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VIDEO GAMES HIT TOO CLOSE TO HOME IN ARMENIA, BOSNIA
Transitions Online
http://netprophet.tol.org/2012/08/29/video-games-hit-too-close-to-home-in-armenia-bosnia/
Aug 29 2012
Czech Repulic
For many video-game players, the European wars of the 1990s may seem
like ancient history. One new game, however, is aimed at players
well aware that fighting continues in real life, and others are set
in ethnically riven Bosnia, in what may be the latest trend in the
gaming industry.
EurasiaNet.org reports on a new first-person shooter game developed
by 19-year-old Farid Hagverdiev and his classmates at the State Oil
Academy in Baku. In Isgal Altında: Susa (Under Occupation: Shusha),
the goal is to recapture the city of Shusha from the Armenian forces
that have occupied Nagorno-Karabakh since the two countries warred
over the Azerbaijani territory 20 years ago.
Azerbaijani and Armenian-backed forces continue to engage each other
on the front lines of a conflict that Baku insists can end only
when Armenia and the international community recognize Azerbaijan's
sovereign right to the territory. Indicating official sanction for
the game, Azerbaijan's Ministry of Youth and Sports organized its
launch party earlier this summer at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Baku,
EurasiaNet.org writes.
Under Occupation: Shusha is a fairly low-tech affair, but two
big-budget games are promising the latest in realistic combat effects
in their upcoming editions, each of which features a segment set
in Sarajevo during the three-year siege of the city by Serb forces,
in which an estimated 10,000 civilians died.
One of the games, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 from the Polish company
City Interactive, "rewrites history" and paints a false picture of
the siege, says an artist based in Sarajevo, Adela Jusic.
"The main character is an American who saves the city. This is a
complete paradox, because while we waited to be rescued in Sarajevo,
the Americans were silent. Now, all of a sudden, they are depicted
as saviors, and children that play this game will have an entirely
false image of this time," Jusic told Balkan Insight.
As part of the international peacekeeping mission to Bosnia, the
first U.S. troops arrived in Sarajevo shortly after the Dayton peace
accords were signed in November 1995.
The game's release has been delayed several times and is now set
for 2013.
A similar plot line runs through another popular game set for release
in October. The American hero of Medal of Honor Warfighter battles
villains in the Philippines and Somalia, as well as Sarajevo.
Transitions Online
http://netprophet.tol.org/2012/08/29/video-games-hit-too-close-to-home-in-armenia-bosnia/
Aug 29 2012
Czech Repulic
For many video-game players, the European wars of the 1990s may seem
like ancient history. One new game, however, is aimed at players
well aware that fighting continues in real life, and others are set
in ethnically riven Bosnia, in what may be the latest trend in the
gaming industry.
EurasiaNet.org reports on a new first-person shooter game developed
by 19-year-old Farid Hagverdiev and his classmates at the State Oil
Academy in Baku. In Isgal Altında: Susa (Under Occupation: Shusha),
the goal is to recapture the city of Shusha from the Armenian forces
that have occupied Nagorno-Karabakh since the two countries warred
over the Azerbaijani territory 20 years ago.
Azerbaijani and Armenian-backed forces continue to engage each other
on the front lines of a conflict that Baku insists can end only
when Armenia and the international community recognize Azerbaijan's
sovereign right to the territory. Indicating official sanction for
the game, Azerbaijan's Ministry of Youth and Sports organized its
launch party earlier this summer at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Baku,
EurasiaNet.org writes.
Under Occupation: Shusha is a fairly low-tech affair, but two
big-budget games are promising the latest in realistic combat effects
in their upcoming editions, each of which features a segment set
in Sarajevo during the three-year siege of the city by Serb forces,
in which an estimated 10,000 civilians died.
One of the games, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 from the Polish company
City Interactive, "rewrites history" and paints a false picture of
the siege, says an artist based in Sarajevo, Adela Jusic.
"The main character is an American who saves the city. This is a
complete paradox, because while we waited to be rescued in Sarajevo,
the Americans were silent. Now, all of a sudden, they are depicted
as saviors, and children that play this game will have an entirely
false image of this time," Jusic told Balkan Insight.
As part of the international peacekeeping mission to Bosnia, the
first U.S. troops arrived in Sarajevo shortly after the Dayton peace
accords were signed in November 1995.
The game's release has been delayed several times and is now set
for 2013.
A similar plot line runs through another popular game set for release
in October. The American hero of Medal of Honor Warfighter battles
villains in the Philippines and Somalia, as well as Sarajevo.