Bare Knuckles: War games trigger an ethical conflict

If you read a newspaper or listened to local news reports this week, you probably came across reports of Saturday's protests against the U.S. Army Experience Center at the Franklin Mills Mall. Seven protesters were arrested as a group of parents, veterans, and church leaders participated in the rally.

The Army's use of military-based video games to lure potential recruits (not to mention those not of recruiting age) is at the heart of the problem. The issue was discussed here in a previous column.

"I am utterly disgusted that the Army which I loved, and in which I served so long, has resorted to such a deceiving recruiting strategy," Sgt. Jesse Hamilton, who served nine years in the Army, said in a news release by the protest's organizer, Peace Action. Hamilton served two tours in Iraq.

While the use of popular games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to draw young folks into the armed forces is cause for concern, there is another issue bubbling under the surface about military-based video games at the moment.

The Japanese game publisher Konami recently canceled the title Six Days of Fallujah, a game based on actual events during some of the bloodiest and costliest (for soldiers and civilians) conflicts of the Iraq war. Parents of soldiers killed in action, veterans, and peace groups decried the game as a shameless attempt to capitalize on a horrific battle.

This second war-related issue indicates the need to tread very carefully, as the waters are getting murky when it comes to the censorship of violent games (especially first-person shooters based on real events) and how they are marketed.

It is one thing to sound the alarm in regards to using violent military-simulation games to recruit people to enlist. It is another thing to prevent games from being played at all. Bad taste is a subjective thing, and the slippery slopes of censorship are never far behind.

There have always been games based on real conflicts - from the '80s vertical-scrolling flight shooter, 1942, to all of the Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon titles, to the present-day America's Army and Full Spectrum Warrior titles.

Developers have the right to make these games, and people who disagree with the thrust of these titles have the right to provide whatever context they feel necessary. I am hoping that is the way it will stay.