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CNN Live Today

War Games: Battles Revisited

Aired February 04, 2004 - 11:49   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well perhaps you're one of those people out there who would like to get a sense of what it was like to track down and capture Saddam Hussein. A soon-to-be released computer game is intended to do just that. It's called "Kuma: War." It's a new PC- based game that's going to recreate scenes from the current and previous wars.
Here to tell us more about that and the game technology is our technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg.

Daniel, good morning.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

That's right. The designers of this game say they're trying to merge the interactivity of a PC or a computer with the real-time nature of a television and give you this experience of being inside a current military event.

So we're going to look at one here. This is called "Kuma: War." To set the scene, one of the missions is about when Uday and Qusay Hussein were cornered in Mosul. So we want to set the scene for you and just give you an idea of where this is taking place inside of Iraq. This is not part of the game, we should say, but this will give you an idea of where this is all taking place as we sort of zoom in on where Mosul is.

And I'm going to bring in Scott Thomas, who is our resident gamer here at CNN.com. Scott is playing the game right now.

Scott, where are -- you're in Mosul. What are you doing now?

SCOTT THOMAS, RESIDENT GAMER, CNN.COM: Well right now I'm completing previous objectives that would allow me to unlock further missions inside of the game. We're going through the streets right now with my squad that -- well there's somebody firing at me right here. But you have to complete missions. You may have to assassinate or other military real-life events to further yourself in the game.

SIEBERG: And the designers of the game have said that they are trying to make this as real as possible. They do say that they have gathered this information from publicly available sources, whether it's publicly available intel, satellite photos, and they have tried to synthesize all of this together, along with some writers to try and make it interesting.

Scott, does it feel real to you? Scott, I mean do you feel like,...

THOMAS: Correct.

SIEBERG: ... having not been to Mosul, I'm assuming.

THOMAS: Correct. Yes.

SIEBERG: But does it feel like you're wandering around a real street?

THOMAS: Yes, I mean the dangers are very real. You may turn a corner and you have eight different angles that you are able to be fired at from. So that's why they equip you with a squad inside of the game. But the urban -- the urban warfare is very, very real.

SIEBERG: And it is a squad-based game, right? I mean you are operating with a few other guys who are with you?

THOMAS: Correct.

SIEBERG: And you can -- you can jump from one to the other? You don't have to just control yourself, right?

THOMAS: Correct. It's a -- it's a strategy situation. You may approach a house differently than you would a bunker, per se, so, and they are equipped with different weapons that you would use in those scenarios.

SIEBERG: Now there are at least a few military -- retired military advisors who are working with the "Kuma: War" designers. The game is expected to come out February 27. It's not going to have a usual type of pay for the game and then you just have it on your computer. A lot of computer games go for about $50. In this case, you're going to be paying $10 to download the game on to your computer. You can't buy it in retail, only available online at KumaWar.com. And again, February 27, $10 per month is the subscription fee -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Daniel, the technology is cool and interesting, but what about -- does the company talk about the idea that they are trivializing something that is very serious in which lives are lost?

SIEBERG: Right. Well that's absolutely a valid point. You know there are a lot of other war games that are already on the market, including "Battlefield 1942," "The Call of Duty." There are a number of games that are out there that do recreate a war situation. That is sometimes the criticism of games like this that perhaps they trivialize it.

But the creators of the game say they're really not trying to do that. They're allowing people to get inside of a real-world situation, as close as they possibly can, and trying to do it in a, I guess, a tasteful way. And it's the common criticism with all of these games.

KAGAN: Yes, thank you very much. And on a much lighter note, you know how many people just perked up and went Scott Thomas, resident gamer, CNN.com, how cool is that?

SIEBERG: Right.

KAGAN: How do you get that job?

SIEBERG: He does a few other things. He does a few other things, I think, too, but...

KAGAN: He doesn't just play video games. There he is.

THOMAS: Great.

KAGAN: Smile, Scott, you have got the coolest job in America. He's not sweeping the floors, though, at CNN.com.

SIEBERG: Right.

KAGAN: No.

SIEBERG: Yes.

KAGAN: All right.

SIEBERG: He joins us every so often.

KAGAN: Thank you to both of you,...

SIEBERG: All right, thank you.

KAGAN: ... Daniel Sieberg and our resident gamer, Scott Thomas.

The job is taken. Hold on to those resumes. Don't send them in.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired February 4, 2004 - 11:49   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well perhaps you're one of those people out there who would like to get a sense of what it was like to track down and capture Saddam Hussein. A soon-to-be released computer game is intended to do just that. It's called "Kuma: War." It's a new PC- based game that's going to recreate scenes from the current and previous wars.
Here to tell us more about that and the game technology is our technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg.

Daniel, good morning.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

That's right. The designers of this game say they're trying to merge the interactivity of a PC or a computer with the real-time nature of a television and give you this experience of being inside a current military event.

So we're going to look at one here. This is called "Kuma: War." To set the scene, one of the missions is about when Uday and Qusay Hussein were cornered in Mosul. So we want to set the scene for you and just give you an idea of where this is taking place inside of Iraq. This is not part of the game, we should say, but this will give you an idea of where this is all taking place as we sort of zoom in on where Mosul is.

And I'm going to bring in Scott Thomas, who is our resident gamer here at CNN.com. Scott is playing the game right now.

Scott, where are -- you're in Mosul. What are you doing now?

SCOTT THOMAS, RESIDENT GAMER, CNN.COM: Well right now I'm completing previous objectives that would allow me to unlock further missions inside of the game. We're going through the streets right now with my squad that -- well there's somebody firing at me right here. But you have to complete missions. You may have to assassinate or other military real-life events to further yourself in the game.

SIEBERG: And the designers of the game have said that they are trying to make this as real as possible. They do say that they have gathered this information from publicly available sources, whether it's publicly available intel, satellite photos, and they have tried to synthesize all of this together, along with some writers to try and make it interesting.

Scott, does it feel real to you? Scott, I mean do you feel like,...

THOMAS: Correct.

SIEBERG: ... having not been to Mosul, I'm assuming.

THOMAS: Correct. Yes.

SIEBERG: But does it feel like you're wandering around a real street?

THOMAS: Yes, I mean the dangers are very real. You may turn a corner and you have eight different angles that you are able to be fired at from. So that's why they equip you with a squad inside of the game. But the urban -- the urban warfare is very, very real.

SIEBERG: And it is a squad-based game, right? I mean you are operating with a few other guys who are with you?

THOMAS: Correct.

SIEBERG: And you can -- you can jump from one to the other? You don't have to just control yourself, right?

THOMAS: Correct. It's a -- it's a strategy situation. You may approach a house differently than you would a bunker, per se, so, and they are equipped with different weapons that you would use in those scenarios.

SIEBERG: Now there are at least a few military -- retired military advisors who are working with the "Kuma: War" designers. The game is expected to come out February 27. It's not going to have a usual type of pay for the game and then you just have it on your computer. A lot of computer games go for about $50. In this case, you're going to be paying $10 to download the game on to your computer. You can't buy it in retail, only available online at KumaWar.com. And again, February 27, $10 per month is the subscription fee -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Daniel, the technology is cool and interesting, but what about -- does the company talk about the idea that they are trivializing something that is very serious in which lives are lost?

SIEBERG: Right. Well that's absolutely a valid point. You know there are a lot of other war games that are already on the market, including "Battlefield 1942," "The Call of Duty." There are a number of games that are out there that do recreate a war situation. That is sometimes the criticism of games like this that perhaps they trivialize it.

But the creators of the game say they're really not trying to do that. They're allowing people to get inside of a real-world situation, as close as they possibly can, and trying to do it in a, I guess, a tasteful way. And it's the common criticism with all of these games.

KAGAN: Yes, thank you very much. And on a much lighter note, you know how many people just perked up and went Scott Thomas, resident gamer, CNN.com, how cool is that?

SIEBERG: Right.

KAGAN: How do you get that job?

SIEBERG: He does a few other things. He does a few other things, I think, too, but...

KAGAN: He doesn't just play video games. There he is.

THOMAS: Great.

KAGAN: Smile, Scott, you have got the coolest job in America. He's not sweeping the floors, though, at CNN.com.

SIEBERG: Right.

KAGAN: No.

SIEBERG: Yes.

KAGAN: All right.

SIEBERG: He joins us every so often.

KAGAN: Thank you to both of you,...

SIEBERG: All right, thank you.

KAGAN: ... Daniel Sieberg and our resident gamer, Scott Thomas.

The job is taken. Hold on to those resumes. Don't send them in.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com