The political battlefield of pro-Arab video games on Palestinian screens

Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East

Volumn 27, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 536-551

  Souri, Helga Tawil ^a  

^a NEW YORK UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

POLITICS; SOFTWARE;

ASIA; EURASIA; MIDDLE EAST; PALESTINE;

EID: 37349115207     PISSN: 1089201X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1215/1089201x-2007-031     Document Type: Article

References (94)

1. Special Force Web site, www.specialforce.net (accessed 13 March 2006).
2. Haram ash-Sharif refers to the Dome of the Rock (or Temple Mount) in the city of Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam and the site from which the Second Intifada "began" in September 2000.
3. David Buckingham, After the Death of Childhood: Growing Up in the Age of Electronic Media (Maiden, MA: Polity, 2000);
4. Ien Ang, Desperately Seeking the Audience (New York: Routledge, 1998);
5. David Morley, Television Audiences and Cultural Studies (New York: Routledge, 1992);
6. Ellen Seiter, Television and New Media Audiences (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999);
7. and Lynn Schofield-Clark, From Angels to Aliens: Teenagers, the Media, and the Supernatural (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).
8. Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage, 1994);
9. Mahmoud Mamdani, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terrorism (New York: Pantheon, 2004).
10. "Life Is Just a Game," New Atlantis 4 (2004): 105-8, www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/4/soa/videogames.htm.
11. David B. Nieborg, "America's Army: More than a Game?" www.gamespace.nl/content/ISAGA_Nieborg.PDF (accessed 10 July 2007).
12. Mary Wiltenburg, "More than Playing Games," Christian Science Monitor, 3 April 2003.
13. Queer Power, Molleindustria, 2004, online game, www.molleindustria.it;
14. LeftBehind:EternalForces, Left Behind Games, 2006, online game, www.leftbehindgames.com/pages/the_games.htm;
15. GodSpeed 3D, Inspired Idea, 2002, CD-ROM;
16. Ethnic Cleansing, Resistance Records, 2002, online game, www.resistance.com/ethniccleansing;
17. White Law, Resistance Records, 2003;
18. Shoot the Blacks, World Church of the Creator (year unknown).
19. The name Dar al-Fikr loosely translates as "House of Thought." Both games are available at "Under Siege, Under Ash, Real-Life 3D Game Shooter," www.underash.net.
20. Empyre Discussion Board, "Politics, Reality, Violence, and a Video Game," mail.cofa.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/2004-July (accessed 1 February 2006). Empyre Discussion Board is a Web-based discussion board established in Australia where gamers and game creators often share opinions together. The discussion board also includes an in-depth e-mail interview with Radwan Kasmiya, one of the creative directors of Under Ash.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.
23. America's Army's latest numbers of users are posted on its Web site, www.americasarmy.com.
24. Dar al-Fikr, "Under Siege 'Quick View,'" www.underash.net/en_download.htm (accessed 1 February 2006).
25. Cover label, Special Force, CD-Rom (Beirut: Hezbollah Central Internet Bureau, 2003).
26. Alexander Galloway, "Social Realism in Gaming," Game Studies 4 (2004), www.gamestudies.org/0401/galloway (accessed 25 November 2005).
27. Daniel J. Wakin, "Video Game Created by Militant Group Mounts Simulated Attacks against Israeli Targets," New York Times, 18 May 2003.
28. Special Force Web site.
29. Hassan Salem, quoted in Nick Lewis, "Dangerous Games: How the Seductive Power of Videogames Is Being Harnessed to Push Deadly Agendas," Calgary Herald, 9 July 2005.
30. Bilal Zain, quoted in Wakin, "Video Game Created by Militant Group Mounts Simulated Attacks."
31. The growth rate of Internet use increased at around 8 percent a year during the Intifada years, from 2000 to 2004, so that by the end of 2005, 15 percent of the total population were regular Internet users. For those under the age of eighteen, who have computer and Internet access in schools as well as through local centers, usage rates at the end of 2005 were at 52 percent. Internet World Stats, "Internet Usage in the Middle East" (30 September 2005), www.internetworldstats.com (accessed 5 October 2005);
32. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Palestinians at the End of Year 2005 (Ramallah: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2006).
33. Quoted in Alfred Hackensberger, "Shooting Baruch Goldstein, Carpet Bombing Beirut," Qantara, www.qantara.de/webcom /show_article.php/_c-478/_nr-310/i.html (accessed 25 November 2005).
34. Thomas L. Friedman, "Giving Hatemongers No Place to Hide," New York Times, 25 July 2005.
35. Ed Johnson, "Investigators Pursue Clues to Bombings in Leeds, Pakistan," Associated Press, 18 July 2005;
36. Friedman, "Giving Hatemongers No Place to Hide."
37. Samuel P. Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations," Foreign Affairs 72 (1993): 22-49.
38. Wakin, "Video Game Created by Militant Group Mounts Simulated Attacks."
39. Gal Luft, "Hizballahland," Commentary Magazine, July-August 2003, n.p.
40. Quoted in Hackensberger, "Shooting Baruch Goldstein."
41. Said, Orientalism.
42. Paul Hyman, "War! What Is It Good For?" Computer User, 1 September 2003, www.computeruser.com/articles/daily/12,80,1,0901,03.html.
43. Lewis, "Dangerous Games."
44. Social Impact Games, "Political and Social Games," www.socialimpactgames.com (accessed 1 February 2006).
45. America's Army: Special Forces, version 2.0, U.S. Army, 2003, online game, www.americasarmy.com.
46. Casey Wardynski, quoted in Joan Ryan, "Army's War Game Recruits Kids," San Francisco Chronicle, 23 September 2004, sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/09/23/BAGLG8T3MR1.DTL.
47. Quoted in Hyman, "War."
48. Jean Baudrillard, The Gulf War Did Not Take Place (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991);
49. Paul Virilio, Strategy of Deception (New York: Verso, 2000);
50. Virilio, Ground Zero (New York: Verso, 2002);
51. James Der Derian, Virtuous War: Mapping the Military Industrial-Media-Entertainment Network (Boulder, CO: Westview, 2001);
52. and Slavoj Žižek, Welcome to the Desert of the Real: Five Essays on September 11 and Related Dates (New York: Verso, 2002).
53. Leonard, "Unsettling the Military Entertainment Complex."
54. Ibid.
55. "Life is Just a Game."
56. Hyman, "War";
57. Lewis, "Dangerous Games."
58. Israeli Air Force, Electronic Arts, 1998, CD-ROM.
59. Doom, IdSoftware and Activision, 1993, CD-ROM, www.idsoftware.com/ games/doom/doom3/;
60. Quake, IdSoftware, 1996, CD-ROM, www.idsoftware.com/games/quake/ quake.
61. Special Force Web site.
62. Desert Storm, Sci Entertainment Group, 2002, CD-ROM;
63. Leonard, "Unsettling the Military Entertainment Complex."
64. Command and Conquer: Generals, Electronic Arts, 2003, CD-ROM.
65. Empyre Discussion Board, "Politics, Reality, Violence."
66. Bruce Klopfenstein, "Terrorism and the Exploitation of New Media," in Media, Terrorism, and Theory, ed. Anandam Kavoori and Todd Fraley (Boulder, CO: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006), 112.
67. Lewis, "Dangerous Games."
68. Special Force Web site.
69. Galloway, "Social Realism in Gaming."
70. Ibid.
71. Ibid.
72. Baudrillard, Gulf War;
73. Virilio, Strategy of Deception;
74. and Der Derian, Virtuous War.
75. Leonard, "Unsettling the Military Entertainment Complex."
76. On "technical illusion," see Virilio, Strategy of Deception;
77. on "hyperrealist logic," see Baudrillard, Gulf War.
78. Nina Huntemann, "Militarism and Video Games: An Interview with Nina Huntemann," by Michelle Barron of Media Education Foundation, Boston, 2004, www.mediaed.org/news/articles/militarism (accessed 10 July 2007).
79. Hackensberger, "Shooting Baruch Goldstein."
80. Habib Battah, "Syrian-Developed PC Game Portrays Palestinian Anguish," Daily Star, 21 October 2004, www.dailystar.com.lb.
81. Rebecca Armstrong, "Jihad: Play the Game," Independent, 17 August 2005, news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article306475.ece.
82. Empyre Discussion Board, "Politics, Reality, Violence."
83. Quoted in Armstrong, "Jihad."
84. Klopfenstein, "Terrorism," 113.
85. Ibid.
86. Daniel Lerner, The Passing of Traditional Society: Modernizing the Middle East (New York: Free Press, 1958).
87. Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (New York: Avon, 1992);
88. Huntington, "Clash of Civilizations";
89. Benjamin Barber, Jihad vs. Mc-World: How Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshaping the World (New York: Ballantine, 1996);
90. and Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong? The Clash between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).
91. Samir Khalaf, Cultural Resistance: Global and Local Encounters in the Middle East (London: Saqi, 2001).
92. Ummah Defense, IslamGames, 2001, CD-ROM;
93. Islamic Fun, Innovative Minds, 2002, CD-ROM, www.inminds.co.uk;
94. and Maze of Destiny, IslamGames, 2002, CD-ROM.