Video Game Featuring Torture Of Prisoners Being Developed In Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A group of Pittsburgh-based graduate students skilled in developing video games has designed a 3-D game that allows players acting as American soldiers to torture captured Iraqis.
"The game asks players to literally create ISIL by assuming the role of U.S. soldiers interacting with detainees," one of the developers told KDKA money editor Jon Delano on Thursday.
The game is based at Camp Bucca, a now closed American prison camp in Iraq that housed captured Iraqis during the Iraq War.
Some claim the camp witnessed prisoner abuse and featured prisoner riots.
It was also from this camp that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, and others became radicalized and formed ISIS when set free.
"It may literally be the first time they googled the name Camp Bucca," the developer says of the video game players.
One of the game developers -- who would not disclose his/her name -- told KDKA the provocative game allowed players as American soldiers to interrogate prisoners using waterboarding and electricity, sometimes resulting in death.
"Sometimes games provoke an emotional response and convey a deliberate message," the developer said.
While the developers are primarily CMU graduate students, it's not an authorized CMU project.
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Delano: "This is not just a CMU project, right?"
Developer: "Correct."
Delano: "Others are involved?"
Developer: "I couldn't believe it. They were coming from the best schools."
Delano: "So a number of people are involved in this project?"
Developer: "There are a few beyond CMU."
Two years in the making using a gaming tool called Unreal Engine 4, developers are near the end of the project.
Delano: "When are people going to be able to play this game?"
Developer: "We're looking to get it out by the end of the summer."
Of course, that requires someone interested in distributing what is bound to be a controversial game.