Bangladeshi Liberation War Gets FPS Treatment

Thanks to The Daily Star for its story discussing the creation of Bangladesh's first domestically-created 3D videogame, based on their 1971 War of Independence, in which "you are a freedom fighter and your mission is to liberate your motherland by fighting the Pakistani occupation." The locally important game setting is explained: "The game works with the unique objective of the gamer as a student, farmer or an adolescent freedom fighter who either has to capture a flag from a Pakistani camp or dominate a Pakistani-occupied area in an environment digitally created in close resemblance with three historically-true battlefield -- Akhaura, Chittagong and Rajshahi." The title is hailed as "the first 'First person shooting game' made in Bangladesh", and the game CD also has educational elements, since it "will also feature historical background to the battlefields in 1971, essays, photographs and a chronological account of the War of Liberation."

Uh..

[hookedup]

So now I'm guessing we wait for pakistan to condemn the game..

After all, the chinese didnt like C&C Generals all that much.. [geek.com]

Re:Uh..

[WormholeFiend]

did Germany condemn any Wolfenstein game(s)?
Is Vietnam condemning Battlefield Vietnam?

On a side note, imagine the fun we'd have playing a game based on the US/Canada war of 1812...

(yes, I know, technically, back then Canada was still British)
-

Re:Uh..

[0x0d0a]

did Germany condemn any Wolfenstein game(s)?

Uh...Germany didn't bother condemning them. They just outright banned them.

Is Vietnam condemning Battlefield Vietnam?

I haven't the faintest idea what the political situation is like in Vietnam, though I doubt that video gaming is a prominent issue there.

On a side note, imagine the fun we'd have playing a game based on the US/Canada war of 1812...

I think that sounds like fun.

On the other hand, I also thought that it would be fun to play not only as the

Re:Uh..

[PainKilleR-CE]

did Germany condemn any Wolfenstein game(s)?

Uh...Germany didn't bother condemning them. They just outright banned them

It should be noted, though, that Germany has rather strict laws regarding what can and can't be shown in games. Additionally, most Nazi imagery is illegal in Germany, regardless of context or medium.

Re:Uh..

[Yokaze]

> Additionally, most Nazi imagery is illegal in Germany, regardless of context or medium.

Nazi imagery is not illegal regardless of the context or the medium. It is illegal without appropriate historical context/annotation.

The German government deemed that a game for leisure doesn't provide the appropriate historical context, no matter how many soldiers and Nazis you may kill in it. There are ample German documentations and educational material all containing Nazi imagery. It is the single most important part in German history curricula. However, you'll probably have a hard time finding "Der Ewige Jude" [holocaust-history.org] uncut

The future of war?

[Singletoned]

It does naturally lead one to hope that any future conflicts between Bangladesh and Pakistan (or more probably Pakistan and India) could be fought out using this game rather than guns, tanks and missiles.

Re:The future of war?

[Lord Graga]

[Pakistan]harrihaxor: 3y3 w3311 h4x0r j00r 65m3 53rv3r b0x0rz
[Bangladesh]happyjoe: mw4h4h4h4h4, ph34r m4h 1337 l1nuX s3rv4, n00b
[Pakistan]harrihaxor: 57f00 l4m4, d1z c4115 f0|2 d3v1n3 h4x0r.
[Bangladesh]happyjoe: w4r!

Shit happends :P

Re:The future of war?

[rishistar]

I think they'd much rather go for cricket!!! This current one day series [bbc.co.uk] is one of the best ever!!!

No chance of dubya figuring out who won though!

Re:The future of war?

[Ayaress]

Yeah, but the game would lead to a real war eventually.

You see, Pakistan would lose the first match in game, and accuse Bangladesh of speedhacking. In the rematch, Pakistan wins and is accused of aimbotting, and they decide to go best two out of three. In the thid match, Bangladesh wins, and Pakistan accuses them of wallhacking this time, and launches their nuclear weapons at them, saying, "Ha! Hack THAT n00b!"

Re:The future of war?

[Ayaress]

Nuclear missiles are the AWP of international relations. C4Mp3r Wh0r3z!

True, but the advantage of being a C4Mp3r Wh0r3 in real life is that the other person is dead, and he can't swear at you anymore.

historical validity vs fun?

[Numeric]

as a gamer, i never have considered a game whether its "moral" or "immoral" or have historical importance to play.

when i play Battlefield: Vietnam, I have never not joined the Vietkong or the NVA thinking that I don't want to kill Americans. I'll just indiscrimitely shoot anyone not on my team.

perhaps the Bandlgadeshi Liberation developers might develope the game like America's Army, where you always play as the "US Army" and the opponent are always the "OpFor".

Re:historical validity vs fun?

[Ayaress]

I've always enjoyed playing the "bad guys" in historical war games like this. It's usually more fun to play as the weaker side and see if you can do better than the real generals did.

Cooooooool

[Pizzop]

Any chance this is going to be exported to the US? It sounds like it could be fun, and well, I don't mind supporting the Bangladeshi and their history.

Free as in...

[Boing]

At least this serves fairly well as an example of why video games should be considered speech. Bias aside, this is, on some level, a historical account. If one considers The Killer Angels to be speech, I see no reason why this (or a U.S. equivalent) shouldn't get similar protections.

Re:Free as in...

[MMaestro]

True, on some level it is a historical account, but is that level high/low enough? BF:Vietnam doesn't have blood because of EA's insane attempts to get a 'T' rating (C&C:Generals had a 'T' rating as well even though you could kill civilians with anthrax and get money for doing so). So at what level does a game have to reach in order to allowed to emulate a historical event? A few paragraphs on a few battles while removing all the blood? By that logic, C&C:Red Alert should've been philosophical for i

Re:Free as in...

[Boing]

So at what level does a game have to reach in order to allowed to emulate a historical event?

What level does a porno have to reach in order to be considered a love story?

The regulation of the game industry, and the actions that publishers take in order to cram what they want to communicate into a specific rating, is directly comparable to the similar actions taken within the movie industry (and movies get "speech" protections).

Any given video game may or may not be an accurate portrayal of a factual

Re:Free as in...

[MMaestro]

If the bullet penetrates and exits, at most a small spray is produced, which would be near invisible at the detail level in games. Most of the time, blood just wells up around the entrance wound, staining clothes.

So if I'm running around in the jungle wearing farmer's clothes and I take a couple dozen bursts of helicopter mounted M60 machinegun in my chest, my blood is going to just well up around the entrance wounds? What if I get hit by a mortar round? Does my body just fly up in the air and slide across

Wow!

[dancingmad]

Wow, my folks are from Bangladesh and imagine my suprise in seeing this on the games site (I'm not used to seeing "Bangladesh" and "video games" in the same headlines. However, people with the money do play a lot of games there though). Us Bangladeshis are feeling left out, as the Indians and Pakistanis are currently in a fervor over the cricket games, so this is really interesting.

My family's an upperclass one, but my uncle who was about 20 at the time wanted to run off and join the army - he had to be

Ha, proof positive

[dancingmad]

Maybe this will show the people who were commenting on this article [slashdot.org] that on the subcontient we can make games too. It's not a creative process that only the West can do.

Of Questionable Ethics?

[prestidigital]

I like FPS wargames. I play Desert Combat. But the only realism I am concerned about is related to how things look, how vehicles perform, etc. I can't believe no one is questioning the ethics of trying promote historical understanding through a game where the main objective is essentially "shoot and kill." Framing such a game in loosely based historical context is one thing, but I doubt many FPS game developers are sufficiently qualified to teach history. Even if they are, I still say it's inappropriat