@MIGhunter
Which program do you use to open the .js-files?
Because if you expect you could open them just by double-klicking… no, you can’t.
Any war in Afghanistan which doesn’t involve restoring Crown Prince Ahmad Shah is of little interest to me.
I am of the opinion that every game deserves a chance, after all, we have very little to judge on at the moment. For all we know, we could be destroying a piece worthy of Shakespeare. Let’s wait until something comes out before we judge. For now, I remain hopeful, and if some people might be offended by the writing if this isn’t handled well, the mods can decide whether to close it down or not. At least give the game a chance.
Well, you all have valid points, but most COG WIP have been fictional, no offence to the authors, I specifically chose this type of genre as personally, I just love war, I’m also want to do something a bit real and actually, although this will be action, how I pictured it is actually more dramatic because these flashbacks will be mostly be on the morality of the person, because as stated before, during the escape, they affect you all of a sudden
However, if you wish, I will close this post, but possibly on Friday, I will post the first part of the prologue, just to give you the impression of how I would write the game
I wish you luck because you will be a lot of angry people accuse you of racism against Arabs and that type of thinks and publish with apple will be hard…
I’m of the opinion that certain games don’t deserve a chance. I’m a Brit, I don’t actually believe in Freedom of Speech as the right to publish anything regardless of how offensive it is. There’s a lot of hate-speech, racism, homophobia and other offensive, discriminative things which I disagree that people do have a right to air publicly.
I don’t think someone who’s never been to Afghanistan, who’s not even researched things could write about such real life events with the degree of sensitivity that they require. And yes, I do think these topics do deserve to be treated with sensitivity.
However, one of my favourite genres is soft sci-fi, the type which is about people and not about hard facts and physics. The type of science-fiction which asks “what if?” Where you can explore issues of race and diversity, where you can tell the story of a Spacefleet officer, loyal to his people, who loves them, and finds himself kidnapped by the enemy alien race. Aliens who he’s stunned to discover look just like he does and not like the monsters the propoganda painted them to be. Aliens who act similar to his people, with families they love and things they hold dear. And the Warriors, the ones who started the War, did so because they were invaded, or because they were just a radical group, and now the aliens being hurt, being bombed, being killed are just as innocent as the people who the Hero/ine is out to avenge.
And then being science-fiction and not real life, being the Hero/ine in your own choice tale, you can choose whether you join the aliens, whether you betray your people, whether you return to your own people, or whether you try to broker peace between the two. And you can make a difference, make an impact because you’re not restricted to real world events.
I think it’s perfectly possible for a game to be extremely nuanced, to ask difficult questions, or to teach, or to get people thinking. I wouldn’t be on this site if I didn’t think Choice games couldn’t make a difference, even if it is in such a small way.
But, I think by writing a Real World game the message will be destroyed by the Politics. And that so much research will need to be done to properly be able to tell that tale.
They’re fictional for a reason. Yours will be fictional too just set in current day.
I don’t have problems with Arabs, actually, I’m a “people should be treated equally regardless of gender, race or religion” type of person plus my country is near Africa. Still all this talk is affecting my morals, what to do? What to do?
If you want to write about a current, real life event, either start researching now. Read accounts on both sides. Read soldiers accounts. Speak to people if you can.
Or write about what you know.
You’re not American. You’re not from Afghanistan. I take it you’re not a soldier?
I think science fiction, or even historical fiction, provides the distance needed to write about these sort of things, especially if there’s no one alive who has actually been affected by the issues.
Or if you want to write a story about the glory of being a soldier at war, stage an alien invasion, or a zombie apocalypse, these at least have no gray areas, or file off the name of the enemy. Don’t call them the Taliban, make up an entirely fictional country as the antagonists.
I’m not saying don’t tell your story. Just find a way to tell it where you won’t be offending people without meaning to.
@MIGhunter
Would you be willing to compromise and create a fictional war for the story to take place in? I’m not saying that you should go the fantasy/sci-fi route, but just create a realistic conflict of your own imagining (maybe make up an enemy group or country to be on the extra safe side). That way you can still write the type of game that you want without the likelihood of offense.
That might seem to work, thanks, I’ll get on that
"I specifically chose this type of genre as personally, I just love war, "
I hope that formulation was only a proof of that I’m not the only one who has problems to express myself in English…
@MIGhunter, I think a really good game could be written about the war in Afghanistan. Any game written about history or politics will probably offend some people, but that’s a reason to do your research and write it thoughtfully, not to avoid it entirely.
What set off my alarms was when you said your game would satisfy people who “hate” the groups they’re at war with. Lots of war stories are propaganda, written to help the readers dehumanize the enemy and accept simple justifications for the fighting. Others are basically pornography with the sex taken out and replaced with self-righteous violence – cheap vicarious satisfaction for our aggressive drive instead of our sex drive.
I’m not interested in contributing to those kinds of war stories, and I wouldn’t be even if it were in a fantasy/sci fi setting. (Tolkien’s worst legacy to fantasy is the trope of the absolute evil villain supported by armies of swarthy monsters who can be killed without qualm). Wherever you set your game, my only advice is to keep both sides human and keep the war morally complex.
Some of the things you say about delving into the morality of the main character sound promising; I just don’t know where “if you hate the Talibans this is your lucky day” comes into it. Why don’t you write your prologue, and we’ll see.
Finally, the mods won’t “close it down,” @Wyrmspawn, unless it’s a hateful screed of the sort I wouldn’t expect @MIGhunter to write. If Tolkien were writing a LOTR COG, I’d encourage him to give the orcs some kind of human motivation, but I wouldn’t try to have his game banned… 
@Havenstone, I actually type that part of the “fighting Taliban-lucky day” as a little joke. I apologies if it offend US, Muslim or pacifist members of COG. It is terrible thing to type if you know about the events of such tragic things :-S
About the language problems, i don’t know Afghani but Urdu is my native language, and I know they are very related. Also you can use Google Translate http://translate.google.com/
Edit: Also I am a Muslim but as long as this doesn’t offend or blame Muslims for anything, I am fine. But the Taliban view point should be taken in account to. It shouldn’t offend them in anyway as well.
@SmartKid737 Well there’s one thing to try not to offend people, and there’s another to portray things accurately. For both sides, engaging in the latter can often contradict the former.
Many authors use substitute names for different countries, such as Choice of Broadsides when the main was fighting against the Gauls (representative of France). You could do something like that, but to be perfectly honest, everyone up to date with any sort of world affair would still be able to tell it’s about all the war in Iran etc.
(rant - these things always make me rant, hrrr social inequality hrr-do not read if you feel as though you will be offended?)
I think it’s awfully hurtful how American gaming always seem to target other specific racial cultures, always non-whites. It’s always, wow let’s go shoot and blow up some Arabs and Chinese people, good, destroy a bit of Japan and Africa on the way. Sorry if that offends people(not really, because shouldn’t the people who are getting targeted be offended?), but I am always so so vehemently annoyed about these things, especially when my brother has so many of these games, Modern Combat, *Mortal* Combat, Medal of Heroes, and they are ALL about the same thing. Nobody needs to take offence to this, again, since it kind of deserves the right, but I’d like to see another culture make anti-American games(I understand about the war right now, but I saw anti-China and Japan, and even one, which I was a bit dubious on, but apparently it was African… What did THEY ever do to anybody in America?!)… It would probably result in something much more destructive that the result of Americans producing other anti-racial games.
(rant over)
I apologize because I am taking this too far, since I was just lurking, and I saw this and it made me kind of angry o_o I didn’t mean to offend anybody, this is just what I have always thought, and if you could prove me wrong, great I’d have more faith in the world 
But cool game! I’m not really sure I’d like what it’s centred around, but its always exciting to see new games being developed!
@Avemaria, don’t sweat it
Alright, good news, I have half term, from Friday to Monday, however need to do homework, a bit of revision and attend my grandma 's birthday, I consider going to my grandma birthday great than the other choices
@Avemaria If you look at the American war games, (the ones I’ve seen at least) you are mostly fighting against people America was at war with. For example Soviet russia, Japan, Natzi Germany, southern USA, KKK, etc. I don’t know what game you are talking about with Africa, but I hope that it wasn’t racially charged. I can’t imagine that if it was racially charged that nobody made a big deal about it. So many pairents and othes, who are against video games wouldn’t point that out and blow up abut it. Also people are very sensitive about most subjects that include race there would be definitely controversy if that was the reason. An hour from where I live some idiot made some racist comment and their was rioting on that street ( this was a couple of years ago).