As a precursor to this article please read our news story:
Konami Drops "Six Days from Fallujah" from Retail Release - PlanetXbox360.com:
For a long time now War games based on true-life events have been at the front shelves in stores around the world, with games like Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, and many others topping the sales charts. The gaming public clearly has an appetite for games of the “war” genre but the question raised now is “should real war be used as a form of gaming entertainment”. This comes as Konami made (and quickly exited) a journey into the war-game market; the game in question goes by the name “Six Days in Fallujah” and is a third person action title to be based on the 2004 Iraq war. This development has brought both a lot of criticism and a lot of unwavering support from the soldiers that were involved in the skirmish, political activists, and anyone with a voice.
The game is being developed with the input of marines that actually fought in Iraq and wanted the world to see their experiences first hand, in a manner that can’t be portrayed on screen or in writing books. Is the average young adult more likely to pick up a paperback or a recently marketed video game? It is for this reason that the US Army has used videogames as part of the training and recruitment of soldiers for years now. But there are many who can’t see this side of the argument and believe it is much too soon to depict these events as a form of virtual entertainment. Opposition towards the game has been hot and the fact that active war heroes are endorsing the game doesn’t seem to have softened the controversy.
The announcement of the game immediately sparked calls for its ban by British military veterans, family members of soldiers, anti-war groups and of course the media. There’s not a soul out there that would disagree Konami has taken a massive risk by using a situation such as the horrible war in Iraq as a focal point for entertainment. But not everyone is opposed to the development of the game; famed author and ex SAS Soldier Andy McNab has publicly stated that he sees this game as no different to other video games, TV shows or movies of the same genre and believes the story should be told in whatever way is relative to today’s society.
