Mirroring Reality

Back in 2011 there was a game that had undergone development by Atomic Games entitled, Six Days in Fallujah. The game was to document the events of an army battalion that had returned from Iraq after having previously been working with Atomic on creating training tools for their games. After they had returned, the battalion requested that Atomic create a game based around their experiences while in Iraq as a virtual retelling of what had happened there to which Atomic had complied. After the game had been announced, it was met with heavy throes of backlash, people stating it was soiling the true experiences of the soldiers there and demanded that the studio cancel all production immediately, which they inevitably had to do after major publishers backed out of the project (Parker, 2012).

First person shooters are generally no strangers to controversy or backlash, they are the primary example people put forth when discussing violence and bad influences that exist in games. People state that these shooters sensationalize war and violence, congratulating players for killing numerous amounts of people, some of these accusations, in some cases, being true. Games occasionally need to add an element of fun to their make-up to keep players motivated to continue on doing just that, playing. Though that wasn't what Six Days was trying to accomplish. It wished to tell the experiences of the soldiers so players could simulate almost exactly what soldiers going overseas must deal with and the trials they must endure. If anything, it was defaming violence in that respect, painting the horrors that a real-life soldier must face, as it was told from a battalion's own personal experiences.

I personally do not believe that Six Days is completely pure and free of any negative qualities, the idea itself is quite the controversial subject and a studio must gauge public reception towards their game before releasing it. Those who did lose family and friends in the battle that the game was simulating are completely justified where they felt uncomfortable seeing what could have been their loved ones being killed onscreen. Despite this, I do think that this can still serve as an example of a useful learning tool to both young and old generations. No other medium can effectively capture the horror of the event in the same way games can, through a simulated experience. By showing the raw and gritty nature of war without giving a positive feedback to the player, a game (Six Days especially) can leave a heavy impact, and make them think differently on war as a whole.

Games that represent events based in the real world are always going to outweigh those based on fictitious scenarios due to the content being too close to reality for anyone's comfort, and considering that games are still a juvenile medium as compared to others, people will lash out and argue it's not an appropriate choice. But by using this towards a more educational and positively influential means, games can inform players of the horrors of violence through such simulations and deter them from any potential influence they are claimed to undergo when playing these games.

Extra Credits, an online game theory and analysis series, discusses Six Days more in-depth and also discusses how games can overcome the controversy they are normally plagued with and enter into a more well-respected spotlight (Extra Credits, 2012).