Clicking till bin Laden is dead

It’s only 10 days since the dreaded extremist outfit, al-Qaida’s chief, Osama bin Laden, was killed. He has since been brought to life, just to be killed again and again — virtually!

About 60 online games, including ‘Blow Up Osama bin Laden’, ‘Bomb up Osama bin Laden’ and ‘Shoot Bin Laden’ or ‘Crossdress Osama’, are out there globally on Laden’s terror exploits, including the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York. The sole mission: How to kill Him.

Indian gaming companies are not far behind and are developing games with the theme, ‘How They Killed Him’. For instance, within three days of Osama getting killed, Mumbai-based Game2Win developed ‘Kill Osama bin Laden’ and posted it on its portal gangofgamers.com. “The game has a universal appeal. We believe the killing of Osama was one of the happiest days for mankind and what better way to celebrate than creating a game? By playing this game, ordinary people can express their outrage at that monster criminal and have the satisfaction of getting rid of him,” says Rajagopal Menon, director of Games2Win.

The game is based on the targeted operation by the US armed forces and Osama’s assassination that took place in Pakistan. It has seven levels. In the first, the player kills an Osama confidante and finds out the address of Osama (in Pakistan). In the second level, the player is placed outside the compound hideout of Osama and is expected to win a gunfight to kill the dreaded criminal. In the subsequent levels, the player gets an opportunity to kill other members of the al-Qaida operatives.

“Close to 45,000 gamers have played this game in just five days. Our expectation is that this will be one of the biggest titles that we have produced, because of the topic,” Menon adds.

Hyderabad-based 7Seas Entertainment Limited is joining the trend, and will be launching this week a war-on-terrorism game christened ‘Mission Osama’ on its gaming website, onlinerealgames.com.

‘Huge demand’

“We already have two games on terrorism, ‘Operation Mumbai’ and ‘Hang Kasab’. However, there has been a huge demand from our registered and unique users for a game on Osama. We have now developed ‘Mission Osama’, not just to kill the gamers’ boredom but to provide a platform for them to celebrate the killing of Osama. We expect one million game plays worldwide for this new game in the first month of the launch,” says L Maruti Sanker, managing director.

‘Mission Osama’ will have four levels, starting from US military operatives entering Laden’s Abbottabad compound, surrounding it, entering the building, then killing the terrorist. Completing the ‘ritual’ is Ibibo.com, which has introduced the ‘Floating Body of Osama’ to its social game, ‘Mumbai Underworld’, which reaches out to the 18-25 age group. A user needs to discover Osama’s body and will be rewarded with a special sniper gun in the game for doing so. This helps the user to increase power in the game.

“It is not just about Laden. It is about providing the users a way to express their emotions and do something about it. The introduction of Laden in Mumbai Underworld is to keep abreast of the latest happenings in the life of users and allow them to enjoy games with an interesting news connect,” adds Ashish Kashyap, chief executive of Ibibo.