tahta al-hisar—under siege

  ↑Tahta al-Hisar—Under Siege is a “real life 3D game shooter” developed and produced by ↑Afkar Media in Damascus, Syria. The game strives to mediate a middle-eastern view of the middle-eastern conflict to middle-eastern youngsters—and yes, (for technical testing ONLY ;-) there even is a playable demo online [.zip | 23.1MB], able to spread the idea way farther. Here is the game’s official description by the developers:    When you live in middle-east you can’t avoid being part of the image, as a development company we believe that we had to do our share of responsibility in telling the story … Continue reading

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digital intifada, arabs, and aliens

  Just ↵as promised, my pal ↑Vít Šisler—lawyer, arabist, and anthropologist-in-disguise—now has done it and brought his fresh, new, and tremendously interesting articles online:  ↑Digital Intifada (↵Šisler 2006b) “examines political videogames produced by the Syrian company Afkar Media in Damascus, mainly their recent game Tahta al-Hisar (Under Siege) and puts them in a broader context of persuasive and serious games. It deals with the representation of the Other and Foreign in videogames, construction of the Arab and Islamic heroes and ongoing digital emancipation of the Near East.”  ↑In videogames you shoot Arabs or Aliens (↵Šisler 2006a) is an “interview with … Continue reading

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