On Being a Gamer in Iraq

The increasingly excellent games coverage from MTV continues, with Stephen Totilo's conversation with an Iraqi gamer (Flash site, video in upper left-hand corner). Wisam, the 23 year old gamer Totilo speaks with, shares a few stories with the reporter about his life in Iraq. He gained some notoriety on the web after sitting for an interview with the 'Alive in Baghdad' blog, but at the moment he's only interested in games and having something to do. A recent graduate of his city's English department, current circumstances in the city makes it hard for him to find meaningful work. From the article: "The American-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime changed Wisam's taste in games. He and his gamer friends used to enjoy first-person shooters like Medal of Honor and Call of Duty. Then a real war started around him. 'We hate the attacking, the gunfire in games,' Wisam said. 'We started to hate it.' In fact, there's only one game with guns he can still tolerate. 'Grand Theft Auto is the exception. Because Grand Theft Auto is like us.'"

Re:WoW in Iraq

[joystickgenie]

Daler Mehndi (the artist that performed "Tunak Tunak Tun") is from India. So I would say that has little to do with Iraq and the surrounding nations. That is unless your definition of "that part of the world" extends beyond the reach of the Middle East, 3 countries over from Iraq (roughly the distance from Mexico to Canada), into south Asia.