Probably everybody knows by now that Microsoft pulled out from the shelves their Flight Simulator and postponed the launch of version 2002. Sony also pulled the plug on a demolition game – I can’t recall the name, I have some screenshots on a Japanese magazine I bought. Suddenly, videogames are back in business as instruments of terror.
Trust me. Trying to understand Japanese news is hard if you don’t speak the language. While the planes hitting the towers didn’t need further explanations, I had to follow what was going on in the States and the world through some English language newspapers. Still, during the night, we watched Japanese TV and tried to figure out what they were talking about. However, there was one thing that really caught my attention. One journalist was shown inside a simulator cockpit, while trying to control a virtual plane. After some maneuvers, she was finally able to smash herself onto the World Trade Center. What was the point of showing an anchorwoman playing a simulator? While probably she got a different perspective on how easy or hard it would be to pilot her way into mass murder, the people watching the show we were left on the other side of the screen. Watching somebody playing a simulator is definitively different from playing it. Certainly, it was not a fun thing to watch. While I was not able to tell a single word of what she was saying, it didn’t feel right to watch somebody recreating the drama through a computer simulation/game. Again, the simulation may have its purpose on a personal level: to discover that almost anybody could have done that. But for an external observer, it seemed that somehow she was trivializing the situation. Obviously, the media already trivialized the attack through traditional representation, by insisting on delivering “WTC pornography” again and again. Reality became a reality show.
But what is the difference between representing reality -through videotapes of planes smashing buildings- and simulating it –through, say, Microsoft Flight Simulator. Unlike the first, simulation is a first person experience –at least for the player. Magical thinking makes us believe that if we mimic the real situation, even if it is in a make-believe mode, we are somehow performing it again. In René Clémént’s film “Jeux Interdits”, two kids perform death-related games with crosses and tombs during WWII. Microsoft Flight Simulator (MFS) suddenly also became a forbidden game. Interestingly, a player of MFS has a choice: she may or not decide to dive into the World Trade Center. She may fly through Manhattan, for example, just for fun. How comes simulation is a bad thing now but representation is not? Unlike the MFS player, I do not have a choice as a TV viewer: any station I watch will sooner or later show the Twin Towers falling to pieces.
Sure, MFS could easily be used as a training tool for would-be terrorists. That’s a fact. But the same applies to any medium. You could learn about how to design a death camp by watching Holocaust documentaries. What about all those chemistry textbooks that may lead you into becoming a homemade bomb expert? There are also plenty of History books that will teach you about guerrilla and terrorist tactics. Actually, Sim City should also be banned, since it would be a great tool for modeling a city and then figuring out which buildings should be targeted to produce the most damage. And that little application in Windows 98, the calculator, could be used to calculate evil plans.
Of course, Microsoft did not stopped selling MFS because they really thought it was a tool for terror, but rather because they want to preserve their image and their dollars. Still, I find interesting that unlike what happened in Littleton, where the game in question involved shooting, in this case there are no guns or missiles. MSF is a peaceful game by itself, unlike war flight simulators. Terror is not in the system, but in the wicked mind of the player. There is nothing really wrong in smashing your virtual plane into the WTC or any other building. Sure, games should not be viewed as disconnected with reality, but their consequences are not real. There is no way that after a MFS session you will watch the thousands of pictures of missing persons that I browsed through some minutes ago on CNN’s website. Unlike a gun, simulation is not a weapon, but a tool. Guns are made just to shoot at things; simulators have many functions that depend on the user’s intentions.
More than six thousand people died last week on one of the most coward attacks in our history. Terror is a terrible thing. I was raised under a fascist dictatorship, during the seventies in Uruguay. While I could quote many examples, there is one that comes to my mind now. Every morning, my dad had to walk to the bus station to catch the 104 line to work. That bus is particularly painful, since you usually have to wait for it for 30-40 minutes –many times under heavy winds or rain. Since the bus stop is kind of far away from my house, you may want to look back once every minute in order to see if the bus is approaching. However, during many years of living in a Big Brother ruled country –where friends and family members died, got imprisoned or simply “disappeared”- my dad never looked back during his walk to the bus stop. Therefore, he missed the bus many times. He was simply afraid that somebody would notice him constantly looking back and may denounce him as suspicious. More than a decade of missed buses... After he told me this story, my dad told me: “_There is nothing worse than living in fear”.
Terrorists would win if they can bring terror to everyday’s activities, as simply and trivial as catching a bus or playing a videogame.
