CEN brands war on terror "sick"
Jim Jay | 18.09.2006 13:55 | Terror War | Cambridge
The Cambridge Evening News ran a front page and centre page spread on "War on terror; the boardgame" branding it "sick"
Today (Monday 18th Sept) the CEN has run three full pages, plus the comment column on "war on terror: the boardgame" branding it "sick"
Tory MPs lined up to criticise the game without knowing anything about it. Jim Paice said "I don't like the sound of it" and Andrew Lansley said "This board game is in very bad taste and it appears somebody has gone too far."
The game designed by Cambridge based Terror Bull Games, which involves the judicious use of war and the funding of terrorism to carve up the world's natural resources, has been three years in the making and perhaps understandably has not been uncontroversial.
The game contains lots of elements Mr Tony Blair might like to pay attention to (those you fund today come back to haunt you tomorrow, nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction and the impulse to dominate the globe increases, rather than diminishes, the level of international conflict) and also challenges the ideas of the good / pro-democracy empires vs the bad / axis of evil.
In one sense the CEN attacks (and it should said there is also a very fair interview with the game designers) are to be welcomed as an opportunity to discuss the real war on terror, and maybe think about what's more inappropriate, a murderous carnal house of global reaction or a board game that raises some topical issues.
Is "War on terror the board game" sick? Take part in the CEN online poll (you need to do that today while it's still their current poll)
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/
If you'd like to write to the CEN email
letters@cambridge-news.co.uk
Tory MPs lined up to criticise the game without knowing anything about it. Jim Paice said "I don't like the sound of it" and Andrew Lansley said "This board game is in very bad taste and it appears somebody has gone too far."
The game designed by Cambridge based Terror Bull Games, which involves the judicious use of war and the funding of terrorism to carve up the world's natural resources, has been three years in the making and perhaps understandably has not been uncontroversial.
The game contains lots of elements Mr Tony Blair might like to pay attention to (those you fund today come back to haunt you tomorrow, nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction and the impulse to dominate the globe increases, rather than diminishes, the level of international conflict) and also challenges the ideas of the good / pro-democracy empires vs the bad / axis of evil.
In one sense the CEN attacks (and it should said there is also a very fair interview with the game designers) are to be welcomed as an opportunity to discuss the real war on terror, and maybe think about what's more inappropriate, a murderous carnal house of global reaction or a board game that raises some topical issues.
Is "War on terror the board game" sick? Take part in the CEN online poll (you need to do that today while it's still their current poll)
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/ If you'd like to write to the CEN email
letters@cambridge-news.co.uk
Jim Jay
Homepage:
http://www.waronterrortheboardgame.com/
Comments
Hide the following 3 comments
CEN letters page - voice of reason
25.09.2006 02:26
I read with increasing disgust your front page about the young men who find terrorism so funny.
To compare the bombing of Iraq or Lebanon to terrorist outrages is utter piffle. It's not as if we created Saddam Hussein or al-Qaeda. The civilised world simply had to respond to their evil.
If it wasn't for President Bush and Prime Minister Blair the world would be gripped by terrorism right now. Whilst it is sad that the role of the British Empire has declined at least the Americans are still strong enough to bring democracy and peace to the most backward regions of the world.
A "game" like this can only encourage people to become suicide bombers and I strongly disagree with MP Jim Paice. This game should be banned.
.......................................
If you feel the same way ;) why not write to the CEN in reply to this letter - there's plenty to get your teeth stuck into
jimjay
TerrorBull Games Responds
25.09.2006 09:46
We've published an open letter to all victims of pointless violence on our website:
And our latest press release:
And 'our take on terrorism':
The Cambridge Evening News have offered us 600 un-edited words to respond to last weeks criticism, which we much appreciate. Hopefully this will be published in CEN tomorrow.
Play nice!
TerrorBull Games
Homepage:
http://www.terrorbullgames.co.uk
CEN Response Piece
27.09.2006 13:14
Since appearing in the Cambridge Evening News last Monday, we've been called sick more times than we care to remember. We've been banned from almost every major toy fair in the world. A newspaper in Brisbane is championing a movement to get the game banned in Australia. And then there's the death threats... ((It's a good job we held back on launching our range of Myra Hindley children's books.*))
We have to admit, a “suicide bomber game” sounds pretty sick. But we didn't make that game. Nor did we make a game about 7/7 or 9/11 or Afghanistan or any specific event.
We made a game mocking the so-called 'war on terror'. Why? Because we find it absurd that you can even have a war on terror. What is it? To us, it's an excuse to curb civil liberties, create fear and invade other countries for your own political gain – and create more terrorism in the process. War is terror. We find it ludicrous and worrying, so we decided to poke fun at it.
That doesn't mean we're poking fun at victims of terrorism any more than it means we're poking fun at victims of war or those serving in the armed forces ... we don’t think that’s funny at all. We think it’s deadly serious, which is why we spent three years making a board game to challenge it – we got bored of anti-war marches.
TerrorBull Games is about tackling the nastier stuff in life, subjects that don't have an easy right or wrong. Maybe they're subjects you naturally avoid. We want people to confront those subjects, interact, discuss, fight, laugh, win, lose and then do it all again because it was so much fun.
Of course, we understand why people are upset and angry** – it's a tough, complex, painful subject and we're treating it with humour. But humour is a powerful weapon and there's a great culture of laughing in the face of fear in this country. Do you believe 7th July 2005 passed without at least one person making a light-hearted quip in an attempt to deal with what was going on around them?
We've been accused of profiteering from others' suffering. For the moment, we'll ignore the double-think of a capitalist society condemning profit-making. If you discount our satirical and political intentions, what you're left with is something that's no more offensive than the 'Medal of Honour' computer game, or even 'Battleships'. This isn't even a toy gun. It's just a board game. Many people profit from the war on terror – arms manufacturers, oil companies, newspapers, films ... the list is endless. We're not amongst them yet.
Anyone who knows anything about independent publishing companies will tell you we'll be lucky to break even. However, if we do make a profit, we look forward to using it wisely. A holiday would be nice, but then so would being in a position where we can support and reward other hard-working people and groups trying to make a difference. If profit makes people uncomfortable, we'll lead the way in publishing our accounts and see which other companies follow suit.
More than $2 billion a day is spent on weaponry. At least 500 people die every day directly through armed conflict, 100 of those are in Iraq***. If all the money, brains and energy that went into fueling and arming these conflicts was spent on games, imagine how much fun we'd be having.
--
* The CEN decided to edit this bit out, which is a shame, as we thought it was quite a good gag.
** Please see our open letter to victims of terrorism: www.waronterrortheboardgame.com/openletter
*** Source: p.114, Indypedia L-Z © Independent News & Media 2006
TerrorBull Games
Homepage:
http://www.terrorbullgames.co.uk