Deutsche Presse-Agentur
April 6, 2004, Tuesday
Vietnam war computer games raise hackles in Hanoi
By Sam Taylor
DATELINE: Hanoi
In the computer game "Battlefield Vietnam", each player can choose whether
to fight as an American or communist Vietnamese soldier. Realistic sound
effects and voice clips in English and Vietnamese pump through the
speakers as characters blast, bomb and hack their way through a number of
stages recreating real battles from the conflict which ended nearly 30
years ago. M16 rifles, grenade launchers, AK 47s, Huey helicopters,
napalm, and slender pieces of poisonous, sharpened bamboo sticks can be
used to bring death to the enemy, whether they be Vietnamese or American.
Vietnam's ministry of culture and information has seized all the pirated
copies that were on sale in bootleg software shops in Hanoi and condemns
the use of Vietnam war scenarios for games. "History should not be taken
advantage of to make into violent computer games," Pham Xuan Sinh,
director of the international cooperation department of Vietnam's ministry
of culture and information told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
As a young officer in the marines in 1967, John Lancaster was paralyzed by
a communist Vietnamese bullet. Although he used to play cowboys and
Indians and board games based on the American civil war as a child, he
sees the graphic computer games set in Vietnam as tastelessly cashing in
on the misery of people involved in the conflict. "In a sense it's really
insensitive, and depending on how the games are set up, it could be very
offensive to a nationality too, certainly the Vietnamese," Lancaster said
from his home in Hanoi. "It's a little bothersome that some woman who lost
her husband back during the war has got to watch a grandchild play this
game."
The war known in Vietnam as the American war killed around 58,000
Americans and up to three million Vietnamese. Even today, unexploded
ordnance and landmines continue to kill and maim on a weekly basis. At
least six computer games set in Vietnam are available on the market and
Vietnamese officials are unequivocal in their condemnation of all off
them.
"We completely disapprove of computer games that arouse violence
among children. Our government never encourages such games about the war,
digging up the past while we are trying to close it," said Sinh.
The ministry's disapproval of violent computer games is not an attitude
shared by the hundreds of gamers playing in shops in Hanoi's student
district recently. At least 13 game shops, with at least 15 terminals in
each, were packed last week with male students blazing away at each other,
playing the interactive shooting game "Counterstrike". Born five years
after the fall of the city formerly known as Saigon, 24-year-old
electronics student Nguyen Hoang Giang doesn't think that violent computer
games are necessarily a bad thing. "I like fighting games because they
require different strategies and tactics," Giang says. "It helps develop
thinking skills as players have to react to different tactics to defeat
the enemy."
In fact, the student said playing games based on Vietnam's bloody history
could help the younger generation have a greater appreciation of the war.
"If the game is released, (Battlefield Vietnam) will attract a lot of
young people in Vietnam, help them know about the war and remind them of
the war even better than lessons in schools," Giang says. In recent years,
first person shooting games set in World War II have become popular.
But fighting fascists and Japanese enemies pose fewer ethical dilemmas
than games set in the more recent past, according to Hanoi-based graphic
designer and keen gamer Steve Christensen. "Killing Nazis is fine,"
Christensen says. "Nobody's going to say "'What about the Nazis, that's
terrible.'" The 38-year old graphic designer can relate to the official
dim view of the games and understands how the realism of "Battlefield
Vietnam" might upset people. "Some of the scenarios are really specific,
especially the battles about Hue," says Christiansen. "I have been to Hue
many times and I can recognize buildings and streets (in the game). That
could be a traumatic part in the memories of people."
Having experienced the real thing, John Lancaster can't understand why
people would choose to play games based on actual traumatic events. "You
wonder why anyone would like to play a game about that stuff," Lancaster
says. "Having been there and done that, it is not something I care to do
again, nor do I condone it."
Although the games could be traumatic for some, communist Vietnam's
victory over the better-equipped and outnumbered American-backed south
remains the bottom line and the most important legacy of the war,
according to the electronics student. "The southern Vietnamese side was
more powerful, but victory depended on tactics and as history has shown,
Vietnam won the war," Giang says.
ja ja folkens
April 6, 2004, Tuesday
Vietnam war computer games raise hackles in Hanoi
By Sam Taylor
DATELINE: Hanoi
In the computer game "Battlefield Vietnam", each player can choose whether
to fight as an American or communist Vietnamese soldier. Realistic sound
effects and voice clips in English and Vietnamese pump through the
speakers as characters blast, bomb and hack their way through a number of
stages recreating real battles from the conflict which ended nearly 30
years ago. M16 rifles, grenade launchers, AK 47s, Huey helicopters,
napalm, and slender pieces of poisonous, sharpened bamboo sticks can be
used to bring death to the enemy, whether they be Vietnamese or American.
Vietnam's ministry of culture and information has seized all the pirated
copies that were on sale in bootleg software shops in Hanoi and condemns
the use of Vietnam war scenarios for games. "History should not be taken
advantage of to make into violent computer games," Pham Xuan Sinh,
director of the international cooperation department of Vietnam's ministry
of culture and information told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
As a young officer in the marines in 1967, John Lancaster was paralyzed by
a communist Vietnamese bullet. Although he used to play cowboys and
Indians and board games based on the American civil war as a child, he
sees the graphic computer games set in Vietnam as tastelessly cashing in
on the misery of people involved in the conflict. "In a sense it's really
insensitive, and depending on how the games are set up, it could be very
offensive to a nationality too, certainly the Vietnamese," Lancaster said
from his home in Hanoi. "It's a little bothersome that some woman who lost
her husband back during the war has got to watch a grandchild play this
game."
The war known in Vietnam as the American war killed around 58,000
Americans and up to three million Vietnamese. Even today, unexploded
ordnance and landmines continue to kill and maim on a weekly basis. At
least six computer games set in Vietnam are available on the market and
Vietnamese officials are unequivocal in their condemnation of all off
them.
"We completely disapprove of computer games that arouse violence
among children. Our government never encourages such games about the war,
digging up the past while we are trying to close it," said Sinh.
The ministry's disapproval of violent computer games is not an attitude
shared by the hundreds of gamers playing in shops in Hanoi's student
district recently. At least 13 game shops, with at least 15 terminals in
each, were packed last week with male students blazing away at each other,
playing the interactive shooting game "Counterstrike". Born five years
after the fall of the city formerly known as Saigon, 24-year-old
electronics student Nguyen Hoang Giang doesn't think that violent computer
games are necessarily a bad thing. "I like fighting games because they
require different strategies and tactics," Giang says. "It helps develop
thinking skills as players have to react to different tactics to defeat
the enemy."
In fact, the student said playing games based on Vietnam's bloody history
could help the younger generation have a greater appreciation of the war.
"If the game is released, (Battlefield Vietnam) will attract a lot of
young people in Vietnam, help them know about the war and remind them of
the war even better than lessons in schools," Giang says. In recent years,
first person shooting games set in World War II have become popular.
But fighting fascists and Japanese enemies pose fewer ethical dilemmas
than games set in the more recent past, according to Hanoi-based graphic
designer and keen gamer Steve Christensen. "Killing Nazis is fine,"
Christensen says. "Nobody's going to say "'What about the Nazis, that's
terrible.'" The 38-year old graphic designer can relate to the official
dim view of the games and understands how the realism of "Battlefield
Vietnam" might upset people. "Some of the scenarios are really specific,
especially the battles about Hue," says Christiansen. "I have been to Hue
many times and I can recognize buildings and streets (in the game). That
could be a traumatic part in the memories of people."
Having experienced the real thing, John Lancaster can't understand why
people would choose to play games based on actual traumatic events. "You
wonder why anyone would like to play a game about that stuff," Lancaster
says. "Having been there and done that, it is not something I care to do
again, nor do I condone it."
Although the games could be traumatic for some, communist Vietnam's
victory over the better-equipped and outnumbered American-backed south
remains the bottom line and the most important legacy of the war,
according to the electronics student. "The southern Vietnamese side was
more powerful, but victory depended on tactics and as history has shown,
Vietnam won the war," Giang says.
ja ja folkens
(slagene er vel ikke oppdikta?)
)
, burde heller 