Maybe they just played Battlefield 2 and always joined the Arab side.

OH NOES

Joke backfires! I didn't notice that the article is actually referring to a BF2 mod. Although I guess that just makes the whole story even more ridiculous, especially given this line:

"'Battlefield 2' ordinarily shows U.S. troops engaging forces from China or a united Middle East coalition."

Er, if all you care about is the intro video, then I guess that's the case. In the game itself you routinely play as any of the above sides, at random.

Sigh.

Today, I looked a little deeper into this story on virtualpolitik and have ordered transcripts from the congressional hearings that Gonzalo mentions. I haven't seen his actual testimony, but it sounds like Devlin clearly has his own ideological agenda that has nothing to do with either gaming culture or understanding how digital media function as venues for political resistance. See Robert Malley's work on Internet jihadist sites for a very different view of "propaganda."

My newest hobby is Blog reads that is more intresanter than newspapers or television. in the between time I spend already 4-5 hours at the computer. Writes firmly thereby I also still enough-end to read has.

GamePolitics.com has an interview with SonicJihad, the creator of the video that Congress watched.

http://www.gamepolitics.com

"If al Quaeda is indeed using videogames to lure young people into fighting a hate war against the US, then I find that use of games to be despicable. But then the same would have to apply to America's Army. It's a shame that journalists just write down whatever they get fed, without questioning it."

The equating of American and Al Qaeda propaganda is itself despicable. But then given how you jumped to the conclusion to blame Reuters for accurately reporting on this presentation by Devlin (who clearly is an idiot), obviously you prefer to not to think before you write.

If you carefully read the posts, I started by getting mad at Reuters for not doing good journalism and not mentioning that videogame propaganda is not a terrorist-only game. That was my original complaint, before learning about the fact that the video was fake evidence (actually, I even questioned the possibility that the video was real. And my gut feeling was right, as it was later proven).

In addition to this, the original reports that pointed out to the fact that this was SonicJihad's video were the ones who blamed Reuters. I admit that I thought to blame Reuters, but I did not post about it (that was Ian's post, my colleague here, who later on reliased his mistake because he was misled by those early posts).

I do my best to think before I write but still make mistakes. In any case, even if our coverage has mistakes, we immediately corrected them and pointed them out. Sadly, that has not been the case of most tradtional media, who just left the story die.

Secondly, this is a game that deals with rhetoric and propaganda. Under those terms, American and (so far imaginary) Al Quaeda propaganda videogames are analyzed under similar terms. This does not mean that I necessarily equate them as political groups. Personally, I do not like videogames being used for recruiting soldiers, no matter what their flag is. I equate propaganda on that level, too. You may agree with it or not, that is up to you. But it is not enough to accuse me of writing without thinking.

For every time Propaganda is a part of our live. Sometimes for good or sometimes for bad aktions.

Money will make the mare go.
That´s the reason as clear as a crystal.