Gesualdi
though it odd that, while Kuma's press releases boast of "19 million
users, with an additional 250,000 new players signing on each month,"
Kuma\War "seems to have been largely invisible here in the States -- a
surprising turn given "the wealth of technological advanced shooters we
have access to (Battlefield, Modern Warfare)."
This
raises a question for Gesualdi: "So who is playing Kuma\War? Given that
the first language option on the Kuma Games website (aside from the default
English) is Arabic, we have our suspicions."
War Propaganda and Video Games
The
Kuma/War connection did not go unnoticed by the Kavkaz Center (an international
Islamic pro-Chechen news service). In a December 21, 2011 commentary, Kavkaz
wrote:
"Kuma
Games was receiving money from the CIA to (produce) and design and distribute
for free special movies and games with the aim of manipulating public opinion
in the Middle East, Hekmati said. The goal of the company in question was to
convince the people of Iran and the people of the entire world that whatever
the US does in other countries is a good measure."
Kavkaz
noted that "Kuma Games has worked under contract for the US government (in
2006 it was announced that the company produced a training game for the
American army), but information about the connection with the secret services
have not previously received. Representatives of Kuma Games have not yet
commented on Hekmati's statement."
By
its very nature, the content of Kuma/War offerings is polarizing and guaranteed
to inflame passions regarding the conflict zones depicted in the games. One
game that prompted a surge of anger was a "reality-based" game
released last spring. As Kavkaz noted, the game Kuma/War 2, included a mission in which the player was invited "to
'kill' Osama bin Laden (martyr, Insha'Allah)."
Kuma/War
has also outraged Iranians with a release called "Battlefield 3," As
Kavkaz notes, "This shooter has caused resentment of local authorities due
to the fact that part of its action takes place on the streets of Tehran."
It
is fair to wonder how Americans might react to an Iranian videogame that
involved heroic members of Iran's Republican Guard gunning down Americans in
the simulated streets of New York. Recently, Behrouz Minai, the head of the
Iranian National Center for Computer Games announced that the NCCG was
preparing to release a game designed to serve as "a response to the
Battlefield 3."
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