The Unmentioned

It was only a few months ago when I went back to replay one of my favorite roleplaying video games and came to a chilling realization: I was enjoying a game in which I played the role of a terrorist.

The game, Squaresoft's Final Fantasy 7, quickly became one of the most popular video games in recent memory just after its release back in 1997; according to the FF7 Wikipedia entry, the game sold over eight million copies by 1999. The plot revolves around the struggle between an evil, corrupt corporation called Shinra and a ragtag gang of "heroes" who collectively call themselves AVALANCHE. Shinra uses its power and influence to control the world within the game, manipulating people everywhere and ruining their lives -- at one point, the company even kills an entire village of innocent civilians, called Sector 7, and then uses their control over the media to place the blame on AVALANCHE.

However, the "heroes" of AVALANCHE are no better. They're a gang of eco-terrorists, desperately attempting to stop Shinra's plans to use the world's "Mako energy" by planting highly destructive explosives in Mako reactors, and blowing them up. At one point, one of the members of AVALANCHE alludes to the fact that each of these explosions probably kills thousands of people -- and later, when AVALANCHE is flushed out of hiding by Shinra and attacked directly, this character mentions that perhaps they deserve to die for their actions.

As I was playing through the first several hours of the game (the period of gameplay during which which the "terrorism" theme is the strongest), I couldn't help but find some irony in the game's popularity. GameFan Magazine once claimed that FF7 was "quite possibly the greatest game ever made" -- admittedly, they were probably referring to the game's production values, excellent storyline, and addictive style of play -- but the message is the same: the game is just so darn cool, and a vast majority of gamers agree (myself included).

My question, of course, is what about the game were gamers most attracted to? Cloud Strife, the main character, is still regarded as a character legend in the halls of fame in the gaming industry; the Wikipedia entry mentions that he won a 2003 GameFAQs character popularity contest, "suggesting that he is one of the most popular video game characters of all time." If you've ever seen an image of him, you'd probably remember it: he has blonde, spiky hair and he's almost always drawn wielding a huge "buster sword" that's almost as big as he is. This image, the image of a tough, dangerous, and violent individualist, has been glorified and repeated countless times in the realm of video games. Is it the image of a terrorist, or the image of a realistic, modern hero?

Cloud Strife ••• Artwork | Tetsuya Nomura

FF7 was highly popular in America, as it was practically everwhere else. Only four years before the terrorist attacks of 9/11, American gamers were rejoicing at the arrival of a fantastic, involving role-playing game in which they played the roles... Of terrorists.

No, I seriously don't believe that those American gamers were necessarily thinking "yay, terrorism" while playing FF7. But I remember the first time I played the game, and I remember discussing it tirelessly with many of my gamer friends; we agreed almost unanimously that the storyline and the characters (especially Cloud) were the best parts of the game.

If I am trying to come to any conclusion here, it is that I have realized now -- more fully than before -- that video games make it all too easy to slip into a character role that goes directly against my morals and beliefs, and thus dull my sensitivity towards the kinds of things that I should be most sensitive to: murder, violence, terrorism, and more.

Games give us the chance to get one-on-one experience with situations we would probably never get into in real life, but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), we don't have to deal with the consequences of entering them while simply playing a game. We should try to remain aware that there is a big divide between the experiences of video games, in worlds of fantasy (no matter how much like real life they try to be), and the real-life experiences that they try (and fail) to mirror appropriately.

I know I'm not the first to think about the theme of terrorism in FF7, but after an extensive search, I had trouble finding any credible articles that explored it. Since I can't confirm the credibility of these sources, I've chosen not to offer any links to the articles I read, but feel free to seek them out on your own and offer any additional information that you find relevant here.