The NSA document on intelligence agency activity in video games and online worlds spotlights one bundle of mostly education-based software for promoting religious ideology.
Edward Snowden's document on developing targets in gaming and online environments describes the "Islamic Fun" bundle of games as "six 'multi-level' downloadable games… aimed at 'teaching children between the ages of 5 and 11 years of age about Islam.'"
Of the six games in the bundle, only one comes close to presenting the kind of radical militant action that paralyzes Americans with fear and that's The Resistance, which we described yesterday in our collection of games specifically named in Snowden's document most likely to land you on a terrorist watch list.
The Resistance is joined in the bundle by the likes of Tree Hop, Two Bunny Race, Building Blocks, Meow Tiles, Fishing Bear, and Happy Hijab. Every game in the "Islamic Fun" bundle provides players with multiple choice questions.
Two Bunny Race, for example, pits two players against each other, but the only way to progress forward and win the race is by answering multiple choice questions. The same is true of Building Blocks, which doesn't actually give players blocks to play with, but instead rewards correct answers with blocks that eventually construct a mosque.
The Resistance, which puts players in the role of a South Lebanese militant, also asks a series of multiple choice questions. Players get a rock to throw at Israeli tanks that occupy land formerly used for living and farming if they get an answer correct.
These games don't appear to function online, meaning you probably won't find yourself facing off against an NSA agent in Two Bunny Race like you might in World of Warcraft or Counter-Strike.
While US and British governments surely have their reasoning for monitoring games where players try to help a hungry bear feed his guests, I can't imagine the fear Western-made games strike into the hearts of citizens all around the world.
We must look like blood-thirsty killing machines, ravenous for death and destruction.
