Monday, October 29, 2001		Article

FASTER than you can say "Land War in Afghanistan," a new computer game was released last week in which players can be the US Army and use nuclear weapons and cruise missiles to rid the world of terrorists.

Not to put too fine a point on it, the game set in the Middle East is called "Real War" and had its origins not in the headlines of the World Trade Center attack but in computer games played by U.S soldiers in training.

The game's publisher, Simon and Schuster Interactive, a unit of media giant Viacom Inc., said "Real War's" initial sales were strong and that the game was rated "Teen" because of its lack of real gore.

The game centres around the US response in the Middle East to a terrorist attack, spokesman Peter Binazeski said. Players have the choice of being the U.S. Army or the "Independent Liberation Army."

The game has been on Simon and Schuster's schedule for a year and was always planned for a mid-to late-September launch, Binazeski said, adding that there were no thoughts of delaying the game after the World Trade Center attacks on September 11.

The game bears strong parallels to the current military actions in Afghanistan, including some of the weapons and strike tactics used, though Binazeski said the game is not set there, nor is the setting anything like Afghanistan.

"Real War" was developed by a company called Rival Interactive that is a spinoff of Virginia-based defense contractor OC Inc.

OC was asked by the Defense Department in 1997 to develop training software with a gaming component for joint military operations, in which the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines coordinate their efforts.

That software, "Joint Force Employment," is now in use in military colleges nationwide, Binazeski said.

"Real War" is essentially "Joint Force Employment" without the military educational elements, he said.

"We took out a lot of the dry textbook stuff," he added.

While "Joint Force Employment" did not contain anything that might be considered sensitive to national security issues, Binazeski said, the military did review and approve "Real War" before it was released.