed el Ajou, managing director of Music Master, a games distributor based in Dubai, said that while all games were clearly marked with European age recommendations, that does not mean they complied with Islamic values.

"This is a Muslim country and they have to abide by those values," he said. "You will see a lot of contradictions in successful games that don't fall in line, like some war games."

Abdul Mohammad, a 42-year-old Syrian living in Dubai, monitors his 12-year-old son's gaming.

"I always check what my son buys or brings home from his friend's house," he said. "It's good to see this for the Arabic region.

"Films and even the internet can be monitored so it doesn't affect our values too much. I know of some games that are misleading. They start out all good and they would have hidden levels of strong violence. Something like this could cut this out in the future."

Are Videogames Permissible in Islam?

2011-12-31T13:09:00.001-08:00

Are Videogames Permissible in Islam?

August 19, 2009 — Ebrahim Saifuddin

Are Videogames Permissible in Islam?

by Ebrahim Saifuddin

With new technologies came video game consoles like Microsoft Xbox, Sony Play Station and Nintendo Wii. When Sony PS3 was launched in Japan on November 11, 2006, 81,639 (Media Create) systems were sold within 24 hours. On August 3, 2009, a report quoting Sony’s earning figures stated Sony had sold 24 million units globally (AfterDawn) since the launch of the product.

Today, one can buy a PS3 80GB edition for about $400. Despite its price, many children as well as adults own either of the most famous video game consoles. Muslims now face a question whether the video games available to play on these consoles are halal or haram. As a Muslim, this question must be asked because we are to assess the permissibility of some thing before we can sell, purchase and utilize it.

Generally video games are without a doubt haram. There are many aspects to this issue which lead to it being forbidden.

Music in Videogames

The first element which cannot be missed by anyone is the presence of music in these games. Any videogame has plentiful usage of musical instruments which are haram in Islam. Some people wish to argue that it is not haram but this objection of theirs is baseless.

Is Music Halal or Haram?

In not less than four places in the Qur’an, music has been declared haram. One such verse is found in Surah Luqman:

وَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَن يَشْتَرِي لَهْوَ الْحَدِيثِ لِيُضِلَّ عَن سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ بِغَيْرِ

عِلْمٍ وَيَتَّخِذَهَا هُزُوًا أُولَئِكَ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ مُّهِينٌ

Wamina alnnasi man yashtaree lahwa alhadeethi liyudilla AAan sabeeli Allahi bighayri AAilmin wayattakhithaha huzuwan olaika lahum AAathabun muheenun

There is a man among the people who buys discourses of distracting amusements, so that he may mislead (people) from the Way of Allah, and make a mockery of it. For such people there is a disgraceful punishment. [31:06]

The phrase ‘lahwa alhadeeth’ is of importance as this refers to music.

‘Abdullah ibn Mas’ud (ra), while replying to a question regarding “lahwa alhadeeth” said:

“I take an oath by Allah, this means music.”
(al-Sunan al-Kubra lil Baihaqi, v.1 p.223)

Imam Shawkani (rh) quotes this hadith and says:

“Ibn Shayba (rh) has quoted this hadith with sahih sanad. This has also been quoted by Hakim (rh) and Baihaqi (rh). Both of them classified it as sahih.”
(Nayl al Awtar, v.8 p.100)

Ibn ‘Abbas (ra) stated regarding “lahwa alhadeeth”:

“This means singing and things like it.”
(Adab al-Mufrad v.2 p.662)

Hasan Basri (rh) said regarding the same:

“This means music other things like story-telling the whole night, jokes, nonsensical talks etc. In fact, it includes all such things which would make one negligent of Allah’s (swt) worship and remembrance.”
(Tafsir Ruh al-Ma’ani, v.21 p.67)

Another narration from Hasan Basri (rh) is reported where he has said:

“This verse was revealed with regard to music.”
(Tafsir Ibn Kathir, v.3 p.442)

There are many such statements of the companions where they have explained the meaning of “lahwa alhadeeth” to mean music. The above are just a few mentioned to clarify the matter.

Apart from the Qur’an, there are many ahadith that leave no doubt that music is haram in Islam.

Umaamah Baahilee (ra) has narrated that the Messenger (saw) said:

“Verily, I have been sent by Allah (swt) as a guidance and mercy for the Muslims and He (swt) has commanded me to destroy the flute, drum, cross and objects of the days of ignorance (jahiliyah).”
(Abu Dawood)

Ibn ‘Abbas (ra) has narrated that the Messenger (saw) said:

“I have been commanded to destroy the drum and the flute.”
(Jamul Jawaami’)

Abu Hurairah (ra) has narrated that the Messenger (saw) said:

“Close to Qiyaamah, the forms of some people of my Ummah will be transformed and changed into that of monkeys and swines.”
The Sahabah (raa) asked: “O Rasulullah (saw)! Will these people be Muslims?”The Messenger (saw) said: “Yes, they will testify that there is none worthy of worship but Allah (swt) and that I am Allah’s (swt) messenger and they will also fast.”The Sahabah (raa) asked: “O Rasulullah (saw)! Then why will this happen to them?
”The Messenger (saw) said: “These people will become accustomed to musical instruments and singing girls and they will drink wine. One night they will be involved in drinking wine and in futilities and amusements. In the morning, their features will be transformed.”
(Ibn Hibban)

‘Abdullah ibn Dinar said:

“I went out with ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar to the market. He passed by a small slave-girl who was singing and remarked, ‘Shaytan. If he had left anyone, he would have left this girl.’”
(Adab Al-Mufrad)

‘Abdullah Ibn ‘Abbas (ra) narrated that the Messenger (saw) said:

“Allah (swt) has forbidden wine, gambling, drum and saarangee (stringed instrument like violin).” He added, “Everything that intoxicates is haram.”
(Ma’ariful Qur’an, while quoting from Imam Ahmed, Abu Dawood and Ibn Hibban)

As this article does not pertain to the topic of music being halal or haram in Islam, hence, many authentic narrations, juristic rulings etc are omitted. The basic evidence has been given to establish that music which we have today is not permissible in Islam and as a result the music component of video games makes them haram beyond a doubt.

Animate Objects in Videogames

Another component of videogames is the animate objects i.e. humans, animals. Many a times the female characters in video games are highly inappropriately dressed. All such things render the games impermissible. There are many ahadith which render making the picture of an animate object, impermissible.

Narrated Said bin Abu Al-Hasan:

While I was with Ibn ‘Abbas a man came and said, “O father of ‘Abbas! My sustenance is from my manual profession and I make these pictures.” Ibn ‘Abbas said, “I will tell you only what I heard from Allah’s Apostle. I heard him saying, ‘Whoever makes a picture will be punished by Allah till he puts life in it, and he will never be able to put life in it.’” Hearing this, that man heaved a sigh and his face turned pale. Ibn ‘Abbas said to him, “What a pity! If you insist on making pictures I advise you to make pictures of trees and any other unanimated objects.”
(Sahih Bukhari, v.34 b.3 n.428)

Narrated Ali ibn AbuTalib:

The Prophet (saw) said: “The angels do not enter a house which contains a picture, a dog, or a man who is impure by sexual defilement.”
(Abu Dawood, b.32 n.4140)

Similar ahadith are found throughout the hadith collections. They stress on the grave punishments one will face if they make pictures. The making of pictures includes sculptures as well. There are hardly any videogames available that do not have any animate objects in them. This again renders them to be impermissible.

There is an objection raised by some after quoting the following hadith:

Narrated ‘Ayesha, Ummul Mu’minin:

“When the Apostle of Allah (saw) arrived after the expedition to Tabuk or Khaybar (the narrator is doubtful), the draught raised an end of a curtain which was hung in front of her store-room, revealing some dolls which belonged to her. He asked: What is this? She replied: My dolls. Among them he saw a horse with wings made of rags, and asked: What is this I see among them? She replied: A horse. He asked: What is this that it has on it? She replied: Two wings. He asked: A horse with two wings? She replied: Have you not heard that Solomon had horses with wings? She said: Thereupon the Apostle of Allah (saw) laughed so heartily that I could see his molar teeth.”
(Abu Dawood)

Similar ahadith related to dolls are also present in Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. They state that ‘Ayesha (ra) was allowed to keep dolls. Many scholars have explained the doll issue in this hadith. Firstly the doll was without features and made out of rags. This is nothing like the dolls today. Today dolls have prominent features like eyes, nose, ears etc. Moreover, some scholars have stated these events were before picture-making was declared impermissible.

Maulana Manzoor Ahmed in Fadhl al-Ma’bud fi Sharh Sunan Abu Dawood writes:

“Imam Munzari has said the word ‘banaat’ in the hadith refers to dolls with which girls play. If they had facial features then this event was before the prohibition of picture-making. Otherwise, many times things which do not have such features are also referred by the same name.”

Commenting on a hadith in Sahih Bukhari (Kitab al-Adab), related to dolls, Maulana Salimullah Khan in Kashf al-Bari ‘amma fi Sahih Bukhari, has stated:

“From this hadith, majority of the scholars have said that children can play with dolls but to make facial features like eyes, nose, and mouth, and to give it the proper human shape should be avoided.”

As a result, if any object made by man for example a doll, has distinct features etc, then it is impermissible. In many videogames, the characters have distinct features which render them impermissible, even for children.

Use of such objects is only deemed permissible when needed strictly for an academic reason. For example, in a medical college, students require the use of 3D plastic models to study anatomy. Due to this, scholars have permitted to use of such objects.

Analyzing famous games

Many of the famous videogames, at times have a lot of inappropriate content in them.

Grand Theft Auto

The main theme in all the games in this series is based on car theft. One has to steal cars and carry out missions which require one to break the law. Gang mentality is promoted and crime is marketed as something “cool”.

What was the outcome of such a game? Two boys aged 14 and 16 shot and killed a man after being inspired by this game.

“His (the deceased) parents have sued Sony for $246 million in compensatory and punitive damages. Sony makes the video game “Grand Theft Auto,” which the two boys accused in the death said inspired them to shoot into traffic.”
(http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=1490662)

In fact, many online websites now present a “dating guide” for a videogame in this series where the lead character can date various women in the game.

Such acts of violence and mingling with people of the opposite sex are highly unislamic and one should neither allow one’s children to play these games nor should one purchase these for oneself.

Metal Gear Solid

The British Board of Film Classification has rated this videogame 15 despite noting extreme violence, implied child rape and references to suicide:

“According to the BBFC, MGS4 includes ‘references to suicide and an implied child rape,’ broadly speaking, the violence on show isn’t overly graphic, however.
‘During battles enemy soldiers die with small puffs of blood. The weaponry includes petrol bombs, however there is no detailed portrayal of injuries. During cut scenes slightly more detailed violence is portrayed, such as enemy creatures spearing friendly soldiers and one protracted fist fight.’”
(http://play.tm/news/17623/metal-gear-solid-4-includes-strong-references/)

Similarly, there are many popular videogames with inappropriate content especially for children and they should not be allowed to play these. As Muslims, our duty is to raise our children with Islamic morals and not corrupt their mind with unnecessary violence or other things of provocative nature. Such content is simply impermissible by Islamic standards.

Psychological Impact of Videogames

In a report titled “The Influence of Media Violence on Youth” by a team of 8 members (Craig A. Anderson, Leonard Berkovitz, Edward Donnerstein, L. Rowell Huesmann, James D. Johnson, Daniel Linz, Neil M. Malamuth and Ellen Wartella), it is stated:

“Violent video games have recently surpassed violent music videos and even violent TV as a matter of concern to parents and policymakers. There are several reasons for this. First, children are spending an increasingly large amount of time playing video games. Second, a large portion of these games contain violence. Third, because the children playing these games are active participants rather than observers, they may be at increased risk of becoming aggressive themselves. The impact of exposure to violent video games has not been studied as extensively as the impact of exposure to TV or movie violence; however, on the whole, the results reported for video games to date are very similar to those obtained in the investigations of TV and movie violence (Anderson & Bushman, 2001; Anderson et al., in press).”
(http://www.psychologicalscience.org/pdf/pspi/pspi43.pdf)

Craig A. Anderson, a PhD in psychology, writes a detailed article on the psychological effects of videogames. Some of his arguments are reproduced hereunder:

“Myth 1: Violent video game research has yielded very mixed results.

Facts: Some studies have yielded nonsignificant video game effects, just as some smoking studies failed to find a significant link to lung cancer. But when one combines all relevant empirical studies using meta-analytic techniques, five separate effects emerge with considerable consistency. Violent video games are significantly associated with: increased aggressive behavior, thoughts, and affect; increased physiological arousal; and decreased prosocial (helping) behavior. Average effect sizes for experimental studies (which help establish causality) and correlational studies (which allow examination of serious violent behavior) appear comparable (Anderson & Bushman, 2001).

Myth 2: The studies that find significant effects are the weakest methodologically.

Facts: Methodologically stronger studies have yielded the largest effects (Anderson, in press). Thus, earlier effect size estimates – based on all video game studies – probably underestimate the actual effect sizes.

Myth 8: Unrealistic video game violence is completely safe for adolescents and older youths.

Facts: Cartoonish and fantasy violence is often perceived (incorrectly) by parents and public policy makers as safe even for children. However, experimental studies with college students have consistently found increased aggression after exposure to clearly unrealistic and fantasy violent video games. Indeed, at least one recent study found significant increases in aggression by college students after playing E-rated (suitable for everyone) violent video games.

Myth 11: If violent video games cause increases in aggression, violent crime rates in the U.S. would be increasing instead of decreasing.

Facts: Three assumptions must all be true for this myth to be valid: (a) exposure to violent media (including video games) is increasing; (b) youth violent crime rates are decreasing; (c) video game violence is the only (or the primary) factor contributing to societal violence. The first assumption is probably true. The second is not true, as reported by the 2001 Report of the Surgeon General on Youth Violence (Figure 2-7, p. 25). The third is clearly untrue. Media violence is only one of many factors that contribute to societal violence and is certainly not the most important one. Media violence researchers have repeatedly noted this.”

(http://www.apa.org/science/psa/sb-anderson.html)

The above are only some of the common objections raised by those who state videogames have no psychological effects. In the source link given above, other objections and their answers can also be read.

Another report titled “The Effects of Violent Video Game Habits on Adolescent Aggressive Attitudes and Behaviors” by Paul J. Lynch, Douglas A. Gentile, Abbie A. Olson and Tara M. van Brederode, points out the following:

“Students were also asked whether they had been involved in a physical fight within the past year. Students who spend more time playing video games, have played for more years, or buy or rent video games more frequently are more likely to have been involved in physical fights……We asked students whether they play video games when they are angry as a way to release their anger. Thirty-nine percent of students overall (45% of boys, 31% of girls) say they play video games with the intention to release their anger. This usage pattern is related systematically with each of the aggression variables. Students who play video games as a way to release anger see the world as a more hostile place, get into arguments with teachers more frequently, tend to be more hostile, and are more likely to have been involved in physical fights. They also perform more poorly in school. ”
(http://www.fragtopia.com/currrent-news-images-etc/Violent%20Video%20Games.pdf)

For a detailed study these reports can be read in full in the links given.

Impact on Physical Health

While people spend time on videogames, they miss out on healthy activities. A person may sit for 2 hours playing tennis or boxing but they hardly burn any calories. If one would play only one hour of tennis, they would burn a whole lot more calories than 2 hours of tennis on video console games. Exercise outside makes both the mind and body healthy. Sitting in a room playing videogames does neither.

There are some who claim Nintendo Wii solves this problem because playing games on Wii requires physical movements and hence it is just like playing the actual sport. The reality of the matter is that Wii sports burns about only 60 calories per hour more than regular console games:

“A new study shows that kids playing the active computer game Wii Sports burn 60 more calories per hour than while playing Xbox 360, a sedentary computer game.
But they would burn far more calories playing the real sports, report experts at the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences in Liverpool, England.”
(http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=85994)

Another problem related to Nintendo Wii, as stated by some, is that its overuse injures soft tissues, muscle and tendons:

“Prolonged use can lead to injuries The Courier Journal in Louisville, Kentucky reports warnings of overuse from a local PT Siri Njos, who has gotten reports about pain and soreness among both adults and children who got Wii Sports for Christmas.
The action of using the Wii is like hitting the air, hundreds or even thousands of times which can inflame the rotator cuff tendon and bursa in the shoulder…….Imagine playing virtual tennis for much longer than you would in real life. “Unlike the real sport, physical strength and endurance are not limiting factors,” Dr. Julio Bonis wrote in his letter.”
(http://www.allhealthcare.com/news/articles/167-nintendo-wii-pts-weigh-in)

The gist of the matter is that it is far better to go out and play a particular sport in real life than spend hours playing it on video game consoles.

Such forms of activities are a waste of time and have no benefit in them. As Muslims, it is prohibited to get into idle activities that simply wastes time. Islam does not prohibit one to indulge in healthy activities and in fact encourages people to do so.

In Imam Suyuti’s al-Jami’ al-Sagir, v.1 p.62, it is reported:

Prophet Muhammad (saw) said:
“Carry on playing and enjoying for I dislike harshness in your religion.”

In Maraasil Abu Dawood, it is recorded:

Prophet Muhammad (saw) said:
“Refresh your hearts from time to time.”

These narrations make it clear that Islam does not expect one to be in ‘ibadah 24 hours a day. However, enjoyment and play should be those that are beneficial to our body and mind. That which has no benefit should not be practiced by us.

In Mustadrak Kitab al-Jihad, v.2 p.95 it is reported:

The prophet Muhammad (saw) said:
“Every game in the world which a person plays is fruitless except for 3 things. These are archery, training one’s horse and playing with one’s wife.”

In a similar narration recorded in al-Jami’ al-Sagir, swimming is also mentioned. Further, a hadith reported in Abu Dawood:

Narrated ‘Ayesha (ra):
“While I was on a journey along with the Apostle of Allah (saw), I had a race with him and I outstripped him on my feet. When I put on some weight, I again had a race with him and he outstripped me. He said: This is for that outstripping.”

The focus of indulging in these sports is to acquire skill and also train the mind and body for time when one has to defend his deen or himself and his family.

Sitting at home playing video game consoles prepares us for neither. This is purely a useless activity and one should abstain from it at all cost. In Sahih Bukhari it has been recorded:

Narrated Ibn ‘Abbas:

The Prophet Muhammad (saw) said:
“There are two blessings which many people lose, health and free time for doing good.”

Distraction from Obedience to Allah (swt)

Another issue related to videogames is that it distracts people from their religious duties. It often happens that people playing videogames would hear the adhan but do not get up to offer the salah because they are so much engrossed in the game.

Allah (swt) says in the Qur’an in Surah al-Munafiqun:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تُلْهِكُمْ أَمْوَالُكُمْ وَلَا أَوْلَادُكُمْ

عَن ذِكْرِ اللَّهِ وَمَن يَفْعَلْ ذَلِكَ فَأُوْلَئِكَ هُمُ الْخَاسِرُونَ

Ya ayyuha allatheena amanoo la tulhikum amwalukum wala awladukum AAan thikri Allahi waman yafAAal thalika faolaika humu alkhasiroona

O you who believe, your riches and your children must not divert you from the remembrance of Allah. And those who do that are the losers. [63:09]

Although the apparent objects in the verse are riches and children, the verse refers to all forms of entertainment. Mufti Sahfi’ Uthmani, in Ma’ariful Qur’an explains:

“There are two major objects in this world that divert a person from the remembrance of Allah (swt): [1] wealth; and [2] children. Therefore, these two things have been named in particular. Otherwise, it refers to all the means of enjoyments in the world.”

Videogames are addictive and many people have suffered from it. According to the data cited in American Psychiatrist Association council’s report:

“Up to 90 percent of American youngsters play video games and as many as 15 percent of them – more than 5 million kids – may be addicted.”
(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19354827/)

In the same news item, it is further noted:

“Joyce Protopapas of Frisco, Texas, said her 17-year-old son, Michael, was a video addict. Over nearly two years, video and Internet games transformed him from an outgoing, academically gifted teen into a reclusive manipulator who flunked two 10th grade classes and spent several hours day and night playing a popular online video game called World of Warcraft.”
(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19354827/)

In a news report from Australia, the following is stated:

“The father of a 15-year-old Perth computer-game addict has described the family’s extraordinary nightmare – comparing it to heroin addiction.
Wanting only to be known as Lee, the distressed dad told The Sunday Times his son’s life had spiralled out of control in the past 14 months.The Year 11 Ballajura Community College student has not attended classes for two months.
He spends his time alone in a dark room playing the RuneScape game for up to 16 hours a day.”
(http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,22073926-2761,00.html)

One of the leading newspapers in United Kingdom published a report on the same issue. They mentioned psychologists to have said “one in 30 videogame players have symptoms similar to those of gambling and drug addicts.” The report further mentioned:

“Gaming formed such a large part in the lives of three per cent of gamers in a study that they missed meals and went without sleep to spend more time playing.They suffered withdrawal symptoms and had difficulties cutting back on their hobby, and were found to be more introverted, emotionally unstable and have lower self esteem than average.
Psychologists, presenting the research at the British Psychological Society conference in Dublin yesterday, said gaming addicts had personality traits similar to people with Asperger’s syndrome.”
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3338422/Video-game-addiction-like-being-on-drugs.html)

Realizing such harmful effects of videogames, China imposed online gaming curbs. The player was expelled from any game which he was playing, after 3 hours. However, later in 2006, due to unknown reasons China relaxed this ban and the restriction was applicable only to those under 18:

“A watershed online gaming announcement from China’s General Administration of Press and Publications, or GAPP, last Friday means that its proposed “fatigue system,” which is designed to restrict online game playing in an effort to combat addiction among youth, will only apply to gamers under the age of 18.”
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/online-gaming-restrictions-eased)

Could it be that the gaming industry was losing a lot of money due to the initial ban and hence pressured the government to relax it? This question will probably remain unanswered but we should consider all possibilities.

Keep in mind that professionals have compared video gaming to drugs and gambling. Both these are strictly forbidden in Islam. How then can we say something similar to both drugs and gambling can be freely used?

Wasting Money

As noted earlier, a PS3 80GB edition costs about $400, while games like Metal Gear Solid 4 and Grand Theft Auto 4 costs almost $39 and $30 respectively on a known online shop. To spend so much on something which, in principle is useless, is wasting money. It is far better to simply take a membership of a gym or jog around the park which would virtually cost nothing.

In a hadith in Sahih Bukhari, the prophet Muhammad (saw) has said that one of the things for which Allah (swt) has hated us is “wasting of wealth.”

Do we really wish to earn the hatred of Allah (swt) or should we yearn to earn His love?

Many Muslims in third-world nations earn a fraction of the cost of PS3 in a month. There are yet many who do not even earn that much in a year. Our brothers and sisters all over the world are simply dying of hunger. How can we then sit and spend all this money on something which is futile.

With the same money we can purchase books that would enable us to be better Muslims. There are so many of us who have been offering salah for a long time but all that has been invalid because they were not executing the fardh aspects of salah properly. The reason for this is that we do not wish to learn fiqh of even the basic pillars of Islam. However, when it comes to videogames, we are always informed about the new ones that are about to be released and have read reviews of multitude of others.

Conclusion

Keeping everything in mind, videogames should be avoided and the money spent on them should, instead, be channeled in a useful way which would be beneficial to us and others. A Muslim household should have members who have a healthy mind, body and soul.

Video game consoles, if used for educational purposes would then be permissible. Some videogames can simulate learning in children and thus can be used for these purposes strictly. However, there are other ways to simulate learning in children but if it is so necessary to use videogames then they can be used for such purposes.

Apart from this, videogames should be avoided and not deemed permissible for the many reasons stated above.

And Allah (swt) knows best.

Computer/Video Games in Islam

2011-12-31T12:01:00.000-08:00

Computer/Video Games in Islam

The one who looks at these games will see that they are based on mental skills and individual reactions or decisions.
These games are of various types, with many aspects. Some of them take the form of illusionary battles which train a person in what to do in similar circumstances [in real life]; some are based on being alert so as to save oneself from danger; fighting enemies and destroying targets; planning; having adventures; finding the way out of a labyrinth; escaping from wild beasts; racing cars, planes, etc; overcoming obstacles; searching for treasure. Some games increase knowledge and enhance one’s interests, such as games that involve taking things apart and putting them back together, jigsaw puzzles, building things, colouring, and shading and lighting.

The shar’i ruling:Islam does not forbid leisure or having fun in permissible ways. The basic rule concerning these games is that they are permissible so long as they do not get in the way of obligatory duties such as establishing prayer [i.e., praying properly and on time] and honouring one’s parents, and so long as they do not include anything that is haraam.There are, however, many haraam elements in these games, such as the following:Games which depict wars between the people of this world (“good guys”) and people from the sky (“bad guys”), with all its implications of accusations against Allah, may He be glorified, or the noble angels.Games which involve sanctifying the cross or passing over or by it to gain strength, to bring one back to life or the give the player extra “lives” and so on. Also, games which are used for designing birthday cards as in Christian culture are also forbidden.Games which approve of witchcraft/magic, and which glorify witches/magicians/sorcerers, etc.Games which are based on hatred of Islam and Muslims, like the game in which a player gets 100 points if he hits Makkah, 50 points if he hits Baghdaad, and so on.Games that glorify the kuffaar and show pride in belonging to them, like games in which if a player chooses an army belonging to a kaafir state he becomes strong, and if he chooses an army belonging to an Arab state he becomes weak. Also, games which teach a child to admire kaafir sports clubs and the names of kaafir players.Games that include depictions of nudity, and some games that allow the winner to see a pornographic picture; games that corrupt morals, such as games where the idea is to run away with a girlfriend from the bad guys or a dragon.Games based on ideas of gambling.They ask you about the alcoholic drinks and the games of chance (the gambling).The Holy Quran says: “Both of them carry a lot of sin, and (also) have a little benefit for mankind. But the sin (inherent) in them far exceeds their benefits. They ask you as to what they should spend (in the path of Allah)? Say, “Whatever you can spare!” Allah makes His commands clear to you. Perhaps you will reflect!” [002:219]“Oh you who believe! The liquor (and all intoxicants), the games of chance, idols (and shrines), and all divining devices (lots, cards, dices, crystal balls) are the filthy handiwork of Shaitan, stay away from them, so that you may succeed.” [005:090]Music and other things that are known to be forbidden in Islam.Physical harm, such as damage to the eyes and nervous system; harmful effects of game sounds on the ears. Modern studies have shown that these games may be addictive and harmful to the nervous system, as well as causing stress and nervous tension in children.Making children get used to violence and criminality, and teaching them to take killing and murder lightly, as in the famous “Doom” game.Corrupting children’s sense of reality by teaching them about a world of illusions and impossible things, such as coming back from the dead, supernatural powers that do not really exist, images of space aliens, and so on.We have gone into details about some of the ideological dangers and things that are prohibited by Islam because many fathers and mothers do not pay attention to these things, and they bring these games for their children and let them play with them.We should also point out that it is not permissible to compete for prizes in playing these electronic games, even if the game itself is permissible, because they are not a means of jihaad, and they do not help you develop strength for jihaad.

Islamic Video Game Rating System Announced

2011-12-31T11:30:00.001-08:00

Islamic Video Game Rating System Announced 28 CommentsPosted November 29, 2010 -

By Stephen JohnsonToday at the Dubai World Game Expo in the United Arab Emirates, a new video game rating system and board was unveiled.
The Entertainment Software Rating Association will evaluate video game content for games released in the Middle East.According to Dr. Behrouz Minaei, the managing director at Iran National Foundation of Computer Games, "The rating system is designed based on the culture, society and special values of Islam."The voluntary system is planned to indicate when games "violate any of the Islamic traditions in Islamic countries," according to Eng. Anas Al Madani, Vice President of Index Holding, one of the companies behind the board.The system will take into account violence, games that promote tobacco or drugs, sexual diversity or nudity, all with the aim of "maintaining the balance of children and player’s psychological behavior."“The approach of Islam is based on human being innateness 'Al Fitra,' and the most important innate trends are truth, virtue, benevolence, excellence tendency, innovation and creativity. That’s why we made sure that ESRA team are proficient in these areas; Religion, Psychopathology, Educational psychology, Social psychology, Sociology of the family, Family Sociology, Emotional Psychology, Family therapy and Educational technology," said Dr. Minaei.There was no indication of how, exactly, the ratings will look, whether there's a scale like the ESRB's. As of now, the ratings don't have the force of law in any countries.I can see the need for a rating system like this. Obviously the values of Islamic countries are very different than the values of the West, so the ratings of the ESRB would be largely meaningless in a much less permissive culture. Still, it would be hard enough to be a gamer in the Middle East; I hope the ESRA ratings don't lead to any kind of censorship.Overall, it reminds me of a more organized version of the Christian gaming websites out there that try to provide video game reviews from a Jesus-y perspective. Although I am a follower of the Great Elder Gods (Cthulhu! Ftgan!), I support Christians and Muslims making as much information available as possible when it comes to the content in video games... just as long as no one tries to use the ratings systems to influence the content for people like me, who prefer violence, sex and negativity over positive Christian or Islamic ideas.

2011-12-31T11:09:00.001-08:00

Author's note

This article has been published by SAGE in 2008. Its final version can be found here. The following text is my final submission to the editors. For quotations please always refer to the European Journal of Cultural Studies as indicated above.

Introduction

The term 'representation' refers to the construction of meaning through symbols and images. In the digital age, video games have established themselves as a form of mainstream media that shapes our comprehension and understanding of the world by constructing, conveying and iterating various representations. In the last few years a new critical approach towards games has emerged, largely referred to as 'game studies', which places video games in their broader social context (Bogost, 2006; Frasca, 2004; Goldstein, 2005; Juul, 2005; Raessens and Goldstein, 2005; Santorineos and Dimitriadi, 2006). The research ventures of game studies come from a large spectrum of other disciplines, mostly literary and film studies, cultural studies, psychology and computer science (Reichmuth and Werning, 2006). For example, Alexander Galloway has extended the traditional debates concerning representation into the realm of video games, considering

whether images (or language) are a faithful, mimetic mirror of reality thereby offering some unmediated truth about the world, or conversely whether images are a separate, constructed medium thereby standing apart from the world in a separate semantic zone. (Galloway, 2004: 1)

According to Galloway (2004), the discursive, or visual or textual representation of meaning is no longer sufficient in game studies. Instead, the actions and the gameworld in which they occur, must be analysed.

In-game representations of Arabs and Muslims have to be contextualized in a broader narrative structure that covers Islam as it appears in news and popular media (Karim, 2006; Pintak, 2006; Poole, 2006; Said, 1997; Shaheen, 2000; Wingfield and Karaman, 2002). The dominant mode of representation of Arab and Muslim cultures in European and American media generally exploits stereotypical generalizations and clichés. As Bushra Karaman has noted, 'the Arab world - twenty two countries, the locus of several world religions, a multitude of ethnic and linguistic groups, and hundreds of years of history - is reduced to a few simplistic images' (Wingfield and Karaman, 2002: 132).

Nevertheless, in the post- 9/11 world, polarized rhetoric has intensified in both western and Middle Eastern media. The dichotomy between 'us' and 'them' helps to reinforce simplistic ideas of a collective Self and its hostile Other. For example, recent surveys and research have revealed some disturbing findings about how Muslims are being 'othered' in European and American media:

1) the dominant discourses overwhelmingly present most followers of Islam as a threat (Hafez, 2000; Karim, 2006; Poole, 2006; Richardson, 2004);

2) Islam is likely to be linked with terrorism (Karim, 2006; Manning, 2006; Miller, 2006);

3) the representation of 'ordinary Muslims' is marginalized (Richardson, 2006);

4) a conflictual framework dominates (Karim, 2006; Manning, 2006).

Particularly significant among these is the research of Jack Shaheen (1984, 2000, 2001), who has studied the manner in which popular culture has projected and reified images of Muslim Arabs for more than two decades. Shaheen presents us with an analysis of selected media portraits, paying specific attention to American television programmes and motion pictures and the impact that these images have on Arab and Muslim identities. He argues that the stereotypes he has found can lower self-esteem, injure innocents, impact policies and encourage divisiveness:

On the screen, the Muslim Arab continues to surface as the threatening cultural Other ... He/She lacks a human face and lives in a mythical kingdom of endless desert dotted with oil wells, tents, run-down mosques, palaces, goats, and camels. (Shaheen, 2000: 2, 4)

Video games, as 'cultural artifacts', presumably do not stand outside of these broader tendencies. Moreover, they seem to exploit these stereotypes and clichés in a more apparent manner than other forms of media. Reichmuth and Werning have introduced the term 'neglected media' into the field of computer and video game studies. According to their definition, neglected media exhibit strong popular appeal and economic relevance, which contrasts with their lack of culture prestige and scientific coverage. They have argued that stereotypical representations tend to be reproduced in neglected media in more explicit forms, partly because these media are considered to be less relevant in cultural discourse and thus less subject to media critique (Reichmuth and Werning, 2006).

At the same time, video games possess certain specific, distinguishing features. Gonzalo Frasca suggested that fundamentally, game simulations possess the potential for developing a tolerant attitude:

Unlike narrative, simulations are a kaleidoscopic form of representation that can provide us with multiple and alternative points of view. By accepting this paradigm, players can realize that there are many possible ways to deal with their personal and social reality. Hopefully, this might lead to the development of a tolerant attitude that accepts multiplicity as the rule and not the exception. (2004: 92)

Thus between the more critical argument of Reichmuth and Werning and the supportive outlook of Frasca, there exists a certain tension: do video games merely reinforce and intensify received cultural stereotypes, or do they contain the potential to challenge and undermine them?

This article addresses the apparent discrepancy between the above mentioned statements and argues that, although the production of European and American mainstream video games exhibits a strong cultural bias when constructing and reinforcing stereotypical representations of Arabs and Muslims, the medium possess the potential to deliver culturally balanced representations. It will demonstrate this by examining iconographical representations of Muslims and Arabs, narrative structures and gameplay in European and American video games. Next, it will examine how these misrepresentations directly concern Arab game designers and have influenced local game production. Essentially, it will demonstrate how video game creators esteem games introducing 'their' point of view, but will argue that this Arab and Islamic point of view does not necessarily destroy or subvert polarized cultural representations. The last section of this article will analyse genuine attempts to transcend the simplifying patterns of representation in video games. In this respect the potential of simulation, as proposed by Frasca, are investigated in practice.

This article is based primarily on qualitative research and content analysis of more than 90 European or American and 15 Arab video games.[1] The examined games are set in the Middle East (or settings reminiscent of the Middle East), and the representation of Muslims and Arabs plays a key role in the gameplay. A substantive portion of the materials used in this study were gathered during fieldwork in Damascus and Beirut in 2005 and Cairo in 2006.

The methodology used for content analysis involves playing the whole game while taking notes and screenshots of relevant visual signifiers, recording the narrative and analysing the structure of gameplay via simplified Petri Net formal description (Natkin and Vega, 2003). Correspondingly, other paratextual materials related to the game were analysed (booklets, manuals and websites). All the European and American games were played in English, whereas the Arab games were played in Arabic, although most of the games are available in other language versions. Interviews with producers were recorded in Arabic.

Research examining ethnic and racial issues in video games is relatively sparse to date (Chan, 2005; Everett, 2005; Leonard, 2006). Anna Everett (2005) has analysed the ways in which video games reinforce, reject or alter iconographical representations. Similarly, Dean Chan (2005) has suggested that we develop a critical attentiveness to the constituencies of racialized difference and the ways in which these differences are structured and represented in gameworld contexts. David Leonard (2006) has described the so-called 'emerging military entertainment complex' in the US and the various tropes of representing the enemy in war games.

Symbolic and ideological dimensions of in-game representational politics related to Arabs and Muslims have been analysed from different perspectives (Machin and Suleiman, 2006; Marashi, 2001; Reichmuth and Werning, 2006; Šisler, 2006a, 2006b). Ibrahim Marashi (2001) has introduced the stereotypical modes of representation of Arabs in selected combat video games focusing on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Philipp Reichmuth and Stefan Werning (2006) have described the exploitation of Oriental topoi in various genres of western video games. Finally, David Machin and Usama Suleiman (2006) have compared the discursive of two Arab and American war video games, focusing on the ways in which they recontextualize and frame real-world events.

Orientalism in the Digital Age

Video games inherently provide a schematized image of the world. Apart from the heroes, who possess background and personality, often game characters are depicted only by several distinctive symbols. Similarly, the in-game surroundings and setting are rendered frequently by iteration of a limited number of textures and schemes. This also applies to the considerable amount of games which adopt Middle Eastern settings in a quasi-historical or fantasy manner, such as Prince of Persia (Broderbund, 1989), The Magic of Scheherazade (Cultural Brain, 1989), Arabian Nights (Krisalis, 1993), Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse (SSI, 1994), Beyond Oasis (Sega, 1995), Persian Wars (Cryo, 2001) andPrince of Persia: The Two Thrones (Ubisoft, 2005). Although some of these games stand out due to their graphics or plot and are considered milestones within their genre, such asPrince of Persia or Al-Qadim, they more or less share the visual and narrative features of 'Orientalist' imagery.

Fig. 2. Prince of Persia (Broderbund, 1989).

Edward Said's classic work has analysed the Orientalist discourse of the 19th and early 20th century, which recreates Islamic society as a timeless and exotic entity. According to Said (1978), fine arts and photography which presented the 'Middle East' in a naive and historicizing way had served to exclude it from 'modernity', and thus endorsed the patronizing and colonial approach of real politics. When examining the visual signifiers used by games to create a 'Middle Eastern' impression, we find very much the same patterns. These include motifs such as headscarves, turbans, scimitars, tiles and camels, character concepts such as caliphs, Bedouins, djinns, belly dancers and Orientaltopoi such as deserts, minarets, bazaars and harems. However, as Reichmuth and Werning (2006) have noted, Said's concept that the western imagination construes the Orient as one a historical entity, conflating historical fantasies with contemporary reality, usually is not evident in video games. Games portraying a contemporary and a historical or fantastical Middle East constitute separate categories, mostly using different imagery, narrative and gameplay, as we will see below.

Roland Barthes gives a diagnosis of how imitative arts comprise two messages: 'a denoted message, which is the analogon itself, and a connoted message, which is the matter in which the society to a certain extent communicates what it thinks of it' (1982: 195). Unlike the fine arts, video games often contain a narrative. Although this usually serves only as an introduction to a larger 'quest', together with the images and gameplay it shapes the broader connoted message of the game as a whole. In the majority of the model games analysed in this section, the plot begins with the kidnapping of a woman (princess, sister, daughter) by an evil character (vizier, caliph, demon) and the hero's in-game raison d'être is to save her and gain revenge. (In contrast, in Al-Qadim the caliph's beautiful daughter Kara is a final reward for the young hero.) In Prince of Persia, Arabian Nights and The Magic of Scheherazade, the hero is unjustly imprisoned in a caliph's dungeon and his quest is to save himself from beheading; in XZR (Renovation Game, 1988) he has to assassinate the caliph. Although these narratives are typical for common medieval fantasy settings, such imagery is particularly dominant in the frame of reference to the 'Middle East', reinforcing stereotypical notions of arbitrary cruelty and barbarism.

Almost all of these games construct a 'fantastical' Middle East, using quasi-historical elements in order to give the player an oriental impression. Only a few games are based on real historical events, such as Age of Empires 2 (Microsoft, 1999), which includes the campaign of Saladin. On the one hand, this is particularly remarkable when compared with the number of European and American historical games, which usually provide the player with a substantial amount of factual information. On the other hand, the narrative of these games evokes the realm of A Thousand and One Nights, constructing the Middle East as a place without history. Thus, this prevalent 'Orientalist' mode of representation can be perceived as an exclusion from constructive discursive, overshadowing the represented contribution to contemporary reality.

Representation of Enemy

When speaking of the 'Other' we may refer to somebody like ourselves, whom we identify as 'one of us', a stranger ('one of them') or even the unknowable Other (whom Lévinas calls autrui). In the majority of action games (especially first-person shooters), the point of the game is to kill 'others', who typically are 'one of them' (Dahlberg, 2005). The key question, then, is how the 'Others' are constructed by the game.

The Middle East is a favourite virtual battleground. Action-genre games such as War in the Gulf (Empire, 1993), Delta Force (NovaLogic, 1998), Conflict: Desert Storm (SCi Games, 2002), Full Spectrum Warrior (THQ, 2004), Kuma/War (Kuma Reality Games, 2004) and Conflict: Global Terror (SCi Games, 2005) take place in the Middle East or in ostensibly anonymous yet overtly Middle-Eastern settings.

Generally speaking, the player controls American or coalition forces, while enemy units are controlled by the computer. Usually, playing for the other side is not allowed. The enemy is depicted by a set of schematized attributes which often refer to Arabs or Muslims - headcover, loose clothes, dark skin colour. In many cases, the in-game narrative links these signifiers to international terrorism and/or Islamist extremism. Delta Force: Land Warrior presents a scenario in which Arabs from several countries have banded together into a terrorist organization bent on undermining the activities of the US.Full Spectrum Warrior is set in the fictional but overtly Muslim country of 'Tazikhstan', 'a haven for terrorists and extremists' (Leonard, 2004). While the US or coalition soldiers usually are humanized and individualized by their nicknames or specific visual characteristics, the enemy is collectivized and linguistically functionalized as 'various terrorist groups', 'militants' and 'insurgents' (Machin and Suleiman, 2006). At the same time, the moral mission, professionalism and courage of the forces controlled by the player are emphasized by the in-game narrative and scripts. However, the enemies are presented in a way that suggests they are not 'real' soldiers, thereby removing the legitimacy of their actions (Machin and Suleiman, 2006). This could be manifested even on the level of the artificial intelligence controlling the enemy soldiers via scripts including undisciplined poses, shouting and yelling (Full Spectrum Warrior), or raising weapons above their heads, laughing mockingly after they kill (Delta Force). Thus the in-game behaviour of the enemies to some extent exemplifies the concept of 'unlawful combatants'. This is reminiscent of what Slavoj Žižek (2002) has referred to as the Agambenian term of Homo sacer, an individual foreclosed from the political space proper, whose resistance is regarded as a criminal act.

Fig. 3. Kuma/War (Kuma LLC, 2004)

Unlike the games already mentioned, the strategy game Command & Conquer: Generalsallows the player to choose from three sides of a fictional conflict: the US, China and the Arab 'Global Liberation Army'. Again, the description of these struggling factions is significant:

The United States has powerful and expensive units, including well-armed infantry and vehicles that can heal themselves. Their superior intelligence capabilities and flexible air force allow them to strike quickly anywhere on the map. (Chick, 2003: 1)

The Arab Global Liberation Army, on the other hand, is distinguished by 'terrorists with car bombs and truck bombs, suicide bombers with explosives strapped to their bodies, anthrax and biotoxin delivery systems and angry mobs of Arabs wielding AK-47s' (Chick, 2003: 1). In such cases, as Gerard Greenfield has noted, 'choosing to be "enemy" adds no objectivity, it just makes it harder to win - the enemy is still depicted in racist terms' (2004: 2).

Nina Huntemann states that '9/11 is so culturally significant that the games take on a new meaning' (Barron, 2004). Apart from a dramatic increase in games with the objective of fighting terrorism, and combat games set in the Middle East, the militarization of the public sphere is a trend that has modified digital entertainment as a whole. Recent studies examine increasing collaborations between the games industry and the military in the US (Barron, 2004; Leonard, 2004; Nieborg, 2006; Zhan, 2004). Video games are being used as a public relations tool for promoting the US Army and recruitment (America's Army), or as a means of explaining and vindicating the 'War against Terror' (Kuma/War). The latter is a first-person shooter action game based on real US Army campaigns, mainly from the War in Iraq. New downloadable missions are available every month covering recent operations, with Arab or Afghani terrorists or insurgents as enemies. Missions such as Spring Break Fallujah (Kuma, LLC, 2004) and Battle in Sadr City(Kuma, LLC, 2005) allow the player to engage in 'Operation Iraqi Freedom'. Assault on Iran (Kuma, LLC, 2005) even anticipated America's potential further engagement by carefully changing the depiction of enemies to Iranians.

When a game is set in a particular Middle Eastern country and based on real conflict, the retelling of the narrative inevitably reshapes its comprehension and evaluation, schematizing complex political relations into a polarized frame. Nina Huntemann compares similar games with the Why We Fight war films made by Hollywood directors in the 1940s, but comments that the interactive character of the video games medium makes the game's message more like How We Fight (Barron, 2004). She notes that such games are provided with an overwhelming amount of technical information about weaponry and technology of war, but fail to provide background for the deeper understanding of the conflict and its outcome. Similar opinion has been expressed by Zhan in his analysis of America's Army:

The ergodic virtual representation of war in video games engages the public in a participative mimesis within the confines of instrumental media system, so thereby detaching it from actual communicative reasoning. (Zhan, 2004: 118)

The militarization of the video game trope, having reinforced the polarized frame of the good Self and the evil Other, obviates any further explanation of the reasons for the conflict.

Introducing the Other

If there is one example that constitutes an attempt to challenge this broader pattern - matching in particular Frasca's claims concerning simulation - it is surely Sid Meier'sCivilization series (1991-2006). These famous strategy games allow players to act on the part of various civilizations and engage in building cities, establish trade routes and interact with others on a diplomatic or military basis through thousands of years of virtual history. Each civilization has its own unique traits and all are presented in a very culturally sensitive way. The balanced gameplay allows the player to choose any side and generally rewards cooperation. Civilization 3: Conquests (Atari, 2003) has introduced an historical Middle Eastern scenario, as one of the few exceptions. The game is equipped with an encyclopedia containing a substantial amount of historical, ethnographical and cultural information. In the words of McKenzie, 'Sid Meier turns history and anthropology books into strategy game' (2006: 69). The ingame description of many features of Islamic civilization is unique for its correctness and sensitivity, such as the description of jihad (see http://www.civ3.com/ptw_prof_arab.cfm). The same sensitivity applies to the selection of the representative figure for game diplomacy: the first caliph Abu Bakr and not the prophet Muhammad, whose depiction in a video game would be a very delicate subject.

However, the ideological frame of Civilization has been challenged by Ted Friedman (1999), who argues that the game proposes imperialism by rewarding violent exploration and expansion. The Civilization series has evolved considerably from the time of Friedman's essay and gameplay has been changed in favour of cooperation and a non-military approach. Moreover, simulations intrinsically transcode historical realities into specific mathematical models and make any axiological judgements problematic. As Alexander Galloway has noted:

'History' in Civilization is precisely the opposite of history, not because the game fetishizes the imperial perspective, but because the diachronic details of lived life are replaced by the synchronic homogeneity of code pure and simple. (2006: 102)

To relate this broader observation to our topic, we can conclude that despite the possible contradictions in the ideological frame of Civilization, the game is one of the few exceptions in which Arabs and Muslims are neither functionalized as enemies nor depicted in an Orientalist manner, but constitute a possible representation of the player's Self.

Resistance and Martyrdom

The production of video games in the Middle East is in the early days of its development. Nevertheless, there is a strong belief among game designers that Arabs and Muslims are being misrepresented and that their image is being distorted by western production:

'Most video games on the market are anti-Arab and anti-Islam,' says Radwan Kasmiya, executive manager of the Syrian company Afkar Media. 'Arab gamers are playing games that attack their culture, their beliefs, and their way of life. The youth who are playing the foreign games are feeling guilt.' (Roumani, 2006)

Similar concern has been expressed by the Central Internet Bureau of the LebaneseHezbollah movement:

The problem behind video games is that most of them are foreign made, especially American. Therefore, they bear enormous false understandings and habituate teenagers to violence, hatred and grudges. In addition, some enfolds [sic] humiliation to 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. (http://www.specialforce.net/english/indexeng.htm)

Few attempts have been made to overcome this alleged misrepresentation, but the games on the market to date vary considerably in their means and philosophical approach. A direct answer to games such as Delta Force or America's Army came from the abovementioned Central Internet Bureau of Hezbollah in 2003. The action game, entitled Al-Quwwat al-Khasa (Special Force, Solution, 2003), is a promotional tool for the movement, dealing with the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and glorifying the role of Hezbollah in the retreat of the Israeli army (see http://specialforce.net). The game constructs two basic types of Arab and Muslim hero. The first is a figure controlled by the player, a fearless warrior winning against the odds despite being outnumbered by Zionist forces. The second is the fallen comrade. Throughout the game these 'real fighters of the Hezbollah' are consistently referred to as martyrs (al-shuhada'), and the player character finds their photographs at various points throughout the game. Essentially, the concept of the game is not different from western first-person shooters: it has merely reversed the polarities of the narrative and iconographical stereotypes mentioned above by substituting the Arab Muslim hero for the American soldier. The primary difference is that instead of stressing camaraderie and brotherhood between the individual members of a beleaguered army platoon, it stresses the soldier's Muslim identity and higher obligation to Hezbollahas a part of a collective spiritual whole.

Fig. 4. Special Force (Solution, 2003)

A different approach to the topic of self-representation can be found in the Syrian gameTahta al-Ramad (Under Ash, Dar al-Fikr, 2002) which deals with the First Intifada. The game is unusually emotional in the way that it presents players with a story starting with the Palestinians' conflict with Israeli soldiers at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The first mission introduces the main hero, Ahmad, in a demonstration. The Palestinians throw stones at the Israeli soldiers who answer with rifle shots, and the scene is full of shouting, shooting and moaning of the wounded. The player's task is to get out of the demonstration alive; then the story goes on into the classic scheme of action games with the hero joining the Palestinian resistance. Combat is central to the gameplay, but killing civilians is prohibited. According to the authors, Under Ash is a 'call for justice and realization of the truth, the prevention against the wrong and aggression' (www.underash.net/emessage.htm) Despite its low technical quality, more than 50,000 copies were sold in a market where most gamers copy and burn video games.[2] Players discussing the game on the internet often value the fact that it presents 'their' point of view:

From a gamers point of view its one of the worst games I have played. The idea behind the game is admirable though. To give Arab youth their identity back after it has been lost in the western media. (Xenon 2, Dubai; http://www.tbreak.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37702&page=2)

Although referring to 'real' games, Fadel Abu Hien made an observation concerning the replaying of skirmishes by Palestinian children:

It's a way to have some feeling of power in a real-life situation where they are powerless. If a boy can 'fire' the same weapon as the occupier, if he can imitate the sound of a mortar or rocket which he sees as the Israeli source of power, then he 'owns' that power too and feels more in control. (http://rafahnotes.blogspot.com/2005/11/playing-game-professionally.html)

Special Force and Under Ash can be considered as the first attempts to participate in video games' construction of Arab and Muslim selfrepresentation. Although the first is blatantly ideological and propagandistic, whereas the latter pales in technological comparison with similar US and European games, for the first time the Middle-Eastern gamer is offered congruence between their political reality and its in-game mimesis. As Galloway (2004) puts it:

If one is to take the definition of realism a documentary-like attention to the everyday struggles of the downtrodden, leading to a direct criticism of current social policy, then Special Force and Under Ash are among the first truly realist games in existence.

Digital Dignity

The direct sequel to Under Ash is Tahta al-Hisar (Under Siege, Afkar Media, 2005). Unlike its predecessor, the game introduces real events to the virtual world. It begins with a killing in the Mosque of Abraham in Hebron, where in 1994 a radical Jewish fundamentalist, Baruch Goldstein, shot 29 Muslims during Friday prayers. The player controls Ahmad, who has to survive the first minutes of Goldstein's shooting by hiding between pillars, and then at the right moment disarm him. In a narrative similar to Under Ash, he then engages in a fight with Israeli police and army. All the main characters in the game are individualized and humanized by very emotional background stories which are presented to the player in cinematic sequences. Radwan Kasmiya, manager of Afkar Media, told me: 'It was our aim to show what happens in Palestine behind politics, to show people['s] stories and problems.'[3] As with its western equivalents, the game fails in its schematization and instrumentalization of enemies (Israelis), although it does make an attempt to overcome this problem. The gameworld is inhabited by civilians (Israelis and Palestinians) whose killing is penalized by an automatic 'game over'. This constitutes a substantial difference from the majority of western war games, where Middle Eastern cities are depicted without inhabitants and the Allied war effort is shown not to hurt civilians (Leonard, 2004). Nevertheless, on the level of gameplay, combat remains the only interaction possible with the Israelis.

Fig. 5. Under Siege (Afkar Media, 2005).

Radwan Kasmiya stated that his aim is not only to transcend western stereotypes, but also to counter Muslim and Arab misconceptions. He believes in the educational potential of video games and wants to appropriate this medium in order to deliver positive and culturally balanced message about Islamic civilization to both Middle-Eastern and western players.[4] His first project within this framework is a real-time strategy game,Quraish, already developed by Afkar Media and delivered to publishers. It deals with the wars of Bedouin tribes and the spreading of Islam. The gameplay allows the player to control four different nations: Bedouins, Arabs, Persians and Romans. The authors promise that the origin of Islam will be witnessed by a Byzantine officer, a Persian priest and a Bedouin tribe chieftain (see www.quraishgame.com). His newest and most ambitious project with Afkar Media, currently in development in Damascus, is an action-adventure called Suyuf al-Janna (Swords of Heaven). This game will cover the Crusades from a Muslim perspective and, according to Kasmiya, should explore 'the rise of extremism on both sides and the religious and cultural roots of the modern crisis'.[5] In contrast to quasi-historical western games, Afkar Media deal with real historical events. When presenting them they use distinctive narrative based on Islamic historiography, such as the opening scene to Quraish, which is built on Muhammad Ibn Ishaq's Al-Sirat al-Nabawiyya, a classical Islamic text describing the life of the prophet Muhammad. The game pays attention to the delicate subject of representation of the prophet, so his sayings and deeds will be present through the memories and dialogues of his companions, in a way similar to that which the authors of the movie Al-Risala (The Message, 1976) chose.

Radwan Kasmiya has coined the phrase 'digital dignity' to describe their works. According to his explanation, this concept comprises pride, self-esteem and aptitude: 'It is how an Arab teenager feels when he puts his hands on a game that reflects his point of view, knowing that non-Arabs may play it too.'[6] From the perspective of Arab gamers, even a normal fantasy action game such as Qal'at al-Nasr (Castle of Victory, Afkar Media, 2003) could have cultural meaning in the sense that the hero who fights evil is Arab and speaks the Arabic language.

Conclusions

This article has explored stereotypical representations of Muslims and Arabs in European and American video games on three different levels - iconographical, narrative and gameplay (i.e. the rule system governing the player's interaction with the game).

First, a general observation on its underlying logic is that the mode of representation seems to depend to a great extent on the genre of the game. Adventure and role-playing games typically portray the Middle East in fantasy or quasi-historical manner, exploiting 'Orientalist' imagery, whereas action games and especially first-person shooters present the Middle East in a contemporary and decidedly conflictual framework, schematizing Arabs and Muslims as enemies. The latter exhibit strong cultural bias on a variety of levels and particularly demonstrate Reichmuth and Werning's concept of 'neglected media'. The reason for this is closely connected to the question of stereotyping and schematization in video games per se, and lies in the linkage between production and consumption. Since video games are usually produced with their consumer base in mind, they tend to incorporate and reflect the general imaginations of the Middle East prevalent among the western public, as well as the audience's expectations of particular genres. The producers logically 'intend on maximizing revenue and implement their own assumptions of their audience's tastes, expectations, and consumption habits' (Reichmuth and Werning, 2006: 47). Moreover, the highly competitive nature of the game market, together with high production costs, reinforces the iteration of proved and successful patterns in game genres and content. Several commercially successful games laid down frameworks which have dominated the market for years, such as Doom (ID Software, 1993) or Dune 2 (Westwood, 1992).

In this respect, the media analysis of Karim H. Karim is worth mentioning, with his findings that 'the more closely a journalist report reproduces the common stereotypes of a particular people, the greater the likelihood that it will be highlighted in a newspaper' (Karim, 2006: 118). As this article has shown, similar logic seems to determine the tropes of representation in video games.

Second, although we have been using the term 'Arabs and Muslims', in the vast majority of European and American games the diverse ethnic and religious identities of the Islamic world have been flattened out and reconstructed into a monolithic representation. Although this corresponds to the broader tendencies of reporting on Islam and the Middle East in western media (Hafez, 2000; Karim, 2006; Poole, 2006), in video games this simplification and schematization seems to be even more prevalent. Apart from missing academic reflection and media critique, the reason could be technological. Non-player characters are depicted often by a limited number of reiterating textures, models and other visual signifiers. Thus technological limitations intrinsically promote schematization, which leads to social stereotyping.

Finally, this article has presented the ways in which misrepresentation influences Arab game designers and local production. It has examined two significantly different fashions in which Arab producers have attempted to subvert this misrepresentation - by exploiting and reversing stereotypical depiction, narrative and gameplay known from European and American games (such as Special Force), or by humanizing Arab and Muslim characters and using distinctive Islamic narrative (such as Under Siege, Quraish). The awareness of racial schematizations does not necessarily lead to attempts to destroy or subvert the schematizing framework itself. On the contrary, many Arab game producers have appropriated the first-person shooter genre with its polarized cultural frame in order to present an Islamic and Arab point of view. The broader 'cultural mission' of Radwan Kasmiya constitutes a rather ambitious exception.

In this respect, European and American attempts to transcend culturally biased representations should be mentioned. Most can be found in the emerging media of so-called 'serious games'. The term refers to games with an agenda, whose aim is not only to entertain but also to deliver a message to the audience. In the context of racial stereotypes related to Arabs and Muslims, three serious games are worth mentioning.Real Lives (Educational Simulations, 2004; http://www.educationalsimulations.com) is a life simulator that gives the player an opportunity to 'grow up' and 'live' in almost any country in the world. Global Conflicts: Palestine (Serious Games, 2007;http://www.globalconflicts.eu) puts the player into the role of a journalist who has just arrived in Palestine and whose task is to write an unbiased article about the unfolding events. PeaceMaker (ImpactGames, 2007; http://www.peacemakergame.com) is a strategy game that allows the player to be the Israeli prime minister or the Palestinian president, while their task is to establish a peaceful and stable solution to the conflict.

In these games a culturally-balanced representation is central to the design in most of the terms analysed in this article: visual signifiers, narrative and gameplay. These games are meant as educational tools and provide additional materials for students and teachers. InGlobal Conflicts: Palestine the game characters, both Arabs and Israelis, are individualized by distinctive graphical features and humanized by their background stories, presented to the player via a textual interface. The gameplay of PeaceMaker is based on the feedback from the player's counterpart and thus representation and introduction of the Other are key elements of the game. Given the relative novelty of these games, a proper consumption study is not yet available, but preliminary results from the implementation of Global Conflicts: Palestine in Danish high schools are promising. (Egenfeldt-Nielsen and Buch, 2006) Although serious games presumably can expand their influence in the realm of digital entertainment and contribute to subvert the dominant stereotypes of ethnical representation, their impact on the mainstream game production cannot be overestimated.

Today we are in crucial need of critically understanding the symbolic and ideological dimensions of in-game representational politics. Obviously, no single factor leads to stereotyping. As Shaheen points out: 'Undeniably ignorance continues to be a contributing factor' (2000: 11). The most dangerous effect of stereotyping is that sometimes, negative images are perceived as a real portrayal of the other culture. This applies mainly in the absence of positive ethnic images, particularly when these schematizations remain unchallenged. Systematic and well-researched academic reflection of representation in video games is needed, with further emphasis on other languages and cultural spheres.

Acknowledgements

This article is based on a research project on Islam, the Middle East and digital media (digitalislam.eu), supported by Charles University, Prague. It draws upon a paper presented at the MediaTerra Conference in Athens, 4-8 October 2006.

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The serious side of computer games

2011-12-07T10:05:00.001-08:00

The serious side of computer games

To some, computer games are a waste of time and are considered dangerous but there is a more serious side to computer software.

David Reid travels to the Serious Games Expo in Lyon, France, to look at how games are providing a whole new approach to education, training and even advertising.

Die-Nintendo-Story

2011-11-18T11:38:00.001-08:00

Die-Nintendo-Story

Illegally downloaded games 'up 20% in five years'

2011-11-11T03:23:00.001-08:00

Illegally downloaded games 'up 20% in five years'

Page last updated at 07:18 GMT, Friday, 11 November 2011

By Dan Whitworth
Newsbeat technology reporterBig budget games like CoD: MW3 can lose millions through illegal downloads

The number of illegally downloaded video games has gone up nearly 20% in the last five years.

Figures from research firm Envisional also suggest the top five games from 2010 were pirated online almost a million times.

Industry executives are worried these figures mean a generation of people will expect to get games for free.

But some gamers dispute industry claims about how much of a problem online piracy is.

Illegal 'testing'

Newsbeat met Sam who illegally downloads around 100 titles a year and ends up buying around 50 of them.

"I buy games because I've pirated them, if I don't get to try them I never would have bothered picking them up."

Sam, who didn't want to give his surname, says he's not put off by the threat of being fined or sent to prison.

Two hundred, 250 people sat in a studio for two years building the latest Modern Warfare 3. This costs real money

Andy PayneChairman, Association for UK Interactive Entertainment

"I've never been fined. I've been doing this since I was 14 and I'm now 23.

"Games that I enjoy I purchase, ones that I don't enjoy I delete."

The video games industry says all piracy is theft and the answer lies in offering fairly-priced alternatives to illegal downloads.

Andy Payne, chairman of the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE), believes it's something the industry is already doing.

"You can be playing that game every single day for a year.

"Look at Fifa, Modern Warfare, Black Ops, those games people are playing all the time. That's great value."

Earlier this year video game executives told Newsbeat online piracy cost the industry hundreds of jobs and millions of pounds.

However, UKIE is reluctant to give a similar estimate for either, saying it is nearly impossible to get an accurate figure.

It is keen though to emphasise that big blockbuster titles can cost millions of pounds to produce.

"Two hundred, 250 people sat in a studio for two years building the latest Modern Warfare 3," says Andy Payne.

"This costs real money."

How games will change the world

2011-09-20T10:19:00.000-07:00

How games will change the world

By Margaret Robertson
Games consultant

Can games make the office a more stimulating place

I'm insufferably lucky: for the last few years I've made my living playing. First as a games journalist and now as a consultant, my work is - partially at least - a game.

Yesterday, alongside e-mails and reports and statistics, my work included playing five games - one old Dos (Disk operating system) game, one Wii, and three Flash games.

For now, I'm in a minority, but within a few years, many - if not all of us - will be able to say the same. Soon we'll all be playing at work.

The first signs of the shift may come when you apply for a job. Already, the rising reputation of gaming has changed how people handle it on their CVs.

Once a taboo amongst all those impressively fraudulent hobbies listed at the bottom of the page ("Orienteering, wetlands conservation, daguerreotyping and blow-fish preparation" it says on mine) gaming now takes pride of place.

It's becoming increasingly common for gamers to list things like running World Of Warcraft guilds in their applications, and increasingly common for employers to recognise the organisational, managerial and inter-personal skills such experience brings.

Employers are already looking at Facebook profiles

And, just as employers are now routinely checking applicants' FaceBook pages to gauge their characters, there's no reason for them not to check their online gaming identities.

A seemingly innocent Xbox 360 GamerCard widget on a personal blog will give a future employer a great deal of information on how much time someone spends gaming, how skilled they are, how obsessive, how collaborative, how determined.

High scores

How long before you find yourself proudly appending your Brain Training data or your Hexic high scores to an online application form?

And even once you're in the interview, the games won't necessarily stop.

Psychometric tests - widely used, but also widely criticised for being too formulaic and too easy to cheat - seem a poor and clumsy tool compared to the kind of insight a well designed game can give you into someone's ability and character.

Should your GamerCard be scrutinised to assess your skills?

Any online gaming veteran knows how quickly games reveal whether someone's a risk-taker or a banker, impetuous or strategic, obedient or rebellious - and how hard it is to fake your responses in the heat of the moment.

And, as the population becomes ever more game literate, there's less and less reason to rely on the old-fashioned, inert interfaces that so many psychometric tests require.

So say your CV and your performance in Battlefield: Office Combat pass muster. In the future there's no reason that what's waiting for you at your desk on your first day won't be a game.

More and more we're finding that game mechanics, and game presentation, can make otherwise difficult or tedious tasks more palatable.

The pioneer in this field was The ESP Game, which uses an online game mechanic to coax human players into labelling pictures for image-based search engines.

Great success

Its great success has produced a stream of similar projects, not least the cluster of word and image based games now housed at Carnegie Mellon's Gawp.

Projects like the Firefox plug-in PMOG show how the application of tried and tested gaming incentives - experience points, levels, medals - can change how people interact with software they use for work every day.

Similar projects to make e-mail management more playful are also underway.

FoldIt uses a graphical gloss and high-score hunger to lure ignorant oafs like me into spending an hour on some cutting-edge bio-chemical research we wouldn't otherwise be qualified for.

So are we heading towards a utopia? And an end to boring spreadsheets, and a new dawn where the ugly repetitiveness of much of the work we do can be masked with adventure, achievement, and excitement? Not entirely.

A hallmark of all of the projects listed above is that they use the entertainment inherent in play to convince people to work for free.

For now, all of them are running for fun or for research or charity purposes, but that trend won't last.

Google has already adapted The ESP Game to help up its commercial advantage, and has enlisted an army of unpaid players in the process.

PMOG's user-created missions currently award medals for visiting much-loved sites a particular number of times a week, but there's no reason a commercial equivalent couldn't use a similar tactic to encourage traffic to advertiser's sites.

And while the idea of call-centre work being enlivened by a gaming ethos is an appealing prospect, the notion of employers offering lower wages to those being enabled to play at working is all too easy to imagine. Will we be so comfortable with the idea once it's all play, no pay?

We may be some years off play becoming that closely integrated into our working lives, but make no mistake that gaming has already had an enormous impact on many of our jobs.

How enormous? The inspiration behind the ESP game came from creator Luis von Ahn's calculation that we spend nine billi

2011-09-05T03:03:00.001-07:00

Angry Birds music to feature in classical concert

Page last updated at 06:04 GMT, Friday, 2 September 2011 07:04 UK

By Dan Whitworth
Newsbeat technology reporter

Music featured in video games ranging from Angry Birds to Mario Bros is set to feature in a classical concert.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is playing more than 20 songs as part of a music festival in the city.

Two of this year's most hotly-anticipated games series, Battlefield and Call of Duty, will also be among the play list.

By going as far back as titles like Tetris the concert is tracing the history of music in gaming.

The festival's director Andrew Missingham says music plays an essential role in the gaming experience.

He said: "Video games from Heavenly Sword to Little Big Planet are taken to the next level by music."

Tongue-in-cheek

Having recorded music in the past for blockbuster films like The Lord of the Rings trilogy the orchestra might be more suited to Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda.

Andrew Skeet was asked to compose the concert for the LPO.

"I was recording, by coincidence, a score for a film based on a video game called Ghost Recon when I got a call from the London Philharmonic," he revealed.

"I thought, 'We've got to go a little bit on the nostalgia front but also find the best bits of music.'

"The slightly darker ones like Advent Rising, it's quite romantic but dark romantic, so I like that.

"I love the ones to work on that are a bit different to the originals because they're a bit more fun.

"But then I loved doing Tetris and Angry Birds because they're completely new versions and a little bit tongue-in-cheek."

The full list of video games included in the concert is:

Advent Rising
Elder Scrolls
CoD Main Menu Theme
CoD Modern War 2: Theme
Legend of Zelda
Mario Bros Theme
Little Big Planet
Splinter Cell
Battlefield 3
Final Fantasy
Metal Gear Solid
Dead Space
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
World of Warcraft
Halo 3
Blood Stone 007
Grand Theft Auto
Bioshock
Mass Effect
Fallout 3
Tetris
Super Mario
Angry Birds
Enemy Zero

A Study of the Video Games market in the Arab World – Nordic Council

2011-08-30T03:19:00.000-07:00

A Study of the Video Games market in the Arab World – Nordic Council

In January 2010, The Arab Advisors Group conducted a study of the video games market in the MENA region for the Nordic Game Program of the Nordic Cooperation Council. The study encompassed primary research with all major game developers, publishers and distributors and covered all major game segments (packaged PC/console games, online games and mobile games).

Why Virtual Worlds Play an Important Role in the Changing Arab World

2011-08-30T03:14:00.001-07:00

Follow artist, writer and entrepreneur Rita J. King on Twitter.

While co-directing the Understanding Islam through Virtual Worldsproject with Joshua Fouts, I traveled to four continents in the physical world and interviewed people from 25 countries in the virtual world called Second Life. What we learned and experienced in the virtual world has since crossed over into the physical world in interesting ways.

The Psychological Impact of Virtual Worlds

Second Life has long been plagued by a misguided media narrative that latched onto its novel and cartoonish appearance while missing the much larger point: For the first time in history, geographically dispersed people are sharing a space limited only by their imaginations, and are visualizing together how the space is used and built upon.

Mosque communities have sprung up all over the virtual world as they have in the physical world, built from the ground up by various individuals and organizations. In Second Life, mosque projects and sites related to exploring Islam range greatly. Some seek to promote diversity by not requiring head scarves (avatars have no real skin to cover) and allowing digital shoes in virtual mosques, since they don’t track dirt into sacred space. Others insist on adherence to physical world standards as implemented by the various projects’ directors.

Experiences shared within virtual worlds, particularly user-created environments, are not perceived as trivial by those who partake in them. People can collaborate on developing the infrastructure of virtual environments, while social media platforms, though valuable for other reasons, have flat, standardized user interfaces.

Further, virtual experiences can help in overcoming shyness, language barriers, or other impediments to meaningful communication, creating the perfect medium for exploring cultural understanding.

The Impact of Virtual Protests

In 2008, when violence erupted in Gaza, a protest took place in Second Life. The space in which the protest took place was created by IslamOnline, an Egyptian and Qatari group with various web properties including ascience section edited by a young Egyptian, Mohammed Yahia, who is also the creative leader of the group’s Virtual Hajj to Mecca in Second Life.

For the protest, IslamOnline created a virtual environment. At the perimeter were pictures, often bloody and smoky, clipped from the pages of newspapers around the world covering the conflict, particularly focused on the deaths of Palestinians. People (in the form of avatars) from all over the world held signs and engaged in discussions. Some protesters were passionate while others were calm. Some had first-hand knowledge of the violence in Gaza and others had no knowledge of the complex situation at all. This didn’t stop them from sharing opinions, just as people do in blog comments or around the dinner table.

I encountered an avatar waving a Palestinian flag who had set himself on fire and asked him why he’d chosen to make this form of protest.

“I’m heartbroken and furious with both sides that it had to come to this,” he said, adding that in a virtual world, he could express himself this way without hurting anyone, and that he felt that others had taken the time to listen to his view.

Yahia took the time to discuss the role of digital culture in real world dynamics.

“In the Arab world, we have seen that line [between in the virtual and physical] thin more than ever over the past few months,” Yahia told me via Twitter from Cairo. “Our digital identities have echoed louder than ever into the physical world, bringing about change and connecting us in ways that would not have been possible before. The relationships we have formed digitally have made some protesters feel like they’ve known each other for years, coming together and working together in some amazing displays of empathy.”

Conclusion

With hundreds of millions of people around the world, many of them young, increasingly exploring virtual worlds, the environments will continue to evolve. The new global culture and economy will transform, in part, through shared experiences in immersive spaces

Untapped Opportunity: Exploring the Arab Video Game Market

2011-08-30T03:12:00.001-07:00

Mahmoud Khasawneh is the founder and CEO of Quirkat, a games development company based in the UAE with studios in Jordan. He is also the IGDA Middle East Chapter Leader.

As the games industry in the Middle East has grown and evolved over the past decade, video game development and game localization aimed at the Middle Eastern market remains a tremendous opportunity. At first glance, the complexities of language, values, social fabric and an entirely foreign pop culture can, understandably, seem daunting to developers and publishers, particularly from a Western perspective.

However, publishing video games for a Middle Eastern audience can yield positive results despite its challenges. Reliable statistics for the region are few and far between, but the Middle Eastern gaming industry is likely worth somewhere between $1 billion and $2.6 billion in terms of revenue across software and hardware. Western developers and publishers have the chance to successfully enter and influence a very green and receptive market, ready to be engaged and monetized.

The “Global Audience”

Many publishers and game developers claim to target “global audiences,” but the reality is that this target often doesn’t extend to the Arab world and rather focuses on North American, European and South East Asian markets. There is virtually no presence of big publishers in the Middle East and North Africa.

There doesn’t seem to be a clear reason for this, as numbers show that the market is rife with opportunity. For starters, simple demographics indicate these regions have a population of more than 400 million people who speak a single language — Arabic. And many Arabic-speaking countries have young populations, some with more than 50% who are under 25 years old. The demographics also show more than 200 million mobile phonesand a strong Facebook presence.

These numbers highlight a wide spectrum of gamers that aren’t being addressed at core or casual levels, nor on the web, via smartphones or through traditional retail channels. There is still no player in the multi-platform, core game development space. By some estimates, there’s an install base of about 8.5 million consoles in the Middle East (excluding gray imports). Sony has long been the dominant player in the Middle Eastern market, but recently, other hardware makers — notably Microsoft — have begun making moves in the region. But given these numbers, there can and should be many more players in this market.

Development History

The games industry in the Middle East has evolved over the past decade. Initially, the few developers who attempted to create original content for the Middle Eastern gamer faced an uphill battle in establishing a foothold in their home markets. High rates of piracy and a disconnected retail landscape fostered a difficult path to market. The few local games in the industry’s early days had gained notoriety for having political agendas, and the typical gamer was looking to the likes of EA and Ubisoft for his or her gaming fix, due to the initial perception of inferior quality associated with locally developed games. Eventually, through partnerships with ISPs and mobile network operators, that perception was gradually shattered and local developers started seeing success. Further partnerships with Western studios and publishers yielded bigger, more impressive projects and higher quality games.

Local developers also turned their eye to outside markets, one example being Egypt-based Timeline Interactive, developers of CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars. Today, a more structured retail environment, higher bandwidth, online payment channels and investor interest in the game development space have all lead to greater opportunity in the market.

The Challenges of Localizaion

The groundwork that was laid by the early pioneers in Middle East game development has paved the way for current Western developers and publishers to successfully enter the space today, and they are more cognizant of the challenges and specifics of this market. One of the greatest challenges along the way included attempts at pure language localization that weren’t met with much success. THQ was one of the first western publishers to enter the Arabic speaking market and quickly learned the necessity of cultural relevancy: Ifirst localized title,Wall-E, was unsuccessful, as it was marketed to Saudi Arabia, a country with no cinemas.

Yet another important localization lesson was learned when Arabized MMO games first started showing up in the Middle East. The purely Google-translated text made no sense, and a lot of technical flaws were exploited, like the lack of standard Unicode text, RTL (right-to-left) support in the marketing assets, and lack of support websites. With heavy ad spending, however, the developers saw traffic pick up from the region and the more far-sighted ones forged local partnerships for better localization and on-the-ground CRM. This resulted in the tremendous success of games such as Travian.

Content relevance and adherence to familiar themes is crucial in developing and publishing games aimed at Arab markets. Sony understood this as far back as 2004 when it introduced This Is Football in Arabic for the PS2, given that football (soccer) is the region’s biggest sport. Sony continues to cater to the market today, being the only console producer with Arabic content for its motion control platform with the release of Start the Party! in Arabic. The publishers that take the time to go beyond pure language localization and understand the gamer demographic and culture can reap the benefits of this wide open market.

Cultural Sensitivity

In addition to language localization and content relevance, cultural sensitivity is another important element that must be considered. On the surface, the guidelines might seem straightforward: Sex, gambling, alcohol and nudity are obvious subjects to avoid. The reality is slightly more complex, as approaches to topics such as family, workplace ethics, politics and war are all areas that could easily be misrepresented in a game environment. Additionally, the social and cultural guidelines are not consistent across the many countries that comprise the Arab world. A deeper understanding of these variations and how product positioning varies from North Africa all the way to the more affluent Gulf market is a sure way of guaranteeing stronger returns on any game investments made in the region.

Ultimately, once the barriers of language and culture have been successfully understood and penetrated, the Middle Eastern gamer is no different than any gamer anywhere else in the world. The interactive experience sought and enjoyed in the Middle East is no different than the typical fun, entertaining game developed for the U.S. markets. It is my strong belief that partnerships between Western and Middle Eastern developers are the key to success; with new marketplaces, stores and digital distribution channels, there is no reason why a successful game cannot — with a little bit of effort and insight — bridge the cultural divide for a truly global game experience.

Video Games in the Arab World and beyond - Interview with Vit Sisler Patrick Haenni

2011-08-30T03:09:00.000-07:00

Video Games in the Arab World and beyond - Interview with Vit Sisler

Patrick Haenni

Video games are at the core of a renewed focus of interest and have given birth to what are now known as game studies. Games have to be considered as a fully legitimate field of study for both anthropologists and political scientists, as they are shaping worldviews, social networks and identities and they engage phenomenona of cultural domination/ resistance. They eventually crystallise new forms of collective mobilisation and action and have to be considered as cultural artefacts. Vit Sisler, a researcher in game studies, tells us more about the religious and other challenges that games are posing in the Middle East and Muslim world.

Keywords:

Lebanon, Islam, game studies, Palestine, Syria, Iran, social aspects,video games, Egypt

Published as:

Haenni, Patrick. Religion and technology: video games in the Arab world and beyond - Interview with Vit Sisler. In:Religioscope, 12 Feb 2009.

Vit Sisler is a Fulbright visiting scholar at the Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies at Northwestern University, Chicago. He is also a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Information Science at Charles University in Prague, where he is finishing his thesis on 'Islam and Islamic Law in Cyberspace'. His research deals with the problematic of contemporary Islamic law, the relation between Islam and digital media, and the topic of educational and political video games. Vit Sisler is a founder and the editor-in-chief of Digital Islam, a compound research project on Islam, the Middle East and digital media.

Religioscope - How did you develop your interest in this neglected part of the media? How did you connect your interest to an area study approach focused on the Middle East?

Vit Sisler - I grew up into the 1980s, which means I belong to the first 'video game generation'. Games were an important part of my childhood and teenage years. Since only some of us had the privilege of owning a computer - mostly 8-bit Ataris or ZX Spectrums - we used to gather at a friend's house and play together. In Communist Czechoslovakia, software copyright was a rather non-existent concept, so we used to copy and exchange games freely. Playing games was therefore an important social activity, and most of us also tried to design and program our own games later on, with varying success.

Later, I left computers and games for a decade and focused on legal, Middle Eastern and Arabic studies. During my studies in Damascus, I happened to be staying in the suq Saruja area, where the main computer and video game market is. Friends had tipped me off about a Syrian political game called Under Ash, which was supposed to retell a story of the first Intifada from the Palestinian perspective. I wanted to buy this game, so I asked every day on my way to the university whether it was on the market. The vendor always told me that it was expected to arrive soon, probably the next day. After about two weeks, when this ritual became almost a habit for us, a programmer of Under Ash was waiting for me in the shop, curious (and maybe suspicious) as to why I kept asking for the game.

Through him I met Radwan Kasmiya, a manager of Afkar Media, the company that produced Under Ash and other Arab video games. It was after interviewing him that my interest in social, political and religious aspects of video games and other neglected media really started to develop. I borrowed the term 'neglected media' from Reichmuth and Werning, who use it to describe media that are economically and socially relevant, but lack cultural prestige and scientific coverage. Apart from video games, these include video clips, popular music, comic strips and others.

Religioscope - What is the relevance of the games for a sociologist or an anthropologist?

Vit Sisler - Video games are popular mainstream media and constitute an important social activity for a substantial part of the youth worldwide. In some areas - for example, in the United States - games penetrate broad segments of society, regardless of age, occupation or gender. Therefore there is a crucial need to understand the games' real impact on people's minds and behavior, how they influence our comprehension of the world, and how they differ from other forms of media.

Essentially, video games are interactive. The player is as much a consumer as he/she is a performer. As such, the gaming experience varies significantly from one player to another. For a sociologist or anthropologist, it could be of interest how games are consumed and utilised by different gamers and in different social contexts. At the same time, games are cultural artefacts, and we can presume that game production varies in different cultures. So, we should ask how the narrative, imagery and game play of games produced in Japan, the United States or the Middle East vary. And, more importantly, what, if any, structural similarities can we find in all these games?

Religioscope - You affirm that games have a potential to shape Muslim identities. Could you develop this idea?
Vit Sisler - Video games provide youngsters with a convenient source of cultural symbols, myths and rituals as they produce their identities. They enable a risk-free and socially acceptable way of engaging in a virtual body play. Moreover, unlike other audiovisual media, games involve the player through immersion and engagement. When you play a game, you tend to identify yourself not only with its main character, but with the whole system - with its rules and underlying logic. For an anthropologist or sociologist, this could be particularly interesting in the case of strategy games, where you can represent a whole nation throughout thousands years of history. Then a key question of how and from which perspective the virtual history is told arises, because the identities of whole nations and cultures are reformulated by the game.

Youth as a social group is of growing importance in the contemporary Middle East. So, I consider it important to ask which games youngsters play there and how the identities of the main characters in these games are constructed, because this in a sense constitutes the representation of the player's virtual self. When talking about Muslim or Arab identity construction in video games, it is important to study the Middle Eastern games and the heroes and role models they provide to the players. But, since most of games on the Middle Eastern market are of foreign origin, usually American or European, it is equally legitimate to ask how Arab and Muslim characters are constructed in Western games.

To give you an example, in Communist Czechoslovakia we were in a way in a similar situation, since most of the games we used to play were produced in the West. I remember in particular one strategy game, NATO Commander, in which a player, after being sworn in as NATO's new commander, has to fight and defeat the Warsaw Pact forces in Europe. Both the technical details and the unit's deployment were based on reality. Given the geographical situation, the very first mission in the game was to bomb and destroy Prague - my home city at that time. Right up till now I can clearly remember the strange feeling I had when playing this game. It was a good game and I wanted to finish it, but at the same time I felt somehow uneasy about it. When interviewing Radwan Kasmiya and other Middle Eastern producers, I realised that they share more or less the same experiences and they feel strongly misrepresented by Western video games. So, in many cases the question of identity was in a sense the primary motivation for these designers to engage in producing games presenting their point of view and featuring their heroes.

Religioscope - Could you introduce us to a short typology of the different sort of American and European games presently engaging Arabic/Islamic themes?

Vit Sisler - Generally speaking, these games exhibit very similar stereotyping and schematisations to those that are already known from other media. They flatten out the diverse ethnic and religious identities of the Islamic world and reconstruct them into a few schematised characters. The two dominant modes of representation can be labeled 'digital orientalism' and a conflictual framework based on current political and military affairs.

The term 'digital orientalism' applies mainly to adventure and role-playing games exploiting orientalist imagery, topics and narratives, such as Prince of Persia, The Magic of Scheherazade, or Arabian Nights. These games typically feature characters like Bedouins, caliphs, djinns and belly dancers; navigate players through bazaars, harems and the desert; and the story often contains plots like saving kidnapped woman or assassinating an evil vizier. The 'Orient' is construed as an exotic and ahistorical entity.

Fig. 1. ‘Full Spectrum Warrior’ (THQ, Inc. 2004)

On the other hand, a more prominent mode of Arab and Muslim representation can be found in strategy and action games, namely first-person shooters, based on real or fictitious Middle Eastern conflicts, like Delta Force, Full Spectrum Warrior or Kuma/War. These games typically allow the player to control American or Coalition forces only and the enemy is represented by visual signifiers referring to Arabs or Muslims, like head cover, loose clothes and dark skin color. Most of these games exhibit strong cultural bias when schematising Arabs and Muslims as enemies in the narrative framework of fundamentalism and international terrorism.

There a few exceptions to this stereotypical framework, like Sid Meier's Civilization series or some historical games, like the Age of Empires, which allow the player to chose from various nations or cultures and generally represent them all in a balanced way. But these represent something of a departure from the rule in mainstream production.

Religioscope - Could you summarise for us the Sid Meyer's Civilization series and explain its evolution. Why has this type of game not been able to generalise itself to a substantive level?
Vit Sisler - Sid Meier designed his first Civilization in 1991, and dozens of games have been published under this label up to the present. Generally, in those games the player has to choose one from a selection of several civilisations and represents it throughout thousands years of virtual history. He/she encounters other civilisations through the game and engages in trade, diplomatic negotiations or wars with them. The game is equipped with an encyclopedia that contains substantial amounts of information about different civilizations and their histories, leaders and units. Civilization clearly has its limits in the way that it schematises history into mathematical models and functionalises religion and science into competitive advantages, but it constitutes a serious attempt to transcend negative stereotypical representations of other cultures. Sid Meier has actually designed other similar games, like the Colonization series, which retells the discovery of the New World and includes the histories of native civilisations, but on a larger scale his approach remains rather isolated.

This can be a result of several factors. Firstly, the game industry is surprisingly conservative. Producing a game is a costly enterprise, and developers are not really willing to take much of a risk. Several successful games have laid-down patterns that reproduce themselves for ages - for example Doom defined the first-person shooter genre as early as 1993, Dune 2 did the same for real-time strategy genre in 1992, and so on. Each genre implies its own rules of game play, which extend to its representational politics. Secondly, games are produced with their consumers in mind and tend to reflect their expectations and tastes. So, the prevalent notion of the Middle East and Islam as it appears in popular culture and people's imagery is extended into video games. Finally, the economic factor could play a role. Western video games have not been marketed to Middle Eastern countries because of a lack of copyright enforcement there. In Damascus or Cairo you can buy whichever game you want, but it is mostly a copy. So, the producers were generally not concerned with Arab and Muslim audiences' perceptions of their games. Actually, though, it seems that this is going to change - several games have appeared that are directly targeted to Middle Eastern markets, like Arabian Lords, which has been designed in a joint venture between US and Jordanian companies and pays attention to the mode of representation of Islamic society, or Assassin's Creed, which is set in the medieval cities of Jerusalem, Damascus and Acre and whose hero deliberately comes from a mixed Muslim-Christian family. So, although the dominant pattern of representation remains racially biased, more culturally sensitive products are starting to appear on the market.

Religioscope - There is this ongoing problem of perceptions of Islamic otherness. This is well known and extensively analysed in the mainstream media, the press and TV, but is less known in the underworld of what, with others, you call the neglected media, such as video games. Could you sketch for us the specificity of the neglected media in terms on conveying images of the other in general?
Vit Sisler - As I have said already, video games basically exploit the same cultural schematisations as other forms of media. But, since there is no or limited academic interest and media critique of these games, the stereotypes and clichés are more overt and prevalent in video games. Also, the technological limitations of the medium have to be taken into account. In a typical video game, designers have spent a great deal of time and energy on modeling the main character, the hero, but non-player characters are often rendered by using a limited number of templates and images only. In this sense, video games intrinsically promote schematisation per se.

Another - probably the most important - aspect is that video games do not merely represent reality, but they reconstruct it via computer-enabled simulation. Thus, the key question is how the rules governing particular simulations are designed, and how they control and limit the behavior of both the player and the non-player characters in the game's reality. For example, in the abovementioned first-person shooter games, the player can interact with his/her environment in various ways - drive vehicles, manipulate objects - but the only interaction possible with the Arab/Muslim characters is to fight them. Moreover, these characters' behavior is governed by artificial intelligence, which follows rules set by the designers - so in many games they fight in an undisciplined way, laugh mockingly after they kill someone or wave AK-47s above their heads. In short, they exemplify 'unlawful combatants' whose activities are considered to be criminal acts. Thus, the misrepresentation is embedded even on the level of a simulation and the rules of the game itself could convey an ideological message to the player. This form of persuasion is unique to video games.

Religioscope - More specifically, could we say that there is a 9/11 effect on games engaging Arabic-Islamic themes, and if there is, how would you define it? Do we see a 'warification' process of the games after 9/11 or a radicalisation of the stereotypes?
Vit Sisler - Sure, we can see a militarisation of the entertainment industry as a whole after 9/11 and a growth of what Lenoir and Lowood have labeled the 'military entertainment complex'. In fact, this close cooperation between the US Army and game-producing companies had begun much earlier. Early computer games were used as military simulations, and later, game-like technology was adopted for training purposes. Similarly, many simulations originally designed for the US Army found their way onto the mainstream game market, e.g. Close Combat: First to Fight, a game originally designed to teach squad leaders how to make tactical decisions in urban battlefield conditions. Illuminatingly, the urban battlefield is set in Beirut. Many other games have been developed in close cooperation with the US Army, like Kuma/War, which for a small fee allows players monthly to re-play real missions from Iraq or Afghanistan and is based on the memories of US soldiers who returned from combat zones. Full Spectrum Warrior uses the engine of a military training simulator and is set in the fictitious country of Zekistan, where the player has to 'eliminate the terrorist support network', and so on.

The most eminent feature of these games is their focus on the technology of war. They are literally overloaded with detailed technical information about weaponry, army vehicles and tactics. At the same time, they advertise their photorealistic graphics, precise physical models and challenging, intelligent enemies. Nevertheless, they fail to provide background for the conflict or any deeper understanding of its outcome. The Middle Eastern cities modeled by these games are anonymous, hostile and bombed frontier zones of perpetual conflict, inhabited solely by insurgents and terrorists. Civilian casualties, collateral damage and destroyed civil infrastructure are missing or obscured, as well as the reasons for the conflict. The technological 'realisticness' of such games obscures their profound lack of realism.

Religioscope - Strangely, Arab game producers seem to confirm rather than challenge the dominant meta-narrative of video games. How would you explain that?

Vit Sisler - Certainly, some Arab video games, like Hezbollah's Special Force, Children of Jerusalem or the Jordanian Jenin: Battle of Heroes, utilise the schematising and conflictual framework of Western action games, simply reversing it and replacing the Arab Muslim fighter with the American or Israeli soldier. The enemies, usually Americans or Israelis, are functionalised and reframed in the same way that Muslims or Arabs are in US games. This pattern is actually not limited to the Arab world - the recent Iranian video game Resistance is set in 2015 and puts a player into the role of Hezbollah commandos sent to Israel to find and destroy unknown weapons of mass destruction.

Fig. 2. Special Force 2 (W3DTEK, 2007)

In most cases, these games are clear reaction to previous Western games, a fact you can confirm from interviews with the producers, their websites or the games' booklets. So, Hezbollah mentions Delta Force and the Iranian company Tebyan refers to Assault on Iran as games they want to counter. Sometimes, it is not only the game play and framework that they copy, but the narrative itself - so the Iranian nuclear programme that has to be destroyed in Assault on Iran translates into an Israeli weapons of mass destruction programme in Resistance. More significantly, Middle Eastern producers usually adopt Western video game genres and refashion them. In many cases they use the original game engine, i.e. the core software component of a game. Although on the symbolic level these games are Arab, Iranian or Islamic, on the structural level they remain the same as their Western predecessors. The inherent patterns of schematisation that I have discussed above are reproduced in these Middle Eastern games, and their producers follow the dictate of the genre and simply reverse the polarities of games they have appropriated.

But it has to be emphasised that many Middle Eastern producers refuse this conflictual meta-narrative and try to design games in a very different way. We can find games based on popular culture, on Arab or Iranian mythology and history, or on family-oriented educational activities. I would argue that in the emerging Middle Eastern game production the military games appropriating conflictual rhetoric are starting to be outnumbered by other, more versatile patterns.

Religioscope - Nevertheless, at least some games, on both sides, are used as tools of propaganda and sometimes of recruitment. Is it possible to describe tendencies in this political instrumentalisation of the games?
Vit Sisler - First of all, it would be inappropriate to think about games as essentially entertainment media. Games have been used as persuasive means since they first become popular. Advertising companies use them for product placement, political parties for election campaigns, and activists for social criticism. The abovementioned examples in fact do not constitute a radical new tendency in the political instrumentalisation of games. In fact, what is happening is an intensification of the process of close cooperation between governments and the entertainment industry in general. Thus, we have the Army Games Project, within which a first-person shooter game, America's Army, was developed and distributed freely to help the US Army's recruitment campaign; the Iranian National Institute of Computer Games, which supports games designed in accordance with Islamic and Iranian values; and the Central Internet Bureau of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, which produces a series of games about the struggle with Israel. The underlying logic of these efforts emphasises the attention authorities pay to the power of video games. For them, games are the new semiotic language of today's youth and they strive to reach them through this medium.

Religioscope - In contrast to the pessimistic view that the neglected media are merely amplifying cultural stereotypes, you have a more dialogical perspective. What are the reasons behind this?
Vit Sisler - Despite the somewhat bleak picture outlined above, during my research I have encountered many game designers who are aware of the persisting misrepresentations that exist and try to transcend them. Some of these attempts can be found in the category of so-called 'serious games', which basically means games with an agenda, which often have an educational subtext.

Fig. 3. 'Global Conflicts: Palestine' (Serious Games, 2007)

For example, the Danish serious game Global Conflicts: Palestine puts the player in the role of a journalist who has just arrived to Palestine and whose task is to write an unbiased article about the unfolding events. He/she gains information by talking to a Palestinian imam, an Israeli soldier, a Palestinian mother of a martyr or an Israeli teenager, who are all modeled on real characters. By talking to people from both sides of the conflict, the player gets different views and evaluations. Similarly, the US strategy game PeaceMaker allows the player to act as Israeli prime minister or Palestinian president. The player's task in these posts is to establish a peaceful and stable solution to the conflict. Both of these games pay attention to the issue of representation and try to provide players with relevant background information.

But we can also find promising examples among mainstream video games, both Western and Middle Eastern. Besides the abovementioned Arabian Lords or Assassin's Creed, we can find, for example, many Iranian games that are trying to subvert Western stereotypes about Iran without utilising the conflictual framework at all. Beside the Quest of Persia series, which guides the player through different stages of modern Iranian history, there are a number of games currently in development in Tehran that are based on ancient Iranian mythology, like the Age of Pahlevanans or Soshiant. These games aim both to provide domestic players with Iranian heroes and foreign players with an insight into the richness of Iranian culture and history. Similar games have been recently produced in Egypt and Syria, presenting Arab and Muslim characters as positive heroes and using domestic historiography and local popular culture as the frames of reference. Even games with an educational subtext are starting to appear, like the Syrian Quraish, which re-tells the beginning of Islam and the history of early Arab conquests from the perspective of pagan Bedouins, Muslim Arabs, Zoroastrian Persians and Christian Byzantinians. Arguably, these games try not only to challenge the stereotypes endorsed by mainstream Western games, but, albeit in different ways, to subvert the schematising framework itself.

Religioscope - You have described briefly the so-called 'serious games' that are based on conflict resolution and peace promotion. Could you speak to us about their experiences: were they able to rise in the game realm, who were their publics, and what were the reactions to these games?
Vit Sisler - The only two serious games released so far that are concerned with the issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are Global Conflicts: Palestine and PeaceMaker. Both of them received a generally positive welcome and have been prominently featured in game magazines and elsewhere. Their authors continue with similar projects - Serious Games, who made Global Conflicts, released another educational game on Latin America, and Impact Games, the authors of PeaceMaker, started a new project called Play the News, which comments on breaking news events using short interactive games. Generally, the serious game scene is growing, with more educational and instructive games under development.

Nevertheless, serious games and mainstream games mostly constitute separate realms. The budgets of most mainstream games are far greater than those of educational projects. Moreover, the uses of serious games and mainstream games could vary significantly, as could their target audience. So, an increase in serious games concerned with conflict resolution and peace promotion does not necessarily have an impact on mainstream game production. Some possible space for change could be on the border zone between these two realms, in fullly fledged and technologically up-to-date games that combine serious content with challenging and exciting game play, but this is not an easy thing to achieve.

Religioscope - Could video games be used as a tool for promoting ideas of tolerance and mutual understanding? What would be the best strategies to promote a culture of peace and a more balanced vision of the Arabic/Islamic world?
Vit Sisler - Video games can convey any message, like any other medium. The question is how to utilise the distinguishing features of games to promote such ideas. I see the strongest potential of video games in their ability to immerse and engage the player in complicated and multifaceted issues. You can simulate a comprehensive problematic and situate the player into it so that he/she can actively explore it. The player can learn by doing - by performing actions and evaluating their consequences. The key issue is, of course, how to design the simulation, how to shape its rules and how to contextualise simulated events in real-world scenarios in order to prevent the unavoidable schematisations that could obscure the message. The key concept of any game is re-playability, so you can utilise more narratives and re-tell the story from more perspectives to give the player a chance to create the bigger picture for him-/herself. In this sense, I really appreciate the game Global Conflicts: Palestine, because instead of simply presenting a 'reality', it engages the player in its construction, thus presenting a meta-commentary on the instantiation of an event and its media re-creation.

On the other hand, games can be utilised in more straightforward way, as an effective critical commentary on existing social or political practices. Such games mostly come in a simple flash form - which means that they are programmed in flash and can be played directly from the browser - and typically provide a short gaming experience that capitalises on the discrepancy between the expected and the given, between the entertainment associated with the media and the seriousness of the issue depicted. If they are successful, these games spread rapidly through Internet social networks in a way similar to viral advertising campaigns. Their main potential is in penetrating broad segments of society and inciting discussion. This is exactly the case of September 12th, which criticises the way in which the War on Terror is led; Raid Gaza!, which opposes the Israeli justifications for the recent Gaza invasion; or War on the North, which on the other hand expresses Israeli frustrations with the media coverage of the July 2006 war on Lebanon. In a way, these flash games are opposed to the complex educational games mentioned above, since they rely precisely on the schematisations that educational games strive to avoid, but the motivation of their authors is similar - to change people's minds on a subject that they perceive is being misrepresented.

Have computer games become boring?

2011-08-12T02:14:00.001-07:00

Have computer games become boring?

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From 'threequel' to sequel, Marc Cieslak reviews the latest games releases

By Alex Hudson
BBC News

There are some vintage video games that will live long in the collective memory. Space Invaders, Tetris and Doom were original, inventive and didn't have a number after their name. Nowadays, the market is saturated with sequels and franchises. But does that mean innovation has dried-up?

In the video games industry at the moment, things are coming in threes.

Gears of War 3, Far Cry 3, Uncharted 3, Mass Effect 3 and Battlefield 3 - along with countless other sequels - are being released this year. Many will be played on the PlayStation 3, itself the latest offspring of a hardware dynasty.

In fact, half of the global top 10 best-selling list is made up of sequels. In the European list, it is six out of 10.

Critics have bemoaned the relentless rise of sequels, some going as far to say they will "harm the marketplace irrevocably".

But follow-up games have been around since the days of Ms Pacman, and players appear to be endorsing them with their wallets. In the US, over $2bn (£1.3bn) was spent on video games in the first quarter of 2011.

No Bruce Willis

The growing scale of the games industry means it is often compared to the movie business. Little surprise then that it should adopt a similar production model.

This summer sees the return of Harry Potter, Cars and Transformers and big games publishers are following suit, leveraging an existing audience to ensure the games are profitable.

The biggest titles at the E3 gaming expo were sequels

"The best way to think about it is the franchise is the star," says James Binns, head of Edge International.

"Hollywood studios put a lot of money into a Bruce Willis film but there aren't the same stars in video games, so what you rely on is the characters of the game instead."

What gaming lacks is the "slow burn". Films often become more popular over time and enjoy the financial safety net of DVD and television sales. Games do not have that luxury.

True, there have been a handful of recent, original hits. LA Noire and Heavy Rain received great critical and commercial success. But taking a chance on a new title seems to be the exception rather than the rule.

"Videogames can cost tens of millions of pounds to make and tens of millions on top of that to market," said Mr Binns.

"Anything that a producer can do to reduce the risk in a project, they will do, and sometimes that means taking a safe bet on a character they already know."

'One idea a year'

One theory is that all the good ideas have been used up. Looking at yet another first-person-shooter, it is easy to believe the old saying that "there is nothing new under the sun".

"The video game industry has always played around a limited number of themes. There is maybe one new idea a year," said Michel Guillemot, CEO of games company Gameloft, earlier this year.

Sometimes new devices require innovation to utilise new features

Many of the most successful game are hardy perennials. The ever changing roster of global soccer stars gives licence for a fresh Fifa title every 12 months, and Call of Duty now follows a once-a-year release cycle.

The predictability of what will top the gaming charts has irritated many in the industry.

"The games industry has stopped creating anything new, and consumers are starting to say 'Hey, what you're selling - I'm not buying'," Peter Tamte, president of Atomic Games, told VG24/7.

But Microsoft's corporate vice president Phil Spencer, who has previously been critical of quick, multiple releases, admits there is an audience for them.

"[CoD publisher Activision has] done a good job building a good game, continuing to release each year and I think the fans feel like it's a good thing that they do that," he told IGN.

Still innovating?

Others see a technical virtue in having two, three or more follow-ups to a successful game.

"Personally I don't think sequels hurt the industry at all," said Mat Sneap, co-owner of software company Eurocom.

"It lets us improve products, incorporate feedback from reviewers and people that play the games. If we have to constantly build games from the ground up, unless we have years of development like LA Noire, it's very difficult to be competitive straight away.

Big games become brands that extend to films and merchandise

"I think it does give the developers a chance to innovate, as once the core gameplay is locked down from the original game you can look to push in other areas."

And sequels regularly appear on lists of best and most creative games.

Titles such as Final Fantasy VII, Streefighter II, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Call of Duty, Modern Warfare all come with a history of releases behind them. But each has found fresh ways to re-interpret its subject matter.

Perhaps the real differentiator between good and bad games is the time and effort spent on creating them. It is releases that are "churned out" that truly incur gamers' ire. Often those will get noticed more if they happen to be a poor follow-up to a strong title.

The reason that Heavy Rain and LA Noire were so well received, critics believe, is that so much time and effort were put into them. Likewise, lovingly crafted sequels should receive the same recognition.

"For me, the most important thing is when we release a Halo game, it's the quality and is the pinnacle of design and creativity on our box," said Phil Spencer, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios.

"That's what that franchise stands for."

Chris Staniforth: Father speaks after son's DVT death

2011-08-01T20:50:00.001-07:00

Chris Staniforth: Father speaks after son's DVT death

30 July 2011 Last updated at 17:17 GMTHelp

A Sheffield man whose son died after playing video games for long periods is campaigning for greater awareness of the risk posed by their excessive use.

Chris Staniforth, 20, who would play his console for up to 12 hours, died in May from deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

His father David believes the condition may have been triggered by long gaming sessions.

While Mr Staniforth has no problem with games consoles, he wants to highlight the heightened risk of DVT associated with being immobile, and is in the process of setting