While many young men and women face the real and serious hazards of the war in Iraq, just as many -- maybe more -- in the United States are blowing up Baghdad on a regular basis from the comfort of their homes.
As the war in the Gulf region moved into its second week and casualties on both sides mounted, a number of video games were emerging online that let players live out the conflict vicariously through their computers.
With names like "Blood of Bin Laden" and "Desert Combat," the games, whether new or underground modifications to existing games, offer players the chance to take part in the kinds of real-life battles seen on American television in the last two weeks.
Anti-bin Laden games and anti-Saddam Hussein games have long existed online, though most are crude and simplistic.
But games like "Desert Combat" are highly complex, built by large teams of skilled mapmakers and programmers. The game was started as a research project by Frank DeLise, a vice president at software designer Rtzen who told Reuters he enjoys playing war games but could not find a good one set in modern times.
"That was always a goal of mine, to have a good modern-day game to play," DeLise said.
A total of 15 people are now working on updating the game, DeLise said, including people from Iraqi war opponents France and Germany and a volunteer from the U.S. Air Force.
People who play "Desert Combat," which is a modification or "mod" of the Electronic Arts Inc. (Nasdaq:ERTS - news) title "Battlefield 1942," praise it for a balanced game and patriotic sentiment.
Read more here
DualBootPRO