Six Days in Fallujah mastermind Peter Tamte has repeatedly stated that the game won't have a political angle. Now, however, its publisher Victura has taken to Twitter to assert the opposite, claiming the game is "inseparable" from politics.
What has Victura said about politics in Six Days in Fallujah?
In a tweet, Victura says it understands that "the events recreated in Six Days in Fallujah are inseparable from politics". This is despite Victura CEO Peter Tamte stating on several occasions that Six Days in Fallujah isn't trying to "make a political commentary" and that he doesn't think the game "needs to portray the atrocities". Victura says that Six Days in Fallujah will present events from a multitude of perspectives and that it will be "complex, like the events it recreates".
In addition, Victura says that Six Days in Fallujah will feature "documentary footage" which will touch on "tough topics" including events and political decisions which led to what transpired in Fallujah. Victura says players won't be able to use white phosphorus in the game, but that its use will be described during the documentary segments. At present, it's not clear how the documentary sequences will be presented to players - whether they'll be skippable cutscenes or supplemental material or whether they'll be interwoven with the story. Victura does say the sequences will "give context" to gameplay.
What's the background to this Victura tweet?
In recent weeks, Victura CEO Peter Tamte has made statements suggesting that Six Days in Fallujah won't be a political game. In response to that assertion - and Tamte's suggestion that the developers don't need to include atrocities in the game - developer Rami Ismail hit back in a lengthy Twitter thread. Ismail described the nature of war as "politics that leads to people killing each other" and stated that "you cannot make a sincere document about Fallujah without war crimes". Similarly, gaming personality and former Iraq War veteran John Matthews described Six Days in Fallujah as "so ill-advised" and its marketing campaign as "disjointed and contradictory".
It must be said that if Six Days in Fallujah's developers and publishers are looking to assuage anxieties that the project won't be sensitively-handled enough, they could perhaps be doing a better job of it. We've reached out to Victura and Peter Tamte as well as Rami Ismail and John Matthews for further comment, and we'll bring you more on this one as it unfolds. It's safe to say, however, that Six Days in Fallujah has pretty much picked up where it left off way back in 2009 in the controversy stakes.
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