Saying your game isn’t set in the real world doesn’t divorce it from real world politics. To deny his daughter of that is to deny the very ‘freedom’ Americans are out there fighting for every day - they do it in other countries though, not their own. Cell phones, as a cultural object, represent youthful freedom. While I initially thought making the man a caring father was a good thing, it actually brings up a negative Arab stereotype: that all Arab men hate women and want to control their daughters. It’s also telling that CI Games is a Polish company, meaning either the American depiction of Arabs has become so pervasive throughout the West - or so lucrative in gaming - that it is the only perspective our medium has on the Middle East.

Is it a rare moment of humanisation, designed to make you consider a different approach to the game? No. An innocent father, speaking in an Arab accent, is worried about his young daughter getting a cellphone. Our review of Sniper Ghost Warrior highlights that there is a clear Arab influence on the game. The company asserts that the game is set in a purely fictional place, with a purely fictional narrative. CI Games, the developer of Sniper Ghost Warrior - seriously, even that name sounds like every war-hungry American teenager’s wet dream - has issued an apology about the PR event, but it misses the point completely.

Arab 4 games