Video Games Are a New Propaganda Machine for Iran (wired.com) 45
The state sponsors titles that cast it in a favorable light and punish indies for depicting a more complex vision of Iranian identity. From a report: Commander of the Resistance: Amerli Battle is a first-person shooter set in Iraq. Launched in 2022, the game pitches players against Islamic State militants laying siege to a town, based on a real-life event that took place in 2014. Its hero -- the commander of the title -- is a real-life figure too: Qasem Soleimani, a major general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a military force under the command of Iran's theocratic leadership. Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq in January 2020, was a powerful figure in the regime -- and a controversial one, declared a terrorist by the US and accused of overseeing human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings in Iran, Iraq and Syria.
The game was produced by Monadian Media, an offshoot of the Basij Cyberspace Organization -- the digital wing of the IRGC's paramilitary group, the Basij's and it is part of an ongoing propaganda effort by the regime to rewrite history and mythologize its leading figures. Facing growing discontent, the Islamic Republic has increasingly invested in producing video games, in the hope that it can use them to influence young people. The games' narratives try to reinforce the religious identity of the nation, to portray domestic opponents -- such as the Woman, Life, Freedom movement that began last year -- as sectarian extremists, and to rehabilitate figures like Soleimani, a military commander associated with brutal crackdowns. And it has thrust Iran's once-thriving games industry into the midst of a battle over Iranian identity.
The game was produced by Monadian Media, an offshoot of the Basij Cyberspace Organization -- the digital wing of the IRGC's paramilitary group, the Basij's and it is part of an ongoing propaganda effort by the regime to rewrite history and mythologize its leading figures. Facing growing discontent, the Islamic Republic has increasingly invested in producing video games, in the hope that it can use them to influence young people. The games' narratives try to reinforce the religious identity of the nation, to portray domestic opponents -- such as the Woman, Life, Freedom movement that began last year -- as sectarian extremists, and to rehabilitate figures like Soleimani, a military commander associated with brutal crackdowns. And it has thrust Iran's once-thriving games industry into the midst of a battle over Iranian identity.
Not just Iran (Score:4, Interesting)
There's a number of Russian games on Steam and have been for a long time pushing Russia's agenda. For example, Syrian Warfare an RTS that paints the Syrian military and Russia as the good guys pushed Russia's narrative all the way back in 2017.
But what's perhaps most concerning is that some of these games have flagged up as containing malware, and when raised by people on the Steam forums for the game you unsurprisingly get people trying to distract with posts like "LOL AVG is crap":
https://steamcommunity.com/app... [steamcommunity.com]
Valve is fairly unique compared to other app stores in that it doesn't actually seem to have meaningful malware protection, but not only that many publishers you just simply can't find any details on; no company registration or anything. If you Google these companies you may, if you're lucky, find a website, but you'll be lucky if there's even an e-mail contact. It feels highly likely these are fake studios set up by the state for the purposes of pushing this kind of propaganda.
I don't think there's been any major issue on this front to date, but it strikes me that Valve really needs to take this seriously, else it's only going to be a matter of time before Steam ends up being used as a vector for a widespread malware attack given how lax they are on standards for both publisher transparency and meaningful analysis of binaries like you see on Google Play and Apple's App Store - and even they still see things get through.
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indeed, and what is "call of duty" exactly ?
all I see is a US propaganda video game
Baffle them with bullshit (Score:2)
"LOL AVG is crap"
Great way to distract and drown out posts that point out just how dangerous the software is. And to make sure that people who are curious about what the game is like don't know it contains malware.
Time to put ChatGPT to work filtering out these moronic flood posts.
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I used to play a lot of Armored Warfare, because (as you would imagine) it runs well on a potato. My poky antique (1600AF/1070) can do max settings gracefully. But recently they changed (the DRM?) in some way that makes it not run in Proton. (not even GE) And that's one where the Russian vehicles are the absolute monsters. When Ukraine kicked off they completely removed the chat in about three days. You could blow each other up, but you couldn't talk about people actually blowing people up.
Anyhoo, in that g
Two can play this game (Score:2)
I can't wait until hackers mod & leak pirated versions to have the faces of I's current leaders. Maybe make them switch after a few hours to make it harder for authorities to notice.
What do you consider propaganda? (Score:4, Insightful)
Call of Duty certainly seems like hawkish pro-west ideology wrapped in a shiny coat.
Re:What do you consider propaganda? (Score:5, Funny)
America's Army is state propaganda. CoD seems just more like cheerleading.
Forget call of duty (Score:2)
The news here isn't that video games can be propaganda but that Iran is getting in on the fun. This is why we need to teach critical thinking in schools and why so many people oppose teaching critical thinking in schools.
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Didn't the US government (or at least it's military, which is an arm of the US government) admit in public and upfront that AA is a recruitment tool?
I will not class AA the same as others since it's not trying to hide the game's objective.
PS : Not played AA, no idea how good / bad it is.
How accurate is it? (Score:2)
Do you get blown up at the end by a rocket from a drone?
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No but I took a paykan to the knee.
America did it over two decades ago (Score:4, Insightful)
America's Army [wikipedia.org] was our country's version of the concept. Although, it was primarily a recruitment tool rather than a form of state propaganda. Well, I suppose you could consider it to be a form of pro-military propaganda.
I'm not sure how well these sort of things truly work at influencing young people. It probably comes across about as well as that time Hillary remarked "Pokemon Go to the polls" [knowyourmeme.com] as an attempt at sounding hip (which itself is a badly outdated expression).
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"Call of Duty" is no different
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I'm not sure how well these sort of things truly work at influencing young people.
Not from usa but I remember downloading America's Army at the time. Free, described as good, supposed to be realistic. As soon as you manage to make people play your propaganda game, you win. Today it is more effective to pay so called "influencers" for this (eg: fitness youtubers/tiktoker doing some army training is a world classic).
Re:America did it over two decades ago (Score:4, Interesting)
As soon as you manage to make people play your propaganda game, you win.
At the end of the day though, it's still just a video game. It goes away when you turn it off. Twenty years ago, I was basically the age group they were trying to target for recruitment. Problem was, nothing about the video game could change the facts that:
Me and 5AM haven't been on speaking terms since, well, never.
I kind of have similar feelings towards most forms of exercise, besides the kind you get when spending a day walking around a theme park.
Actually having people shoot at you in real life is fucking scary.
"Don't ask, don't tell" was still a thing back then. Probably still exists as an off-the-books thing these days, since the military isn't really known for appealing to the most tolerant demographic, if you catch my drift.
A ex-friend* of mine at the time did enlist because he bought the whole "we need technically minded people, too!" line of BS the recruiters were spewing. They sent him to Afghanistan and he now has a life-long back injury from it.
* Years of fighting with the VA and subjecting himself to a constant stream of right-wing propaganda turned him in to a bitter middle-aged man. He's convinced that people like my partner and I are responsible for the downfall of this country and are why his teenage children are being exposed to so much "wokeness"... yeah. Tough to remain friends with someone like that. It's a shame. He served his country, and in response his country broke him.
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America's Army [wikipedia.org] was our country's version of the concept. Although, it was primarily a recruitment tool rather than a form of state propaganda. Well, I suppose you could consider it to be a form of pro-military propaganda.
I'm not sure how well these sort of things truly work at influencing young people. It probably comes across about as well as that time Hillary remarked "Pokemon Go to the polls" [knowyourmeme.com] as an attempt at sounding hip (which itself is a badly outdated expression).
I actually enjoyed the game (even as a non-American), partly because it was one of the only Linux-native games at the time, but I did find the "realistic" game play (you run kinda slow and one-shot, you're severely wounded or dead) pretty fun. Though I also found it unintentionally hilarious on a number of levels.
First, it was a team A vs team B multiplayer and they set the clients so you always saw your team as American soldiers and the enemy as (typically brown skinned) enemies.
Second, as a recruiting too
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Yes, this makes me think about what I don't understand about the people who try to get away from the cops in a vehicle. If you're on a motorcycle in places you know better than them and have someplace slick to go then you have a good shot at it, otherwise it's pretty hopeless in most situations. I guess the answer is just drugs, because these days we get to play enough GTA or whatever to know that you can't dodge 'em all even when the roads are ridiculously wider and better paved than they are in real life.
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I'm not sure how well these sort of things truly work at influencing young people.
I don't know either but I'll tell you something I found kinda interesting about it: When the game first came out I gave it a try. In the tutorial level you do a lil practice shooting. The Drill Instructor started talking to me so I turned to face him and *BAM* suddenly I'm in a jail cell I cannot leave. Yeah... I forgot your character aims wherever you're looking. Hehe.
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Hold On (Score:2)
Wait up for me, I have to get my video game moral panic shoes out of the closet and dust them off. They've been sitting there since the late 90s.
Come on... (Score:3, Insightful)
This article makes about as much sense as claiming Tetris is a propaganda tool for the Russians. It's just a game. Hate to break it to you, but there's this thing called "fiction"... and when your audience is a bunch of gun-crazed teenagers, you write a story that they want to hear.
Re: Come on... (Score:2)
These games used to feature zombies or aliens. You can do more with aliens, they are not limited to human behaviour.
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Tetris is a propaganda tool for the Russians.
Tetris teaches you the valuable life skill of how to get all your frozen meals to fit inside your freezer. Perhaps it's a Russian plot to sell more frozen foods?
Re: Come on... (Score:2)
It's an educational game on how to pack a shipping container.
Re: Come on... (Score:2)
Some versions of Tetris did display fact cards about Russian history and achievements. Not sure if these were added in when the game was "westernized", but that's the closest I've ever seen to 'propaganda' in Tetris.
Re: Come on... (Score:2)
IIRC the 1987 Macintosh version of Tetris had these fact cards.
It's not "rewriting history" (Score:3)
Qasem Soleimani did actually spend most of his efforts fighting Islamic state. Calling that "rewriting history" is absolutely false.
Yes he worked for a crazy government. Yes he harmed American interests. But he also kept ISIS in check, and now the people keeping ISIS down are weaker.
Besides the US government didn't murder Qasem Soleimani, Trump gave that order, probably without understanding anything of the situation.
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Qasem Soleimani did actually spend most of his efforts fighting Islamic state. Calling that "rewriting history" is absolutely false.
Yes he worked for a crazy government. Yes he harmed American interests. But he also kept ISIS in check, and now the people keeping ISIS down are weaker.
Besides the US government didn't murder Qasem Soleimani, Trump gave that order, probably without understanding anything of the situation.
The killing of course led to a very tense period of "is a war about to start?" where a planeload of civilians was accidentally shot down [wikipedia.org]*.
* Yes, Iran shot down the plane, not Trump. But accidents like that are precisely one of the things that happen when your foreign policy involves constantly threatening war.
Steam link? (Score:2)
More US hypocrisy (Score:3)
The US is denying captured combatants their day in court and the executive (not the judicial) of the government is ordering the murder of alleged terrorists. The US has also given immunity to people who committed torture during its wars: Human-rights abuse and extrajudicial killing. This is the kettle calling the pot, names.
Kakolookiyam (Score:2)
I wonder if they regard Prince of Persia as favorable for it's good impression, or negatively since it shows overthrowing of the government?
"Other players help me out!" (Score:2)
"Can't find where I can select my character to be female."
Also from Wired... Harry Potter game is THE NAZIs! (Score:1)
Re: Also from Wired... Harry Potter game is THE NA (Score:3)
Excuse me? Wired is solid journalism.
This is the same Wired who told us the Harry Potter Game is a hate crime. We can trust that review because it came from their writer tasked with jamming things up her holes, then writing reviews on said objects.
"Winners Don't Do Drugs" (Score:2)
We've seen the effectiveness of video game propaganda right here in America! Why, in the 1980s and 1990s, a video game would start by popping up a stern message that "Winners Don't Do Drugs", which singlehandedly won the War On Drugs.
Or, more likely, reminded you to light one up before playing but, it was a noble waste of money by the Federal Government, which loves you and wants to keep you locked in its basement.