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US Army vet (and GamingNexus writer) discusses Six Days in Fallujah

by: Randy -
More On: Six Days in Fallujah
Six Days in FallujahForty-three miles west of Baghdad is the city of Fallujah.  On November 8, 2004, the joint US-Iraqi Operation Phantom Fury (otherwise known as the Second Battle of Fallujah) began -- an operation aimed to dislodge the insurgency and to take out the powerbase of Jordanian militant Islamist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Fallujah.  By November 16, the operation was in mop up mode but had been described as "some of the heaviest urban combat Marines have been involved in since the Battle of Hue City in Vietnam in 1968."

Tuesday, Konami made the official announcement that Six Days in Fallujah will come to the 360, PS3, and PC in 2010.  Developer Atomic Games, however, had already been answering heated questions regarding the game's development.  Joystiq even tried to probe into whether or not Atomic Games directly consulted insurgents themselves in the making of Six Days.  The short answer:  Yes.  The slightly longer answer as to why?  "I think we're all kind of curious about you know -- they went there knowing that they were going to die, many of them knew that they were going to die, and they went there to die. And I think that that's a perspective that we should all understand," said Atomic Games President Peter Tamte.

Some -- including US soldiers -- have outright called for the game to be banned, while others -- also including US soldiers -- pronounce their support.  Our own Sean Nack is a former Specialist in the US Army, having served in the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), a division that "had been involved in more deployments than any other division in the Army."  While I was back here in Oregon, fretting over trivialities like increased rates on my Blockbuster Movie Pass, I was also receiving regular updates from Sean on what it was like trading gunfire on a weekly basis with the Taliban.

It would be blatantly neglectful not to speak with Sean about his thoughts regarding the announcement of Six Day in Fallujah.  Just back from guest speaking to a University of Oregon class regarding his time in Afghanistan, here was his response:
I've given a lot of thought to Six Days and how I would respond if someone made a game out of my time on the Afghan border, and to me, this is a maturity question. I think that gaming, as a medium, is capable of fully-realized, dramatic, even touching portrayals of the full spectrum of human experience, up to and including war. The problem I think we run into is the kind of Halo-induced insensitivity to violence. We've all played with annoying/obnoxious 14-year-olds (or 30-year-olds, for that matter) who're always like, "I killed you," or, "That's so cool, I blew you into little bits," and I always think to myself, "Have you ever killed a man? Do you know what that feels like? Have you ever seen someone blown to bits? Because it's actually pretty horrifying." There's a disconnect, in gaming, between violence and reality that I think is somewhat dangerous. I don't think a person who doesn't have a real...sense of not only their own mortality, but I think of what the cost of violence and death actually is, should really engage in that kind of talk. I tell some incredibly darkly-humored-though-hilarious stories, but I can do that because I've seen what I've seen, done what I've done, and earned that right. But a lot of gamers take the shortcut, talk about how cool and badass they are in an electronic entertainment medium and forget that real violence has real consequence, and that real people are out there fighting real battles that aren't about points. I think that there's an acceptable amount of this that can go on, blowing up imaginary aliens or robots or whatever is one thing, but I think the best illustration for this point is the fact that we have WWII videogames; the only reason that you don't hear an outcry over "they're depicting a real war" is that it was more than 60 years ago, and WWII is about as black-and-white a conflict as there ever was in history. Fallujah I think is a little fresh, and I have a real question about whether or not the gaming community is mature enough to handle that subject matter. You still have people calling each other horrible racist or homophobic epithets all over [Xbox] Live; what's going to happen when a veteran is playing the game and gets killed and someone says, "I killed you like a bitch," and the vet responds, "Yeah, well I've been there and done the business and I think you're a punk-ass coward." That's exactly what I'd say. It just seems like it could be contentious and in a way disrespectful. I think crafting an engaging, informative, and respectful story is certainly possible, but I see multiplayer rapidly devolving into something else.

Further, I think it's important that, if they're going to depict the insurgents motivation in some way, that they do it well and correctly. There'll probably be some uproar about Atomic talking to insurgents and whatever, but you know the relationship between soldiers on opposite sides of the battlefield can be complex: I think about the "Christmas Truce" of WWI, and there's an old Kipling poem that I love called "Chant Pagan" about a British soldier adjusting to life back home and in the end decides to return to where he fought in Africa and get a job from an old enemy because he relates better to his foe than his own countrymen, and I remember reading back in the '90s about Vietnam vets going back to that country and having dinner with former Viet Cong; in the context of that I think that 20 years from now I, should I ever have any reason to return to Afghanistan, wouldn't have a problem drinking tea with the IED-maker who blew me up; we're both just soldiers, and in that we have more in common with each other in ways than we do with our friends at home. He was defending his country and his beliefs and I was defending mine, I get it, so I don't necessarily have a problem with them talking to insurgents. I just hope that it's not a jingoistic "USA! USA!"-styled game. I'm as patriotic as anyone else (note my Captain America belt buckle, and Purple Heart), but I think that the issues we face today in the "war on terror," both in the sphere of actual combat and the underlying social issues (how poverty and social dysfunction create an environment for radical Islam, for example), are certainly serious enough that they deserve an even-handed and measured treatment. Again, it's a maturity question: is the gaming community ready for a truly morally challenging and thought-provoking narrative? I'm not as sure as Konami apparently is.
Here is a link to "Chant-Pagan," the Kipling poem that resonates so deeply with Sean that he's considering having it tattooed across his back.
KONAMI ANNOUNCES SIX DAYS IN FALLUJAH FOR
THE XBOX 360®, PLAYSTATION®3 AND WINDOWS PC


Third-Person Action Shooter -- Based on Fiercest Urban Battle of The War in Iraq
Uses Real Footage, US Marines Who Fought in the Battle and Real Missions
Features Co-op and Online Multiplayer Modes
El Segundo, Calif. - April 14, 2009 - Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc., announced today that Six Days in Fallujah is currently in development for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC. Developed by Atomic Games, Six Days in Fallujah is a new third person shooter experience that puts the player in the center of the largest urban military operation in four decades. Six Days in Fallujah combines the action of a military shooter with the realism of a documentary film to create a new kind of experience that is both historical and engaging. Partnering with over three dozen US Marines to help develop the game along with unprecedented access to battle plans, after action reports, photos, videos and satellite maps makes this game the most authentic military shooter to date. Coupled with missions, objectives and scenarios grounded in factual events, Six Days in Fallujah will create an authentic 3rd person shooter unlike any ever developed.

"Six Days in Fallujah creates a very compelling interactive experience," said Brian Christian, Vice President of Product Development for Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. "We are creating a 3rd person shooter unlike any other by combining a brand new game engine, authentic weaponry, missions and combat set against the gripping story of the US Marines on the ground."

Six Days in Fallujah lets players experience the historic battle of Fallujah as a US Marine fire-team leader and places them in the heat of the action against the insurgency. Players are able to physically shape the battlefield just as US Marines did during the battle in Fallujah.  Create new lines of attack by kicking in doors, blowing up walls, eliminating enemy cover and destroying the environment around them. To make the battle even more authentic, heavy emphasis has been put into the environments using real world satellite maps, weapons from US Marines and vehicles used in the conflict to fully immerse players in this epic confrontation and experience what it was like to be a Marine on the ground. In addition, Six Days in Fallujah will include multiplayer functionality - allowing players to team up with other fire team members in co-op and online modes.

Six Days in Fallujah is scheduled to be released in 2010 on Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION®3 system and Windows PC.