New Vietnam War Video Game Sparks Controversy

Viet Weekly, Commentary, Michael Nguyen, Posted: Sep 04, 2004

A video game called Shellshock Nam ‘67 is coming out at the end of the month, following the trend of historically-based war games over the past three years.

At first, the games were based on World War II, and the better ones conveyed a good sense of what it would be like to be one of the characters in “Saving Private Ryan.” Now, companies are starting to move down the timeline to the Vietnam War—and I suppose “MASH: The Game” isn't exactly what game companies have in mind.

The Medal of Honor series, whose previous games have taken place in Europe, released a game last year that focused on fighting against the Japanese, and some worried about how the Japanese gaming crowd would take it.

At the time, I thought the issue was overblown, and in the end, the game actually did well in Japan. As I played these war games, I never sympathized with the other side. “It’s in the past” I thought. “And it’s just a game. Besides, they (the Germans) were evil. End of story.”

When I heard that games based on the Vietnam War were being made, I was excited. But after returning from a trip to Vietnam, I started to wonder how I would be affected by playing a video game based on the Vietnam War.

One game that was released a few weeks ago is essentially a shooting gallery of Vietnamese people.You can’t even move; you just aim your assortment of weapons at huge numbers of Vietnamese people in the jungles of Vietnam.

These “jungles” consist of 4 or 5 trees in a 5 mile radius and flat terrain painted green. The soldiers, who are all wearing bamboo hats, endlessly charge at you in the flat uncovered jungles as you slaughter them.

A lot of war games feature multiple players, and I often read racist comments against the Japanese from other players when I played Medal of Honor regularly a couple of years ago. This never really bothered me.

But I started thinking that if I were playing a Vietnam game, I might take offense to hearing similar talk.

I first read about Shellshock Nam ’67 a few months ago. According to a preview from the video game website Gamespot, "ShellShock isn't pulling any punches regarding the maturity of its content… Indeed, the gameplay is grotesquely gory at times. Enemy soldiers won't just fall down when you shoot them--often a well-placed shot will literally shatter the cranium or sever the limb of a foe, with disturbingly bloody results.

“The dialogue in the game is also filled realistically with obscenities; admittedly, we imagine the soldiers of the real Vietnam War were foul-mouthed at times as well. In what may well be a nod to Stanley Kubrick's seminal 'Nam film Full Metal Jacket, you'll even be able to seek the ‘comforts’ of indigenous females during your brief R&R time between the action levels.”

Well, I guess the first joke that comes to mind is, “Wow! I can get more play from Vietnamese girls in this game than I do in real life!” But while the excerpt talks about the goriness and possible entanglements with women, it does not address the psychological effects of the game.

While I don’t expect that playing Shellshock will make me cry, it will be a little strange to kill other Vietnamese people, even if they are fictional. Will I feel the temptation to yell racist slurs about the Vietnamese while under fire? Will I have an opportunity to shoot down POWs or torch villages? What if I shoot down someone who looks like someone I know, or worse—what if he looks like me?

With the advanced graphic technology in video games nowadays, thanks in part to Aimee’s new employer ATI, and the belief that “all Asians look the same,” you never know.

Before coming to Vietnam, it was easy to think “North equals Bad, South equals Good.” Anyone from the North deserved to die. Simple. But now that I’ve spent time there and learned about the reality of the history, it’s more like “North equals Good and Bad, United States equals Bad Motivations, South equals Sandwiched.”

I do want to play this game. From what I’ve read about it so far, I expect it to be quite good. And I want it to be as haunting and realistic as possible. In a way, it’s another way to get closer to understanding what it meant to live through that war.

And honestly, as much as I love video games, I’ve never been as affected by one mentally as I have by a book or movie. I do wonder what will happen when my dad sees me playing it. I wonder if I’ll see any Vietnamese characters and hear them speak Vietnamese. Wouldn’t it be cool to hear the Viet Cong shout orders in Vietnamese and be able to understand it and use it to my advantage? That would be a nice irony.


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