Bin Laden's Death Sparks Video Game Controversy

(NECN: Greg Wayland) - Osama bin Laden's death has sparked a cottage industry.

Everything from bumper stickers to coffee mugs are being sold. Well, now you can add a bin Laden-themed video game to that list. It recreates the Navy SEAL raid on his compound.

So, how are Americans reacting to the game?

"The game is the worst game I ever played. It's just so terrible."

Brian Fey is a computer gamer who has been tested by many virtual video battles and he gives low grades to the free download called Osama 2011.

Fey says, "The game doesn't look very good. it's not very polished."

This virtual Navy Seal raid from New York- based Kuma Games, released a week after the real thing, gives players five minutes to violently navigating a warren of corridors, dingy rooms and weed-choked courtyards, killing defenders in search of Osama Bin Laden. -- splattering blood as you go..

Fey says, "The reason this game is moderately popular is because it's free. "

Not necessarily for virtual vengeance, say gamers at Game Underground in Framingham, Mass.

Other objectives include gathering intelligence, destroying the downed helicopter and removing Bin Laden's body....

You can even opt to defend bin laden during the operation -- in other words, join the terrorist. making you a real mercenary.

Game Underground's owner says it's that sense of immediacy is the game's drawing card.

"When desert storm was happening," says York. "There was a lot of desert storm games that came out."

War games are not new to the video game world. That's small comfort to some critics.

Tsay says, "That line between fantasy and reality becomes even more blurred. "

Boston University Mass Communications Professor Mina Tsay worries about so-called first-person shooter games

"When it comes down to certain portrayals in media... yes this could be deemed as a positive event but at the same time children can potentially learn stereotypes of social groups."

 And then, of course, there's all that violence.

Copyright NECNMIGR - NECN
Contact Us