Anonymous, 9 Sep 2010
Research on Middle East, Islam and digital media
keyword: video games

Austrian Anti-Mosque Game Got Offline

The Styrian provincial branch of the right-wing populist FPÖ party (the Freedom Party of Austria) launched its anti-mosque online flash game called "Moschee Baba" ("Bye Bye Mosque") in advance of regional elections which are to be held on 26 September. The objective of the game is to shoot down minarets that are being built. That raised criticism from the local Muslim community, the Social Democratic Party of Austria and the Green Party. The public prosecutor in Graz, the capital of the Styria region, has opened an investigation into the game after receiving the Green Party's complaint. At this time, the game is taken offline and the statement on the website says: "Due to the political influence of our opponents this game was banned by the Austrian justice! Now, it's up to you to decide on 26 September."

Controversial Shooter Video Game Placed in Somalia

Teyon, a Polish video game developer and producer from Krakow, has recently released a new arcade on-rails shooter "Heavy Fire: Special Operations" for Nintendo's WiiWare. Taking place during a fictional conflict in Somalia with the aim to shoot "rebels who spread terror and fear," the game has already caused controversies among video game players and reviewers, criticizing it for reinforcing stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims.

Halos and Avatars: Playing Video Games With God

Craig Detweiler's collection of up-to-the-minute essays on video games' theological themes is an engaging and provocative book for gamers, parents, pastors, media scholars, and theologians--virtually anyone who has dared to consider the ramifications of modern society's obsession with video games and online media.

New Trailer for Video Game Placed in Sand-buried Dubai

New trailer for video game Spec Ops: The Line was presented recently at E3 Expo 2010, six months after releasing the announcement trailer. The narrative-driven third person shooter video game placed in sand-buried Dubai is being developed by Yager Development and published by 2K Games. The plot is inspired by Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness and Francis Ford Coppola’s movie Apocalypse Now. It is to be released in winter 2010/2011, coming on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC platforms.

Safe Passage: New Interactive Game Against the Israeli Policy on Gaza

An interactive game launched by an Israeli not-for-profit organization Gisha - Legal Center for Freedom of Movement combines animation, documents, video clips and a blog in order to warn against the policy cutting off the Gaza Strip from the West Bank. The game "Safe Passage" allows the user to experience interactively the restrictions on movement between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. It includes an archive of legal documents that aim to "shed light on military legislation and legal rulings since the 1990s, when Israel began imposing increasing restrictions on movement between the two parts of the territory."

Post-doc: Digital Literacies of Immigrant Youth for the Formation of Identity and Learning Networks

This project is focused on the analysis of the everyday digital literacy practices of Moroccan and Turkish immigrant youth in the Netherlands. While the past several years have seen an increasing amount of research on the digital literacy practices of youth, within and well beyond the Netherlands, relatively little of this work to date has focused on immigrant youth and their productions and interpretations of social media (e.g. web logs, Hyves, YouTube, texting, Twitter, gaming).

Race, Ethnicity, Diaspora in the Digital Age

Two HASTAC Scholars: Anne Cong-Huyen and Edward Gonzalez-Tennant have hosted a discussion forum on Race, Ethnicity, Diaspora in the Digital Age. The forum should explore the reproduction and (re)configurations of race, ethnicity, and diaspora in digital spaces, including social networks, video games and virtual spaces.

When Religion and Games Intersect

While the video game industry is usually willing to court controversy when the potential payoff is worth it, concepts of spirituality and faith have generally been avoided by both developers and publishers. In fact, religion seems to be such a taboo subject to include in video games that the only type of faith that really appears in titles here in the US is Christianity. Even then, the subject is often poorly addressed in games that are themselves poorly made. But why is it that religious content is so sparse in the realm of video games? The reasons are largely based on contention between religious and industry leaders, as well as the fact that you'll rarely find a topic as personal as faith.

Video Games, Video Clips, and Islam: New Media and the Communication of Values

This chapter analyzes video games and video clips with an Islamic emphasis and the various levels at which they convey ethical and moral values. Both video games and video clips have been neglected and marginalized by the academy, albeit to varying degrees. Given their pervasiveness, especially among Middle Eastern youth, we are in crucial need today of critical understanding of the different ways these media articulate Islam and communicate it to consumers. This chapter in particular discusses the appropriation of games by various private Islamic companies, operating in the broader religious and cultural context of the Islamic revival and piety movement, for educational purposes. Finally, this chapter discusses how Islamic game production and, more generally, the public discourse of the Islamic piety movement are shaping mainstream video game production targeted at Muslim audiences and the marketing strategies of game production companies.

Palestine in Pixels: The Holy Land, Arab-Israeli Conflict, and Reality Construction in Video Games

This article explores the ways in which Palestine is envisioned, and its representation constructed, in contemporary video games. At the same time, capitalizing on Bogost’s notion of “procedurality”, this article discusses the potential and limitations of various game genres for modeling complex historical, social, and political realities. It focuses particularly on the ways in which the Arab-Israeli conflict is mediated and its perception and evaluation subsequently shaped by these games. By doing so, this article analyzes how the (re)constructions of reality as provided by the video games’ graphical, textual, and procedural logic, serve parallel – albeit contradictory – political and ideological interpretations of real-world events. On a more general level, this article aims to further develop the game genres’ critique by focusing on two contrasting, but equally signifi cant and simultaneous, aspects of video games – the persuasive power of procedurality and the inherent limitations thereof.
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