Israeli Council Releases Videogames as Propaganda

[Kair]

They already did this with board games.

 

[fulano]

They're entitled to do whatever the heck they want. If the taxpayers aren't bitching about it, then too bad. I, myself, am ealready halfway expecting for someone to come up with the, oh, so brilliant idea of Border Hunt: Arizona and set it loose on the interwebz at any moment, now.

I'm just never in agreement with these nonsense propaganda games. Hence why I'm not a Call of Duty fan, or Battlefield, or Medal of Honor, or whatever.

 

[Nmil-ek]

Cant wait to fire up Palestinian Opressor Sim 4.

 

[Feralcentaur]

Hasn't America made their own video games too?

 

[The Urban Moose]

OF COURSE it's propaganda. ANY video game released by ANY government is propaganda. But I'm gonna go ahead and say it... this game is not okay.

 

[duchaked]

six day war...jews get pissed off enough to finally fight back and totally kick ass

okayy well that's certainly a change of pace in the world of gaming (esp with all the ww2 games and all lol)

 

[B.U.C.K]

As an Israeli it's shameful for me to see people call my nation "killers". None of you know what it's like to live here, We love all of you and all we want is our own home..Just one Jewish nation to call our own..
But everyone know's what's best for us here right? 10000 kilometres away.
We don't blame you, I especially don't.
But you really have no clue what your talking about.
I am a soldier in the IDF, I buried my friends,close friends. my COD experience was a real FPS if you ask me.
I don't think that it's wrong to teach via Video Games. I want to make ones myself one day, But people please. Stop calling us names, Both sides are right in their struggle, yet both sides are wrong in the way we negotiate..it's not like we don't try our best..But that's life for now..Hopefully that will change in time.
Love all of you gamers out there
Peace
Gal Kfir

 

[Rayne870]

Nothing wrong with video games teaching history in my books.

 

[gravitate]

Que the racism and stupid people that think Israelis are terrorists.
im Israeli, and i must say good job with the translation. i agree, this is kind of a silly idea... lets see how this will work out.

 

[gravitate]

All I know is I shot a bunch of badly animated dudes, and I don't feel the least bit educated.

Also, I recognize the music from somewhere. Stolen, I suppose.

yeah, halo. cut them some slack, most israeli games suck because a lot of people dont understand english inlike me, and the programs they use for making these cames are probably english too.

 

[gravitate]

As an Israeli it's shameful for me to see people call my nation "killers". None of you know what it's like to live here, We love all of you and all we want is our own home..Just one Jewish nation to call our own..
But everyone know's what's best for us here right? 10000 kilometres away.
We don't blame you, I especially don't.
But you really have no clue what your talking about.
I am a soldier in the IDF, I buried my friends,close friends. my COD experience was a real FPS if you ask me.
I don't think that it's wrong to teach via Video Games. I want to make ones myself one day, But people please. Stop calling us names, Both sides are right in their struggle, yet both sides are wrong in the way we negotiate..it's not like we don't try our best..But that's life for now..Hopefully that will change in time.
Love all of you gamers out there
Peace
Gal Kfir

couldn't agree more.

 

[gravitate]

OF COURSE it's propaganda. ANY video game released by ANY government is propaganda. But I'm gonna go ahead and say it... this game is not okay.

why not? jew hater? or just bad graphics and gameplay? i agree with the second option, but if you agree with the first one...fuck you.

 

[Gigano]

I like how they advertise it's "three-dimensional". Not sure they're quite in touch with what that means these days...

Still way behind what Hamas' put out to educate Palestine children [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow%27s_Pioneers] though. Now that's propaganda! Not that Israeli groups haven't probably put out similar stuff - no good guys in this conflict, at least none with influence - but this one just defies belief.

Seriously, you could not think up a more screwed up show for children if you actively tried; Though it makes for wonderful viewing if you view it out-of-context as surreal black comedy. The episode descriptions alone have incredible WTF?!-factor.

 

[gravitate]

Some proportions:
These games got zero publicity on every Israeli news site. Nobody even mentioned them, and to be frank, I myself have never heard of the guys behind them. They do look like extreme right-wingers, though, and that group hardly represents the majority of Israel. The games themselves are poorly made, and sure look like the effort of a mediocre developer (Shockwave? Seriously?). In short, rare are the people who care or even know about them.

Does it count as propaganda if the only people to actually play these games are Escapist readers?

couldn't agree more. there is a reason that a lot of israeli games are poorly made though. you see, most of us dont speak and know how to read or write in english. most of the game making programs are in english. also, theres the fact that the programs we use are either free or just pirated lame ones, which has a huge effect. plus most of the sites that you guys use to pay for stuff online dont apply here. plus, low budgets.

 

[gravitate]

As an Israeli, I am pissed off that everyone keeps saying "what a good game ISRAEL made" "what a shitty piece of propaganda ISRAEL made" "ISRAEL should be burned to the ground cause i lost at this game".

I know it may be hard for you Americans to understand, but just because it was MADE in Israel, doesn't mean it's a government project adored by all the population. America isn't the only country with freedom of political affiliation. (hell, you only have two major sides, we have at least six, not counting the many Arab sides!).
On topic, every though I disagree with the people who made the game, it doesn't seem like propaganda, it was made for their youth, who is already super-patriotic and doesn't need to be convinced. It's like saying games in English are Anglophone propaganda to rob poor little Pier or Ahmed of their language.

agreed.

 

[JediMB]

All I know is I shot a bunch of badly animated dudes, and I don't feel the least bit educated.

Also, I recognize the music from somewhere. Stolen, I suppose.

yeah, halo. cut them some slack, most israeli games suck because a lot of people dont understand english inlike me, and the programs they use for making these cames are probably english too.

Hey, I'm not bashing the game. I'm sure I'd feel a bit more educated if I could read the language.

But pirating music for any sort of "serious" project is not a good move.

 

[thecoreyhlltt]

i wouldn't call that propaganda, more like trying teach unruly children

 

[Ofir Naveh]

Fuck, no comment.

Actually, fuck that. COMMENT:

This is obtrusive shit. Its not funny and its not helpful on any scale. Large scale propaganda with religious undertones(Grandpa Abraham?! Thank god Muslims run such a tight ship on having their patriarchal figures represented publicly.) directed at children in the time of war is not funny, and shouldn't be allowed at all EVER in a freedom loving country(not that Im tempted to call Israel just that, but for now the label fits just fine).

This is going to further misconstrue a deeply two sided story that has gone on for thousands of years. It will further reinforce the concept that a state of Palestine does not, and has never existed. It will result in young minds being open to the concept of murdering/killing(pick your definition Im open to either one) the "bad guys" that they see in videogames in real life. The bad guys they will see in this videogame(especially the ones during the 1967 portion) will be readily identifiable and sometimes only a few dozen miles away from where they live.

This is NOT an iteration of the Tom Clancy genre or Call of Duty games. This is a further bastardization of the concept originally began with the US military with Americas Soldier series taken to a different extreme. I would urge everyone, even those of us who enjoy violent games like GTA, CoD, Duke Nukem(Which I am one of! Gore filters stay on for me kthx) and the like, to boycott games like this. This is on the same level as "High School Shooter" In the sense that in encourages active killing in the real world(Not that High School Shooter implicitly did that, but you see my point hopefully. Thoughtless hate). If you think I am blowing this out of proportion, remember, this game is unarguably propaganda. That means the government is taking our hobby and twisting it into a conversion tool for its own means. To let governments use our medium as a tool of war should be completely rejected by the community. I'd suggest if your reading this, and are still wondering why I am worried/angry about this, check out Extra Credits video on "Gamification". They touch on how gamifying things in the real world can be positive, and extremely negative. If this is Israels way of gamifying a brutal and harsh occupation(not saying the ALL of israel is an occupation. Israeli right to be there is on par with everyone elses. I would be a bigot if I thought otherwise) then Im firmly saying NO. And I hope others are with me.

Boy, that was rambly at points. Thanks for sticking with me.

i hope i did not misunderstood what you were trying to say.

first of all... i'm also against letting the government (any government) use games to influence on young and/or not educated minds.
and i do not agree with what people trying to do... to make games with incorrect info in them.

but!
the story of "The 6 day war" in general and "Ammunition Hill" in it... it's not an attempt to make the children of the world (or israel) think that all arab people are evil and bad!
this is only a way of teaching them about the war history of Israel... in it's 63 years of existence had to fight approximately 6 major wars and 2 military operations against neighboring countries. while in the years between 1988 to 1991 and 2001 till 2006 (2006!!! 5 years ago!) israeli civilians have suffered a cold weapon attacks in fuel stations and remote areas, car bombs, bombs in the middle of an civilian area and centers, suicide bombings on buses and more and more... and during these years above 1000 israeli people lost thier life...

while in this wars its an all-in attack for each side, in the years of the bomings... there was no army to fight... no one from the arab side to take responsibility for the actions!
what would you think if you'll grow up in this times?

i was born in 1989 in Haifa Israel.. i spent half of my time as a baby in bomb shelter (it's called "Safe zone") ... by the time i got 18 .. 10% of my friend's families had one or more person in them killed by an act of terror!
i've lived my life in the shadow of the "Gulf War", when the USA and Iraq where at war.. and my country suffered bombing of non-conventional biological weapons from Iraq!
between the age of 12 till 18! i feared the act of the Second "intifada".
by the time i got recruited into the IDF, within a month my friend was killed, and ... There was no war, he was not killed in battle .. He was killed because he was wearing Israeli uniforms, and someone saw him going in the wrong place at the wrong time.

and here i am... telling you i am AGAINST useing games for anti-arab propaganda games.
cuz i still belive that it's only a small precent of them and i'm telling you it's also a small precent from us.. both pulling our two nations into this unceasing bloodbath.

And another thing, Israel has no control over the territories occupied during the Six Day War that was in '67,that mean the large area east of Israel, and Gaza Strip. Except to the Golan Heights.

I hope my response was understood well ... I'm not another furious Israeli, trying to tell pople against the Arabs, on the contrary .. I have Druze and Bedouin friends(Arab). I go to parties with Arabs, I sit to eat with Arabs in cafes and bars and have deep and interesting conversations , I am beeing served by Arabs at shops and providing service to Arabs and Jews at my work, regardless of who's who