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New.York.Defender
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New York Defender Suckered Us
New York Defender
January 3rd, 2008
Sorry for the lame title, but I could not think of anything else.
So I was sitting here in front of my computer, scanning the news items for the day. It’s the second of January and I’ve only written one blog entry for the New Year, but not for lack of material.
Just ten minutes ago I saw a CBS news clip about a French made online video game called New York Defender, whose tag-line is something like “Go Beyond Your Powerlessness, and Use Your Mouse to Fight Back”.
Before you click on that link, though, be warned. You will not find copious amounts of blood and gore, neither will you find foul language nor nudity. What you will find, however, is something at least as offensive any one of those things, and more offensive than all of them combined, depending on your own values, attitudes, and experiences.
For those of you who do not wish to explore the link, I will briefly describe what happens in New York Defender. There is an 8-bit graphic representation of the Twin Towers, and a targeting cursor. Soon, planes start flying toward the towers and it is up to the player to shoot them down. If you cannot shoot the planes down fast enough, they crash into the towers, eventually bringing the buildings down.
Understandably, there has been a major outcry against the game, and forces are organizing to try and get the game banned from the net.
I am not quite sure how I feel about this. On one hand, I think it is appalling that if you fail to shoot the planes down you have to see the Towers fall. I know we have the option of not playing the game, but to think that someone thought it would be funny to actually put this out there on the net really makes my skin crawl. I am not really angry about it, so much as disgusted.
However, there is another part of me that recognizes this game is in horrendous taste, but that does not mean it should be pulled from the net. I’ve played it–I had to have knowledge of that which I was about to write. It’s a crappy game–and I won’t play it again–but it is not the most offensive thing on the Internet.
I am not trying to take away from the events of 9/11, 2001. We were attacked and we lost thousands of innocent civilians. It is not a day or event that should be taken lightly. We do not need to dwell on it, but we do need to respect it. Not only for the innocents killed, but more importantly for the impact it had on America and our station in the world.
And, on a practical note: you can’t really ban anything from the Internet entirely. There is no way to wipe New York Defender off the world wide web-scape without a trace, so someone will always be able to get their grubby little hands on it.
It is worth mentioning that the game is free, but the site does have advertisements so someone is making money off of this, and they’re probably going to make a whole lot more. I am not sure how to feel about this. I know everyone needs a place to sleep and something to eat, but to exploit tragedy, ANY tragedy, for simply for greed is wrong to me.
At any rate, I am mostly just offended by the fact that a dude from another country made this game. It is too early for anyone (especially the French) other than Americans to start cracking-wise about 9/11. Once we have had our fill of homegrown 9/11 humor, then someone else can carry the torch. Until then, 9/11 belongs to America! |
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