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First Person Shooters (Games) PC Games (Games) Entertainment Games

Gaming Cafe Scene In Iraq Illustrated 46

Otter writes "An Iraqi weblog has a series of pictures of the gaming cafe scene in Baghdad. Lots of Counter-Strike and Medal of Honor, apparently." The photographer also uses the comments to respond to questions about the lack of women in the pictures: "The reason you don't see women at these places is that Iraqi women (at least my age) don't have that much interest in gaming... Another thing is that I'm a bit cautious about photographing women due to cultural issues and misunderstandings they might get me wrong and think I'm using the pics for... err 'other purposes'." We previously reported on earlier comments about gaming in Iraq.
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Gaming Cafe Scene In Iraq Illustrated

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  • PS2s (Score:4, Funny)

    by Rubbersoul ( 199583 ) on Monday January 05, 2004 @03:33PM (#7883353)
    So that is why they wanted all those PS 2s. Here we thought they were building bombs and such, but in fact it was for kids to play games. Boy we feel silly for invading the country now.

  • by Rayonic ( 462789 ) on Monday January 05, 2004 @03:38PM (#7883394) Homepage Journal
    I mean, if the Iraqis were really resisting the coalition forces, our troops would all be dead from their l33t AWP sniping skillz.

    "OMFG! HEADSHOT?! STFU, CH34TER!!!"
  • Life in Iraqi... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gustgr ( 695173 ) <gustgr@gma[ ]com ['il.' in gap]> on Monday January 05, 2004 @03:38PM (#7883397)
    ... seems to go on.

    The war might have affected a lot of people, mainly the poor ones. With those pictures we can see that even with the 'civil guerrila' the people are trying to move on [at least eh younger] and enjoy their life.

    It is nice to see those pictures for another reason too, which is that give us a shot of what developing countries really are. Iraqi isn't all about caves and deserts, no country is. Of course there are several problems and poors, but people are usually happy [self experience].

    The picrutes are great by the way.
    • Life ALWAYS goes on. Life in Nazi Germany went on. Life under Stalin went on. You could find children playing in the streets at the height of the raids, the purges, the inhumanity.
    • This is exactly what I was going to say. I think people have the impression that Iraq is all sand and camels, but if more people saw pictures like this, I think more people would be pissed off about invading Iraq and less talking about using nukes to make glass deserts.

      One of the things I've noticed since living in Europe (France/Switzerland), is there seem to be more documentaries / news items on TV about life in places like Turkey or Iraq, where people are acting normally (as opposed to bombing things or

      • > I think people have the impression that Iraq is all sand and camels, but if more people saw pictures like this, I think more people would be pissed off about invading Iraq

        You underestimate the people of the U.S. and overestimate the value of pictures. We know perfectly well that most people in the world live in areas at least comparable to those inside the U.S. We know there are people there.

        > less talking about using nukes to make glass deserts.

        I have not heard a single person suggest (outside
  • by devphil ( 51341 )


    We were playing that map [blogspot.com] just last Thursday! Man, we need to get these guys some Teamspeak headsets and they can join our regular Spearhead deathmatch sessions.

  • by *weasel ( 174362 ) on Monday January 05, 2004 @03:41PM (#7883425)
    this seems to be clear cut evidence that gamers prefer virtual gunfights to real gunfights, even when the latter is cheaper and more widely available. ;p
  • Terrorists! (Score:5, Funny)

    by nepheles ( 642829 ) on Monday January 05, 2004 @03:56PM (#7883574) Homepage
    Counter Strike? Oh My God, people -- these people really are involved in terrorism!

    Nice to know this war is now justified. I can just picture Colin Powell in the UN with another glitzy PowerPoint presentation showing these pictures.
  • by MMaestro ( 585010 )
    In the pictures shown, its very clear that the PS2 is the dominating console of the shown cyber cafe. However, I have to wonder whats really fueling it in a place like Iraq. Obviously you're not gonna find an EBGames or Wal-Mart to buy games down there, so the only conclusion I can think of for the PS2 being number one down there is piracy.

    Now before I get modded down for being anti-PS2, let me point out a few facts. 1. The PS2 has the biggest most available gaming selection (not to mention the ability to p

    • Would find them on P2P? I find them on P2P all the time. Ever heard of eMule or used Bittorrent? PS2 games are ripe for the picking. They are everywhere! But then again that's on my internet. What about yours?
      • To quote myself in the parent post : 'you would probably find them common warez'

        I haven't heard about people using Kazaa or Bittorrent to download Prince of Persia Sands of Time in the news. I'm well aware of the PS1/2, Xbox and Dreamcast warez that are available via Bittorrent, but they are not widely used or spread. Not yet at the very least. They're there, I've known that for nearly 4 years now since I first modded my PS1 but they're certainly not common. Theres probably a grand total of 100 different Xb

    • Actually..PS2 and XBOX games ARE readily available
      on certain P2P networks. Yes, DVD-sized games.
      Not that I have one to download anything for,
      mind you..
  • Yet another country obsessed with Counterstrike...will it ever stop? :(
  • Server IPs (Score:4, Interesting)

    by NEOtaku17 ( 679902 ) on Monday January 05, 2004 @04:44PM (#7884089) Homepage
    Does anyone know where I can find a list of all the Iraqi server IPs? I would really like to play with these guys and welcome them on to the internet and to online gaming. Stupid question following: Do alot of the people that would be playing speak any english(or will I have to learn a little of their langauge).
    • Re:Server IPs (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Cruel Angel ( 676514 ) on Monday January 05, 2004 @08:27PM (#7886324)
      I busted a nut laughing about this post. It seems that in the 'Western' world we still feel that in other parts of the world people need/ want someone to 'welcome' them to the internet and online gaming. I understand your sentiment, and think you almost have a great idea. I'd hope you meant to say that you'd like to welcome them to online gaming in the UK, or NorthAm, or whereever you are from, and that welcoming them to the internet was just a misprint.

      The other thing that made me laugh was the notion of a self appointed online welcome wagon. "Welcome to the internet, here's 200MB of free porn, 100MB of MP3s, you RIAA subpoena [eff.org], and your first emails. There's one from Melissa, and she loves you. As well, someone thinks you may need some, err, enhancements."

      • First off I play Counterstrike, Day of Defeat, Medal of Honor, Neverwinter Nights, and Halo and have never met an Iraqi(not that I have known of anyway)on any of those games, but to "welcome them onto the internet" should have been refraised as "Welcome to my internet" assuming it will even be bridged or was already connected, but if it was why have I never seen any activity from Iraq on the net(lack of interest maybe?). I didn't mean to sound condescending to anyone of those people or to take it upon only
    • I hardly doubt that they even have Internet there, let alone having gaming servers...
  • What they don't realize is that they are actually controlling robots who are searching their country for WMDs.
  • No women (Score:4, Funny)

    by aliens ( 90441 ) on Monday January 05, 2004 @05:28PM (#7884574) Homepage Journal
    Yeah, there are no women because it's just in Iraq that girls don't really get that into gaming.

    That's the ticket, continue to believe that in the West girls far out number guys at our gaming cafes. That's one way to make young geeky Iraqi teens want to be more like us. ::)
  • We have found evidence of terrorist training camps...
  • Desert Combat [desertcombat.com]. I wonder if Iraqis would be offended to play this mod.
  • Strange that they would choose to play FPS (first person shooters), isn't their whole day one big FPS?

    You'd think they'd want to escape reality and play something like "Help the Happy Bunny Pick Flowers".

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