Posted on 12/05/2003 1:13:15 AM PST by kattracks
A ghoulish Internet video game challenging players to shoot down passenger jets before they hit the twin towers is a huge hit - outraging families of Sept. 11 victims."My daughter was on one of the planes," Tom Roger, father of slain American Airlines flight attendant Jean Roger, told the Daily News.
"To think people are making it a game is pretty bizarre. But there are a lot of sick people out there," he said.
The game, New York Defender, was launched on the French Web site Uzinagaz.com a month after terrorist hijackers attacked the World Trade Center.
It has been played more than 1.5 million times since then, but is relatively unknown in the United States, the creators said.
The game starts with a cartoon of the towers under a clear sky, which is suddenly invaded by a few planes.
The player can shoot down the aircraft, but planes keep coming at a faster clip. After a few hit the buildings, the towers collapse in a cloud of dust.
Jonathan Pitcher, the Parisian who runs Uzinagaz, insisted the game's purpose isn't to make sport of the slaughter of 2,752 people.
"After the attacks, we felt there was nothing we could do. But with the game, you could pretend to defend the World Trade Center," he said.
Yet he also said the game represented another philosophy - which would seem to undercut that stated purpose.
"We wanted to show there isn't any way to win against terrorism. Because it doesn't matter how many planes you shoot. There are always new planes," he said.
Patricia Reilly, a Staten Islander whose sister, Lorraine Lee, was killed on the 105th floor of Tower 2, doesn't buy that.
"It's horrible," she said.
"I think it further desensitizes us to the realities of this thing," she said. "I've seen some weird things in the last two years, but this is the first game."
The crass pastime also turned stomachs at a state Assembly press conference to drum up support for a law targeting violent, sexually explicit video games.
"Is that an outrage, or what?" said Assemblyman Robert Straniere (R-S.I.). "What warped mind would want to create such a video?"
The state bill would require bold warning labels on video games that depict illegal acts and limit their sale to adults only. A similar bill has been filed at the city level by Councilwoman Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan).
With David Saltonstall
Originally published on December 5, 2003
Spoken like a true Frenchman.
What a pathetic excuse for a human being.
I guess the French way of fighting terrorism would be shooting the planes the terrorsts hijack. The American way is to shoot the terrorists before they get near any planes. There may always be new planes, but there is a finite number of terrorists.
I hope you die alone in an unairconditioned room.
Whatever happened to PARENTS deciding what their kids should play with, anyway?
The best way to fight back against this is to ignore it, IMHO. They want attention, so not giving them any is the ultimate defense.
If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...
A Frenchman. Should we be surprised?
I'm so glad people of this ilk are no longer in charge of the US.
I'm not sure what you're getting at; that's what I said in my post above.
'nuff said French
'nuff saidFrench
'nuff saidFrench
'nuff saidFrench
Irony of ironies: hard to believe this is the same people who gave us the Statue of Liberty, isn't it?
The official French strategy is to lay down and die. My God, surrender truely is ingrained in their culture.
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