Iraq - The Computer Game

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing out the Slate article called Iraq: The Computer Game, and subtitled "What 'virtual world' games can teach the real world about reconstructing Iraq." Written in a similar vein to an MSNBC article we covered a few weeks back, it looks in a bit more detail at how simulations "may offer useful lessons for rebuilding broken nations in the real world", mentioning the recent news that virtual world company There Inc. has been commissioned to create anti-terrorist training simulations, as well as Richard 'Lord British' Garriott's suggestion that "..games do clarify the essential rules for stabilizing a chaotic society."

I only want it . . .

[base3]

. . . if it has a mushroom cloud button like "Lemmings".

How about

[missing000]

Global Deception [slashdot.org], the information warfare game?

SimIraq

[Xenkar]

Rebuild Baghdad! Construct vast palaces and bunker networks! Make money from selling oil to France! Destroy the infidels with sand storms! All this and more in SimIraq 2003! Reserve your copy today!

WoMD

[NanoGator]

There's an easter egg if you find the Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Re:WoMD

[Anonvmous Coward]

"There's an easter egg if you find the Weapons of Mass Destruction."

What, Pogo the Monkey will storm the White House and get re-elected?

Re:WoMD

[NanoGator]

"What, Pogo the Monkey will storm the White House and get re-elected?"

LOL!

For the uninitiated, that's pretty funnny if you've ever played Grand Theft Auto 3. Hehehe.

Re:WoMD

[jspoon]

Of course, finding the WoMD probably involves cheat codes of some kind.

Sim Iraq?

[skinfitz]

Couldn't someone have just bought El Busho a copies of C&C Generals and SimCity? (in that order).

Call it WOMD, and you are the WOMD!

[macdaddy357]

It would be a 1st person shooter. Mow down all the Hajis!
Dead Iraqi soldier 100 points.
Dead Iraqi male civilian 200 points.
Dead Iraqi female civilian 300 points.
Dead Iraqi child 500 points! Dead ragheads! Yeehah!

Once they are all dead, you help steal the oil.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Call it WOMD, and you are the WOMD!

[WildBeast]

must've learned it from his friend Rumsfield

From the Prima Official Strategy Guide...

[S. Baldrick]

...Use the shoe or the shovel to attack Allied troops at the Baghdad airport and they will commit suicide for triple points.

Dune 3: The battle for Iraq(is)

[August_zero]

The whole game could play just like the classic "Rampart" except with a twist:

You play as the United "Coalition of One" States. First, in phase one, you send bricks and weapons to build the country and support the dictator. In phase 2, you bomb the piss out of them, then in phase 3 you rebuild with blocks, and score bonus points when you surround an oil well, installing puppet governments et cetera. After 60 seconds of building, the political climate changes and then you bomb them again!

There could be online play where you argue with other countries about who gets to do the bobmbing, and with expansion packs you can add other exciting locals like Cuba! Which would play the same except your trying to capture bananas and cigars or something.

Programmers for a Free Iraq

[kalamazoo904]

Friends! Americans! Countrymen! Lend us your code! I come to bury Saddam, not to praise him.

Seriously: the Slate article suggests that Slashdotters could code and contribute to the peace effort in Iraq. Plotz describes a needed update/upgrade to Kingmaker, an old 1970's computer game. Assuming someone could get rights (or reverse-engineer what must be a reasonably simple game, considering that it's a board game), what are the chances that someone could make an open-source version of what DoD and our friends in Iraq need?

Re:Programmers for a Free Iraq

[DaRat]

Kingmaker is a 1970's era board game from what was Avalon Hill. Here is a link to an article on the board game version: http://www.diplomacy-archive.com/resources/other_g ames/kingmaker.htm

The computer version came out in 1994 (http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?name=Kingma ker). Given the Avalon Hill died, I wonder if the source code even exists any more. :-(

Re: Iraq, the Computer Game

[Fs-Phantom]

This is a great idea, but all joking aside it would most likely -not- prosper. First, there's too much in the way of sardonic treatment of the subject: the above posts, for one. Secondly...although Garriott's right on his point, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to define it as anything more than a loose simulation -- there's no way any game can incorporate every aspect of micromanagement and resources.

And what prospering game junkie would buy something titled "Iraq: Reconstruction" or the like?

As

SimCity isn't even close to the truth

[infonography]

I've noticed a lot of SimCity'ism in America's local governments over the years. 'Let's build a stadium to attact tourist' etc. For lack of an intellegent solution or really thinking about problems they resort to a 'Keep building' approch. I am certain there is a Modified copy of SimCity running even as we speak. It's a multi-player game online with players like, Dick 'the Trick' Cheney, and the execs at Haliburton. It only works then the city is virtual.