Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

August 11, 2008 -

A site which tracks developments in the Middle East reports that a radical Islamist website has posted a video game encouraging players to battle Americans, Israelis and Shi'ite Muslims.

Of the game, which appears to be a crude adaptation of a side-scroller, MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute, writes:

On July 21, 2008 a member of the Islamist forum Al-Ikhlas posted a video game designed to encourage children to fight against "the forces of tyranny". The game enables the player to shoot at planes marked "Shi'ite", "Jewish" or "American".

 

Throughout the game, inciting speeches by Osama Bin Laden are heard, accompanied by the sounds of explosions and gunfire. The player is exposed to images of bin Laden, Zarqawi and other prominent Al-Qaeda members.

Although we don't know much about MEMRI, the site has in the past been given high praise by David Kaplan, chief investigative reporter for U.S. News & World Report:

MEMRI... does translations of media from the Muslim world, focused on jihadist propaganda and efforts by reformists. The group's new MEMRI Blog serves up news stories, videos, and postings from 60 leading Islamist websites. Hey, where else can you get headlines like "Mega-Evil Zionist Queen Stars in Iranian Sci-Fi Movie"?

GP: Big thanks to reader enbob for the tip!


Comments

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

Thanks good job;

Btw, I think Atari and Midway will drop out too, but mostly travesti because  these guys have done nothing travesti or little and need to start saving costs. and dizi izle

YES.

Now I don't have to get off my ass for the important shit anymore!

Whats next, ordering pizza from Xbox live?

Wait... I think that sounds like a good idea.

But I think voting should MAKE you get off your ass, and see outside or a second while you go vote. I mean, your picking the president of the United States of America for God's Sake... least you can do is drive down there and punch out a card.

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

Gallagher can araç kiralama say all he wants, but I strongly rent a car believe it's due to his crappy leadership and E3 being a joke. ESA's Board of Directors need to find a way to get out rent a car of this horrid contract with this Bush cronie before there's no one left on the Board.

Btw, I think Atari and Midway will drop out too, but mostly travesti because  these guys have done nothing ttnet vitamin or little and need to start saving costs.

YES.

Now I don't have to get off my ass for the important shit anymore!

Whats next, ordering pizza from Xbox live?

Wait... I think that sounds like a good idea.

But I think voting should MAKE you get off your ass, and see outside or a second while you go vote. I mean, your picking the president of the United States of America for God's Sake... least you can do is drive down there and punch out a card.

 

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

Eh I don't think the Jewish are evil tyrants although I may have to brush up on my history and world affairs :/

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

If you look at how Israel was created, not all that long ago, you could easily see why some people would hate them.

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

Well of course the various shades of gray in the real world have to be artificially colored anyway, regardless of the party who made the game. Even Hamas, a terrorist organization by any and all western definitions, engages heavily in proving welfare in Palestine. This is the reason it has ever gathered so much support among the palestinians, not just because of its hate agenda (because it doesn't fill your stomach).

Seriously, western media (films and games mostly) usually tends to paint the opposition wholly evil because it makes viewers/games at ease so it's not unheard of that in western games, you also fight the evil tyrant. It's just curious that in the real world, no one - even the terrorists - acknowledge of being on the 'evil' side. So it's really about your viewpoint.

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

Sounds like any war game we play today.  Yeah!  Call of Duty!  I'm gonna go kill me some japs, nazis, and vietcong!  What's the difference here?  They're poking fun at americans so it's not okay?

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

Indeed. For the known history, US made games have been waged war against the worst rival of US at the time. Even when there was no enemy to speak of (after cold war and before Al-Qaeda) the gamemakers pretended Russia was still going strong...

Well, since Counter Strike has not got bad rap, I assume the deciding factor is, who made the game. It's OK for if it's of western make...

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

 When we do it and they get offended we tell them to get a sense of humor. When they do it and we get offended then we need to bomb the ever loving shit out of them.

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

"The game enables the player to shoot at planes marked [...] "American"."

And I bet many non-Americans would want to play a game where they kill Americans.

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

Actually a game like that could be pretty popular in even America XD assumming someone makes a good game.

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

I find it hard to comment on this without making it sound like I'm criticising Dennis and the other Press outlets, and that isn't my intention.

A 2D Side-scroller? With dodgy graphics?

Sounds more to me like some Troll with more Testoserone than Neurons sat down and thought to himself, 'Hmmmm.. What can I do to draw attention to this site? It needs to be quick, easy to make, and offend lots of people.'

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

@TheStripe

Pedophilic? Warlord? You seem to know little about Mohammed, if that's even who you're referring to.

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

How long before some news source claims this is an industry game that YOUR CHILDREN are playing RIGHT NOW?

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

I sooo want to play this game.  Death to the west, death to the west, well apart from the part that keeps me in good health and friends.

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

 Since when have the crazies needed encouragement for genocide?  They seemed to be doing a great job of indiscriminate killing in the name of a pedophilic warlord with imaginary powers before this game hit.

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

They just want to rule the world.

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

I couldn't find the game anywhere...  I wanted to give it a rating...  I would say graphics 4/10 due to the failure of transparencies though.  This seems as goofy as TheOnion to me...  If a video game encourages people to kill cabbies, I guess it would encourage people to kill a group of people as well...  The US has been making video games and has helped fund video games to try to increase the number of people who enlist in the army for a while now...  I think any intelligent person would be unaffected, but who knows...

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

This time they are using video games to try to influence children to help them rule the world.

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

Maybe I should make a store tycoon game and teach kids how to make money, and influence them to send all of that money to me.  Damn, I am a genius!  Too bad people are not that damn stupid.  If they were, then we wouldnt have made it this far.

Well a lot of people are not that stupid...   The stupid people in this world really piggy back on the more intelligent people.  Then in turn the smart people use the stupid people to get stuff done that they are too stupid to do in the first place...  Then greedy people and government get stupid people to do their bidding...  So I guess we all have a purpose.  The world would advance a lot faster if we didnt have to worry about the stupid people though.  No more homeless, no more people living off of the government when they are perfectly capable but too lazy to work...  yeah...

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

You pretty must describe how american business and politics work.

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

Can anybody say LittleBigJihad?

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

They couldn't even achieve transparency on a lot of the sprites. Lots of them are encased in mysterious black boxes (probably the evil of capitalism).

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

This game looks like a bad knock off of Heavy Weapon. This page has a bit of information on what the original is like and where to play it. http://jayisgames.com/archives/2006/03/heavy_weapon.php

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

Actually, it IS Heavy Weapon, with a poor sprite hack.

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

Most definitely.. Couldn't even work the graphics right..

Silly, Silly extremists. (Heck the original game makes fun of old-world stupolitics.. just gotta spot it between the bombs ;) )

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

You can always count on the radical Islamists to do something a little nutty! :D

Re: Side-Scrolling Mod Said to Be Terrorist Propaganda Tool

By radical do you mean "freedom fighting"?

 
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Montetrolls are just at their absolute worst when it comes to women and feminist. You could bet good money that if the developer were male the trolls would be silent and the conversation would actually focus on the journalism.10/18/2014 - 9:18pm
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WonderkarpZippy : Havent tried the PS4 controller. might later.10/18/2014 - 2:37pm
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ZippyDSMleeWonderkarp: You might be able to if you had a PS4 controller.10/18/2014 - 1:00pm
MaskedPixelantehttp://store.steampowered.com/app/327940/ Night Dive starts charging for freeware.10/18/2014 - 12:21pm
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quiknkoldI thought it was a good article. Jeff is right. I feel like GamerGate did destroy its message. I am for Ethics in game journalism, but man. so much hate. and its on both sides. I've seen some awful stuff spewed on twitter. Its a big reason why I exited..10/17/2014 - 7:34pm
Matthew Wilsonwhile he focused on gg, he did call out both sides crap.10/17/2014 - 7:18pm
Papa MidnightThat was a damn good read offered by Jeff Gertsmann.10/17/2014 - 7:17pm
Matthew Wilsonhttp://www.giantbomb.com/articles/letter-from-the-editor-10-17-2014/1100-5049/ deferentially a nice write up.10/17/2014 - 6:44pm
james_fudgeI think Evan killed it. He's a great guy and super smart.10/17/2014 - 6:38pm
 

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