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Two hugely popular video games, including ‘Call Of Duty: Black Ops II’, have been ordered off store shelves in Pakistan for portraying Pakistanis as terrorists with anti-army and anti-ISI content.
According
to Gameinformer, the world’s largest video game magazine, the All Pakistan CD,
DVD, Audio Cassette Traders and Manufacturers Association has directed that
‘Call of Duty: Black Ops II’ and ‘Medal of Honour: Warfighter’ be taken off the
shelves as they “show Pakistan in very poor light”.
‘Call
of Duty: Black Ops II’, a first-person shooter game by Activision Blizzard, has
an episode where the player is in Lahore and brutally kills Pakistanis while
Electronic Arts’ ‘Medal of Honour: Warfighter’ shows Pakistan as a hotbed of
terrorists. Both games were released late last year and have sold millions of
copies worldwide. Gameinformer
quotes Saleem Memon, president of the All Pakistan CD, DVD, Audio Cassette
Traders and Manufacturers Association, as saying: “The problem is that there
are things that are against Pakistan and they have included criticism of our
army. They show the country in a very poor light.” It
quotes the statement issued earlier this week asking for both the games to be
boycotted.
“The
Association has always boycotted these types of films and games. These [games]
have been developed against the country’s national unity and sanctity. The
games have been developed against Pakistan and the association has completely
banned their sale. Shopkeepers are warned and will be responsible for the
consequences if found purchasing or selling these games.”
“Call
of Duty: Black Ops II has one mission, titled ‘The Fallen Angel’ based in
Lahore where you fight the ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistani spy
agency], who are the enemies,” Anand V, a video gaming enthusiast, said. “You
have to fight and kill them in the mission,” he explained.
According
to Anand, you play as a character, David Mason and in this mission there is a
scene in which Mason and his friend Harper are in a heavily flooded part of
Lahore. It is pouring heavily as the two men move around killing “the ISI forces”.
In some particularly gruesome scenes, the men cut the throats of some Pakistani
soldiers, with the blood shown spurting out. In one pictorial scene, which
intersperses with the game, Mason and Harper confront two Pakistani soldiers.
“Mason
bashes the head of one soldier against the door of the armoured truck, while
Harper does it with the other Pakistani. Both are probably killed,” Anand said.
“In
‘The Fallen Angel’ you fight a lot of Pakistanis. You are travelling in a
military camp... you are part of an armoured convoy and there are Pakistanis on
both sides trying to attack you.. Your armoured car crushes the men as they
come in front of you,” said Anand.
“Well,
they are the obstacles in the mission.. so you have to kill them,” Anand
answered. Meanwhile,
‘Medal of Honour: Warfighter’ depicts Pakistan as a jihadi haven and many
sequences were developed with the help of some members of the Navy SEALs team that
(so-called) killed Osama bin Laden in a secret raid on his Abbottabad house in
Pakistan on May 1, 2011.
The
seven SEALs were penalised last November for divulging classified information
to the game’s developer. Each of the seven received a letter of reprimand and a
partial forfeiture of pay for two months. Kathryn
Bigelow’s movie, ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ by Sony Pictures, tells the story of the
SEALs who took down bin Laden. One of the seven had reportedly divulged
information about the raid to the moviemaker.
According
to Fox News, both the games are hot sellers in Pakistan. A US daily quotes a
game shop owner in Islamabad as saying that ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops II’ has
sold more than 5,000 copies since its release last November. However, the
pirated copies, which sell at under $2 (Dh7), have huge sales. ‘Medal
of Honor; Warfighter’ has sold around 1,000 copies in Pakistan, the daily says. Earlier,
another game, ‘Assassin’s Creed’ was banned in Pakistan because Muslims found
its content offensive.
Gulf News(Edited by PCF Web desk)
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