Iranian video game offers chance to blow up U.S. tanker

[TRUTH]

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A new Iranian computer game sets players the task of blowing up a U.S. tanker in the Gulf to block the sea route for much of the world's oil supplies, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

The game, "Counter Strike," invites players to plant two bombs on the oil tanker to sink it and make the strait of Hormuz impassable, the Jomhouri-ye Eslami daily reported. About two-fifths of globally traded oil passes through the channel.

The game illustrates a warning by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said in June that oil exports in the Gulf region could be seriously endangered if the United States made a wrong move on Iran.

Its launch also comes at a critical time in negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, which the United States says is aimed at making an atomic bomb but which Iran says is to produce electricity. Iran faces the threat of U.N. sanctions if it does not suspend uranium enrichment.

"In the new computer game ... the ways of shutting down the Hormuz strait through exploding a ship will be shown to the users," Jomhouri-ye Eslami quoted a statement issued by the game's state-funded producers as saying.

The cyberspace and computer games markets have witnessed sabre-rattling before between Iran and the United States. Games have involved special forces of each side blasting their enemies' facilities and foiling plots hatched by the adversary.

A popular U.S. game, called "U.S. attacks Iran" or "Assault on Iran" and made by Kuma Reality games, revolved around a special forces mission to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities.

The new Iranian game was produced by an eight-member team in three months for distribution in Iran, the paper said. Its launch was linked to commemorations of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, whose official start was marked in Tehran this month.

The designers and the sponsors of the game were not immediately available for comments

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060930/tc_nm/security_iran_game_dc

[DeFecToR]

As a gamer i really should point out the obvious here. Political timing aside, many video games are centered around killing as many people and destroying as many things as possible, not to mention the rather disgusting glut of games designed as US military recruitment tools. So the violence aspect of a game in which you have to sink a tanker is not really an issue.
Obviously there is the poitical aspect to the release of this game but this is nothing new at all. In the run up, and well in to, the Iraq war there was a barrage of military Middle-east based games including one (i forget its name) in which the object of the game was to partake in the invasion of Iraq with the aim of killing its leader Sadam Hussain.
If this game is an indication of either the public mood or intent of Iranians, or if it is a piece of Iranian propaganda aimed at shaping public opinion in Iran, then so be it.
Of course it may well be more of a not so subtle message to the west. In which case fair enough aswell. We all, the Pentagon included, are well aware of the price that will be paid from an invasion of Iran, and we dont need video games to spell that out for us.

[Bicnarok]

sounds a fun game, where can I download it?