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| Europe |
| 9/11 - The Video Game |
| 2003-12-06 |
| Just when you think it’s safe to cut back on the French-bashing, maybe have a nice Haut-Medoc with dinner tonight, the French go all French on you. Families of Sept. 11 victims are outraged by a French Internet video game in which players shoot down passenger jets before they hit the World Trade Center towers. A video game. Yeah, let’s make a game out of the people who burned to death in the planes or fell to their deaths from the Towers. Good, clean fun. This game’s been around for a while. "New York Defender" has been played more than 1.5 million times since it was launched on the website Uzinagaz.com one month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. One whole month? Really hit you guys, didn’t it? Jonathan Pitcher of Paris, who runs the website, said he’s not trying to make fun of the killing of 2,752 people. "After the attacks, we felt there was nothing we could do," he told the New York paper. "But with the game, you could pretend to defend the World Trade Center." But the thing about this "game" is, you can’t win. Players shoot at the planes as they attack the towers, but the jets keep coming at a faster pace, and when a few strike the buildings the towers collapse. Because dude’s trying to make an Important Political Point™. Pitcher said he and his colleagues "wanted to show there isn’t any way to win against terrorism. Because it doesn’t matter how many planes you shoot. There are always new planes." And all kinds of new targets. The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Musee d’Orsay, the Invalides, Notre Dame, the Ile de la Cite, Montmarte, the entire Left Bank... |
| Posted by:Christopher Johnson |
| #3 Pitcher said he and his colleagues "wanted to show there isn’t any way to win against terrorism. Because it doesn’t matter how many planes you shoot. There are always new planes." In reality, planes don't just appear out of nowhere to fly themselves into buildings at an ever-increasing pace, so it doesn't make sense to try making a point by crafting a video game, as the video game environment is too easily manipulated and doesn't take many other factors into account. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-12-6 9:50:05 PM |
| #2 Pitcher said he and his colleagues "wanted to show there isn’t any way to win against terrorism. Because it doesn’t matter how many planes you shoot. There are always new planes." Conversely, it doesn't matter how many skyscrapers the terrorists bring down - we can always take out another Muslim state sponsor. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2003-12-6 1:54:07 PM |
| #1 You knew this was inevitable. No sweat - they will reap a whirlwind that pales the WTC murders by many factors. I pity the average French citizen, no really, I do. Most people are simplisme - and being led by the nose by their "chosen" thought leaders - to use the fuzzy-wuzzy modern double-speak term. What a bullshit-shattering wake-up call awaits various populations living in self-satisfied little bubbles, as we were prior to 9/11, and the Turks were until last month. Sooner or later, each society will begin receiving it's "fair" share - and bubbles will be bursting everywhere... sort of like a Lawrence Welk show of Rogers & Astaire waltzing through murder, mayhem, and grief. (Is that an ugly image, or what?!) Phrawnce, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chirac & De Villepin, Asshats Inc., will return to being France, regular "WTF Hit Us?" people soon enough. Then we shall see examples from our betters regards how we should think and react, etc. I do not look forward to it, however... it's just as obvious as a trout in the milk that it's coming. (Apologies to Hank) |
| Posted by: .com 2003-12-6 1:25:10 PM |