Playing the News
2007; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 33; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2161-430X
Autores Tópico(s)Digital Games and Media
ResumoPlaying the News. Documentary by Jigar Mehta and Jeff Plunkett. First Run/Icarus Films, 2006. 22-minute DVD. $225. In November 2004, when U.S. forces launched attack on Fallujah, journalists from every news medium-including newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and the Internet-covered the story. One company, Kuma Reality Games, has developed a new kind of coverage, one that allows people to engage in a video game simulation of actual battle. What separates KUMA/WAR from the zillion other war games is that it seeks to be timely. Even before the battle for Fallujah was finished, gamers were able to vicariously participate in the battle. Kuma promises an intense boots-on-the-ground experience of actual news events occurring right now. Real world news. Real world games. A documentary released in 2006, Playing the News, explores this phenomenon. Filmmakers Jigar Mehta and Jeff Plunkett, who made the film while they were students at the University of California's Graduate School of Journalism, offer the following back-story on the film company's Web site: more we researched, the more we realized that-for better or worse-this was the beginning of something. Kuma Reality Games, a video game company, was claiming to be a news organization. Not only had it 'covered' the John Kerry controversy, it's [sic] focus was the ongoing War on Terror. We were hooked: this was a story about how video games might play a role in connecting young people to current events, and specifically the war in Iraq. But it was also a story about the blurring of news and entertainment and how technology numbs us to the horrors of The game scenarios depicted in the documentary offer extraordinary level of detail. The battle sequences are based on satellite images, information from the military, and personal accounts. Dante Anderson, Kuma's vice president for product development, tells the filmmakers that a recent game was based on a report from Army sergeant. The battle scenery and action becomes, like animated police sketch, eyewitness account. Of course, the game is from a U.S. perspective, and when we are witnessing the capture of Saddam Hussein, as one game depicts, it is through American eyes, not through Saddam's. As one critic mentions in the documentary, the scenarios are very U.S.-centric; Abu Ghraib is one narrative that will not be replayed in KUMA/WAR. Still, KUMA/WAR does depart from the typical game in that it depicts at least some of the randomness of war. In a typical video game, a player can usually figure out how to reach a new level. But Anderson explains that Kuma faithfully depicts the invisibility of improvised explosive devices, which means that gamers will get killed at unpredictable times with frustrating frequency. …
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