In Memorium: A gamer's perspective on digital choices and memories.

An article appearing in the June 6th edition of Newsweek titled The Battle over the Battle of Fallujah exposes the controversy surrounding Atomic Games' Six Days in Fallujah, a first-person shooter recreating the events of the first battle of Fallujah in 2004.

The game's creator, Peter Tamte, had no intention of exploiting the situation. His plan was to make a game that would recreate the events in a respectable manner and to involve the veterans by including personal commentary and opinions in to the game play itself. But how does one recreate an infamous battle, still fresh in the minds of those families and friends who lost loved ones only five years ago, without exposing those traumatized to needless flashbacks?

A little bit of history here: the first operation, codenamed 'Vigilant Resolve,' failed. Twenty-seven US soldiers died including countless civilians and insurgents. The year was 2004, toward the beginning of the Iraq war. The second battle, that which the game is based upon, was called 'Phantom Fury' and proved to be more successful than the first, though still disappointing in the end, with most of the high-profile targets having escaped prior to the taking of the city.

Games about war are nothing new. The Call of Duty franchise, an immensely popular World War 1 through Vietnam simulator has a loyal fan base and sequels in production. Even games with a more personal attitude such as Splinter Cell and Tom Clancy titles deal in current events; the echoes of war and espionage are ever present in our entertainment. They inundate us and desensitize us to the realities we see in the news.

But no game has been made as of yet that simulates a war that is still running its course, and very few if any survivors or relatives of those who died in Vietnam or any of the World Wars lobby against the video game industry. Six Days, however, has drawn a lot of attention and may not be released, after publisher Konami pulled its support of the game a week after it was initially demonstrated.

"After seeing the reaction to the video game in the United States and hearing opinions sent through phone calls and e-mail, we decided several days ago not to sell it," a Konami PR representative told Asahi. "We had intended to convey the reality of the battles to players so that they could feel what it was like to be there."

Which begs the question: how can a game truly convey a real-life experience? Will a game ever be considered a proper medium for memorial? The answer is complicated, though it has been tackled by games with varying degrees of success.

In 2004, Lionhead Studios released Fable, a game that Peter Molyneux pumped-up beyond expectations and, when the game failed to deliver on some key aspects promised, was deemed a slight disappointment. But the most interesting feature was the ability to adjust your 'alignment' by committing acts of good or evil.

Games like Fable, such as Mass Effect or Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, use this system to determine the outcome of your character and the world around him/her. This system, however, is deeply flawed and cannot accurately mirror reality.

In Fable, eating tofu allows the character to accumulate 'good' points. Eating living chickens accumulates 'bad' points. In Mass Effect, some of the options seem rather black and white. You can choose to agree with a person or disagree, each with varying outcomes. To add a bit of depth to this system, there is the charm and intimidate features, allowing an interrogator to take it a step further by threatening violence or benevolence. However, the game misses the subtleties and personality associated with having a conversation with a living human being.

Given the option of killing or sparing a thief in Fable will result in the player having to choose one or the other; in reality, these options seem arbitrary and unrealistic. No sane human, given the power over life and death, would be able to choose as quickly as one can in game. In reality there are other options. Take for instance Terminator 2, in which the machine (Arnold) is told not to kill; instead, he disables the enemies by rendering them unable to walk. This combines both options in a sane yet somewhat violent way. In Star Warsor Fable, these human compromises are not only unavailable, they are impossible to imagine in such a binary world. Rendering an enemy immobile would address the situation at hand, but there would (and should) be consequences down the line.

Six Days features cut scenes involving real soldiers who survived Fallujah. These men and women took part in the production of the game helping the Atomic Games team to make Fallujah appear as realistic as possible.

Atomic's sprawling office feels almost like a shrine to Phantom Fury, with photos of the fighting pinned to walls and scattered on desks. Graphic designers, still trying to perfect the game, study the posters to help re-create the precise look of Fallujah: the pockmarked cinder blocks and the sagging electric lines. On a recent day, in a studio attached to the entry hall, an Atomic employee was interviewing Jason Arellano, a former Marine sergeant who had been clearing insurgents in a home when a grenade exploded near him and a bullet struck his groin. "As we pushed further and further into the city, we became aware of a more well-trained or disciplined fighter," he said into the camera for a clip that might be inserted in the game. It's not unusual to hear Atomic employees talking about something as technical as the specific properties of an AT-4 shoulder-fired rocket.

If anything, a game is just a more interactive version of a movie. Whereas movies such as Black Hawk Down and Saving Private Ryan all garner respect for their portrayal of the soldiers and the events that transpired, video games aren't given the same benefit to perform before being labeled. Despite a moral system that appears broken and in need of a revamp, games are just as likely to be true to the source as are movies and should be judged on their merit and honesty rather than by emotional reactions to the mere notion of being a 'game.'

The difference, however, is that unlike a movie, the decisions are in the hands of each individual player. No one person will have the same gaming experience as another in Six Days, though the story appears to be linear. How can a game accurately portray such a disastrous day in American military history without offending a certain segment of the population? It can't, not until games become so smart that moral decisions aren't made at the press of a button, rather they're decided in the player's mind and the actions are performed as chosen. Or, conversely, the game plays more like a movie and each section is decided for the player; in which case it wouldn't be a game at all.

There will be no appeasing everyone. A game is like a painting: each individual will have his or her interpretation that others will disagree with. Making a game based on such a tragic battle is risky, but fortune rewards risk. And, if the veterans of the battle themselves are willing and excited to share their story via this medium, then I'm all for it. I hope Six Days in Fallujah somehow finds the light of day on shelves in Gamestop, Target, etc.; having control over an individual soldier adds personality that might otherwise be ignored. There are no 'first person' movies, for instance, and though Saving Private Ryan was an emotional movie, a viewer could only feel as connected to any character as the person sitting beside him.

On May 26, [Peter Tamte] got on the phone to Tracy Miller, whose son was killed by a sniper in Fallujah, and tried to win her over by arguing that the game honors the Marines. Miller listened politely, but remained skeptical. "By making it something people play for fun, they are trivializing the battle," she told NEWSWEEK.

In a video game, the choices are yours, binary or not. The decisions you make effect the outcome of the game. In the case of Six Days, every decision made will shine a light on the soldiers who fought and gave their lives. What is the difference between a video game that will forever find its place on a gamers shelf and a non-interactive wall covered in the names of the fallen?