Perceptron
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Pakistan anger at video games that depict country as terrorist haven
Pakistani shopkeepers are boycotting two new video games which they say portray the country as a failed state, riddled with terrorism and where security forces are in league with al-Qaeda.
Medal of Honor: Warfighter is a first-person shooter game, where players take on the persona of an American special forces agent and feature ultra realistic graphics
By Rob Crilly, Islamabad11:48 AM GMT 20 Jan 2013
Both Medal of Honor: Warfighter and Call of Duty: Black Ops II are first-person shooter games, where players take on the persona of an American special forces agent and feature ultra realistic graphics.
Terrorism and the role of local security forces are hugely sensitive subjects in Pakistan, which has barely recovered from the shock of discovering that Osama bin Laden was hiding in plain sight, barely 30 miles from the capital Islamabad.
Saleem Memon, president of the All Pakistan CD, DVD, Audio Casette Traders and Manufacturers Association, said he had written to members ordering them not to stock the controversial games after receiving dozens of complaints.
"The problem is that there are things that are against Pakistan and they have included criticism of our army," he said.
"They show the country in a very poor light."
The latest instalment of the Medal of Honor series opens with American Navy Seals coming ashore in Karachi docks on a mission to destroy a black market arms shipment. But when their detonation sets off a second, bigger explosion they realise they have stumbled on a much bigger terrorist plot, sparking a global manhunt.
A chaotic car chase through the city follows amid warnings that the ISI - Pakistan's intelligence agency - is on the way.
Mr Memon added there was a danger children would be brainwashed into thinking foreign agents were at war inside Karachi, possibly leading them into the arms of militants.
"These games show a misleading idea of what is happening in the city. You don't get the CIA all the way through Grand Theft Auto," he said.
The game was developed with help from Seal Team Six, including one member who was on the covert raid to kill Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in 2011.
That mission along with the arrest of a CIA agent, Raymond Davis, for shooting dead two men in Lahore prompted a fresh wave of conspiracy theories in Pakistan about foreign agents roaming the country at will.
At the same time, the country is frequently accused of double dealing, allowing insurgent groups to maintain havens in its border lands despite being a US ally in the war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
The second game, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, features a mission in Pakistan to gather intelligence on a Nicaraguan narco-terrorist.
Although shops in all of Pakistan's major cities have been told of the ban, the game was still available on Friday in shops crammed with pirated CDs in the capital Islamabad.
"These sorts of games are my most popular," said one shopkeeper, who asked that the name of his business be withheld for fear he may be singled out as unpatriotic. "The nationalists and the religious ones don't like them but I'm not going to stop selling them."
Pakistani shopkeepers are boycotting two new video games which they say portray the country as a failed state, riddled with terrorism and where security forces are in league with al-Qaeda.
Medal of Honor: Warfighter is a first-person shooter game, where players take on the persona of an American special forces agent and feature ultra realistic graphics
By Rob Crilly, Islamabad11:48 AM GMT 20 Jan 2013
Both Medal of Honor: Warfighter and Call of Duty: Black Ops II are first-person shooter games, where players take on the persona of an American special forces agent and feature ultra realistic graphics.
Terrorism and the role of local security forces are hugely sensitive subjects in Pakistan, which has barely recovered from the shock of discovering that Osama bin Laden was hiding in plain sight, barely 30 miles from the capital Islamabad.
Saleem Memon, president of the All Pakistan CD, DVD, Audio Casette Traders and Manufacturers Association, said he had written to members ordering them not to stock the controversial games after receiving dozens of complaints.
"The problem is that there are things that are against Pakistan and they have included criticism of our army," he said.
"They show the country in a very poor light."
The latest instalment of the Medal of Honor series opens with American Navy Seals coming ashore in Karachi docks on a mission to destroy a black market arms shipment. But when their detonation sets off a second, bigger explosion they realise they have stumbled on a much bigger terrorist plot, sparking a global manhunt.
A chaotic car chase through the city follows amid warnings that the ISI - Pakistan's intelligence agency - is on the way.
Mr Memon added there was a danger children would be brainwashed into thinking foreign agents were at war inside Karachi, possibly leading them into the arms of militants.
"These games show a misleading idea of what is happening in the city. You don't get the CIA all the way through Grand Theft Auto," he said.
The game was developed with help from Seal Team Six, including one member who was on the covert raid to kill Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in 2011.
That mission along with the arrest of a CIA agent, Raymond Davis, for shooting dead two men in Lahore prompted a fresh wave of conspiracy theories in Pakistan about foreign agents roaming the country at will.
At the same time, the country is frequently accused of double dealing, allowing insurgent groups to maintain havens in its border lands despite being a US ally in the war against al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
The second game, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, features a mission in Pakistan to gather intelligence on a Nicaraguan narco-terrorist.
Although shops in all of Pakistan's major cities have been told of the ban, the game was still available on Friday in shops crammed with pirated CDs in the capital Islamabad.
"These sorts of games are my most popular," said one shopkeeper, who asked that the name of his business be withheld for fear he may be singled out as unpatriotic. "The nationalists and the religious ones don't like them but I'm not going to stop selling them."
(Well a million players, there might just be a few pirate copies) 
Well hope you have read or watched programs on effect of video games on kids. Few kids have died because of playing video game. They payed for hours that they forgot to eat, drink and died of exhaustion.
