Marines' war experience becomes fodder for video game

[thedrifter]

Marines' war experience becomes fodder for video game
Monday, April 27, 2009 11:34 PM PDT

By Alex Pham
Los Angeles Times

Wars throughout the ages have inspired great literature and film. The one in Iraq even has generated rap songs. And now there’s going to be a video game based on the November 2004 battle in the Iraqi city of Fallujah that features some of the Marines who fought there.

The idea for the game, called Six Days in Fallujah, came from troops who returned with video, photos and diaries of their experiences. The battle resulted in the deaths of 38 U.S. troops and an estimated 1,200 insurgents.

Today’s warriors are more likely to pick up a game controller than a paperback, so it was no surprise that the Marines turned to Atomic Games, a company in Raleigh, N.C., that makes combat simulation software for the military.

“Video games can communicate the intensity and the gravity of war to an audience who wouldn’t necessarily be watching the History Channel or reading about this in the classroom,” said Mike Ergo, who was in a Marine infantry battalion during the battle in Fallujah and is a consultant on the game.

Six Days in Fallujah, scheduled for release next year by El Segundo, Calif.-based publisher Konami Digital Entertainment, is grounded in the harrowing experiences of three dozen Marines from Camp Pendleton’s 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. As far as video game idioms go, it’s a traditional third-person shooter that puts players in the combat boots of U.S. soldiers.

At first blush, the game looks like others in its genre, including Medal of Honor and Call of Duty. What separates Six Days in Fallujah, however, is the game’s primary objective.

“Our goal is to give people that insight, of what it’s like to be a Marine during that event, what it’s like to be a civilian in the city and what it’s like to be an insurgent,” said Atomic Games President Peter Tamte. “For us, the challenge was how do you present the horrors of war in a game that is also entertaining.”

A game about war that is both fun and realistic is an oxymoron, “because war is not fun,” said Celia Pearce, professor of digital media and director of the Experimental Game Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “That’s why many shooters have cartoon hyper-violence that’s just physically impossible. It’s exaggerated for the sake of entertainment.”

Tamte and Juan Benito, the game’s creative director, say they’re trying to broaden the scope of what’s considered entertaining in a shooting game.

The title offers narratives from more than a dozen Marines, many of whom are featured in documentary-style video interviews interspersed with the game’s action.This is where games and movies part ways as entertainment media, Tamte said. “The basic difference between a movie and a game is that the player can make choices in a game,” he said.

One of the most difficult choices facing soldiers in Iraq today is telling civilians from insurgents. These choices are often made under fire, in a split-second.“Our opportunity for giving people insight goes up dramatically when we can present people with the dilemmas and the choices that faced these soldiers,” Tamte said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Battle of Falljuah video game gets ripped

April 27, 2009
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE

A video game based on a real battle in Iraq is drawing volleys of criticism - and it won’t even be released until next year.

But it was Marines from 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, at Camp Pendleton, Calif., who came up with the idea for a historically accurate video game based on their experiences fighting in Fallujah in November 2004.

“They want to tell their story. Video games are their medium,” said Peter Tamte, president of Atomic Games, the developer of “Six Days in Fallujah.”

The game combines elements of a documentary film to re-create some of the Iraq war’s bloodiest fights. “Six Days in Fallujah” is scheduled to be released “sometime within the first two to three quarters of 2010,” said Konami Digital Entertainment Inc. spokesman Brandon Cox.

Konami is publisher of the game, which is in development for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC.

Tamte said his North Carolina-based company developed relationships with Marines at Pendleton before they deployed to Iraq, after working with them on a tactical decision-making simulation training system, which resembles a video game. He said he has talked with many troops who were involved in the Fallujah operations, “and at this point, they do not believe their story has been told.”

Dozens of Marines, along with some soldiers and Navy corpsmen, were involved in making the game to ensure accuracy, Tamte said. Wounded troops also shared their expertise, he said.

Some troops will share their stories in documentary clips threaded into the game. “And we are presenting players with real dilemmas that Marines faced in Fallujah,” Tamte said.

Real Marines are being incorporated into game play, too, so that you might be in a firefight alongside some of the Marines you just saw in the documentary clip.

But before anybody has fired a shot in the game’s battles, “Six Days in Fallujah” is facing controversy.

Gold Star Families Speak Out, an organization of families with loved ones who died in Iraq and Afghanistan, say they are outraged that a video game will graphically recreate the Fallujah battle. They are part of the larger Military Families Speak Out, which opposes the war in Iraq.

Gold Star mother Tracy Miller said she was “stunned” when she heard about the video game. Her son, sniper Cpl. Nicholas L. “Nick” Ziolkowski, was killed by a sniper Nov. 14, 2004, in Fallujah.

“This is not a game. His life wasn’t a game, and the fact that he died wasn’t a game.

”I think (the game) trivializes it. And so many of these games dull sensibilities to violence,“ she said.

”For every Gold Star parent, no matter how we feel about the war, what we want is that our kids be remembered. I haven’t seen this game, but I suspect they’re not going to be remembering our kids or even what happened historically.“

Reserve Sgt. Mike Ergo, among those consulting on the project, said he disagrees.

”This game can help convey the reality of war,“ he said. And Tamte argues that the game’s developers have taken great care to ensure historical accuracy.

The game will not re-create the death of any real Marines, Tamte said. But, he added without going into details, the human cost of the battle will be clearly communicated to players. And when he describes the game, he doesn’t use the word ”fun.“

”Our job is to create a compelling experience,“ he said.

Ergo said he volunteers as a consultant on some of the technical aspects to "bring the game as much credibility as I can."

"One of the reasons I’m really supportive of this game is that in addition to the negative aspects, it’s where my Marines were at our best,“ Ergo said. ”We’d trained and trained. And we used our training to defeat the enemy. We were professional. We did our job well, and this game will help recognize that fact.“ That, Tamte said, is the point of this video game.

”We tend to make heroes of people who fought in wars decades ago, and that’s appropriate,“ Tamte said. ”Fallujah is one of the most historical battles in American history. People involved in that battle are walking around today, and their story deserves to be told.“

Ergo said video games have been one way that he and other Marines decompressed after battle. He played a video game based on Desert Storm with his comrades in December and January after they’d fought in Fallujah that November.

Tracy Miller, the Gold Star mother, said she was opposed to war since long before her son was born. But he loved playing video games, she acknowledged.

”And Nick probably would have wanted to play this one,“ she said.
Konami announces 'Six Days in Fallujah,' based on real battle in Iraq

Ellie