Reuters recently reported that terrorists are using mods of popular American video games in efforts to recruit new members.
One of the latest video games modified by militants is the popular “Battlefield 2” from leading video game publisher, Electronic Arts Inc of Redwood City, California.
Jeff Brown, a spokesman for Electronic Arts, said enthusiasts often write software modifications, known as “mods,” to video games.
“Millions of people create mods on games around the world,” he said. “We have absolutely no control over them. It’s like drawing a mustache on a picture.”
“Battlefield 2” ordinarily shows U.S. troops engaging forces from China or a united Middle East coalition. But in a modified video trailer posted on Islamic Web sites and shown to lawmakers, the game depicts a man in Arab headdress carrying an automatic weapon into combat with U.S. invaders.
“I was just a boy when the infidels came to my village in Blackhawk helicopters,” a narrator’s voice said as the screen flashed between images of street-level gunfights, explosions and helicopter assaults.
Turns out that the creepy “terrorist” voice over is actually South Park’s Trey Parker, in an outake from Team America World Police, and the mod itself is part of an expansion pack. From Water Cooler Games.
On May 5th, a reader at the Dvorak forum by the name of julieb identified the video shown at the hearing not as something crafted by terrorist but as a parody created by a gamer fromm the Planet Battlefield forum identified as SonicJihad.
On her post, julieb said:
The video the retarded writer is referring to is not made by terrorists. It was made by a member of the Planetbattlefield forums. The voice of in the video is not a terrorist – it is Trey Parker from the movie Team America World Police. The article also claims it is a mod created by terrorist. It is not a mod. It is the Special Forces Expansion pack that anyone can buy.
The fact is that the Reuters story indeed says that the alledged terrorist videogame included voice over saying “I was just a boy when the infidels came to my village in Blackhawk helicopters”. That line is, in fact, a line from the Team America World Police movie, a comedy produced by the creators of South Park. Here is a link to the movie’s script (you will find the exact same line of dialogue that, according to Reuters, was attributed to a videogame created by terrorists) It is also included on SonicJihad’s video, which also fits the description provided by the Reuters story. The video can be viewed here (be warned, it’s over a 100 megs).
Transcripts of the hearing obtained by Water Cooler Games show that this expansion pack was presented shown by <name deleted>, an “expert” with the RAND corporation. Remember, this is your tax dollars at work.
And then lastly, we want to show you “Battlefield II.” This is made by an American company. But they’ve created a new trailer and a plug-in, which if you register and send them $25, you can play it. And here’s is the advertisement —
(Clip is played.)
And there you see how all these products are linked together. And you can see where the games are set to psychologically condition you to go kill coalition forces. You can see how they use humor. You can see how the entire campaign is carefully crafted to first evoke an emotion and then to evoke a response and to direct that response in the direction that they want.
They want to wiretap every phone conversation in the US but they can’t tell the difference between a crappy video game and the work of terrorists.