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Creator Of Space Invaders-Based 9/11 Art Piece Pulls Exhibit
by Chris Remo
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August 25, 2008
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The creator of Invaders!, an art game that represents the World Trade Center attacks of September 11, 2001 by way of Taito's classic arcade game Space Invaders, has requested his piece be pulled from the GH ART exhibit held at the Games Convention in Germany.
"After three days of a steady downward spiral in public discussion of the piece, I have just given my agreement to the organizers of the Leipzig Games Convention to simply turn off the installation Invaders!" said Douglas Edric Stanley in a comment on his blog. He claims conference organizers did not encourage him to withdraw the game.
Invaders! depicts the two towers of the World Trade Center as being under neverending assault by Space Invaders' iconic alien enemies. The player is tasked with defending the buildings, but the infinitely-spawning aliens make the towers' destruction ultimately inevitable. Its "Game Over" screen calls for players to "Support Our Troops!"
Today, Square Enix-owned Taito said it is "seriously considering all available options -- including legal actions against the infringer and, if necessary, the Games Convention exhibitor involved -- in order to end this unauthorized and impermissible misuse of the Space Invaders content." A disclaimer on the exhibition's program indicated that the game was not endorsed by Taito.
Invaders! has been the subject of a torrent of criticism since its public unveiling, with the controversy exacerbated by its creator being an American expatriate in Paris, who was described as "French-American" in a Games Convention press release.
In October 2001, just a month after the attacks, Stanley detailed an early version of his game concept on his blog. "The whole event [9/11] had sort of taken over my life," he wrote. "I was equally fascinated and disgusted by the whole thing."
The GC description, which Stanley notes he approved but did not compose, describes the game and its futile gameplay as "an articulated and critical commentary about the current war strategy."
Said one poster in response to a recent blog post, "Your [sic] a sociopath Douglas Edric Stanley. I hope God will recall you soon. Better yet, recycle yourself." Another commented, "I hope you die you rotten piece of scum."
"Contrary to previous reports, I am an American," Stanley said in the same comment thread, "and it saddens me that we as a people remain so profoundly unable to process this event outside of some obscure, but tacitly understood, criteria of purely anesthetized artistic representation."
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It's important to point out that while the artist has every bit of free speech and expression as entitled by his rights as a citizen, he also has to remember he is SURROUNDED by other citizens of the same rights. So just as much as he is entitled to make a 9/11 themed shooter, everybody else is entitled to bite his head off for it.
In a verbal sense, of course.
Besides that, what part did he think would be a good idea in the first place? Was it ripping off Space Invaders or the 9/11 part?
Either way, I do agree with David on this one. The guy has the right to make the game, and people have the right to speak up about it.
I honestly think this is a pretty lame way to make a statement about 9/11. I'm sure he wasn't trying to mock the whole ordeal, but it sure does seem like it.
>
This, of course, hardly applies to any complete war strategy, if you think about it, only because there always are basic limiting factors to any conflict. Morale, pride, survival and mere numbers. Once you destroy them, the war is over.
Yes, you can win, in a certain way, by annihilating all of your enemies, right down to the point where you need to make the boldest moves and bomb houses, destroying the civilians before they can turn into soldiers.
There's been that short game on this theme, as you had to fire rockets on some random Middle East city and see the population keep turning into "terrorists" as you kept filling the screen with death and more craters.
There is one thing sure here; the game Invaders is certainly not the best to pick for this kind of message, notably because the whole and correct message itself, once all parts have been considered, reads thusly: "don't bother".
Yes, don't bother against the invaders, and you can see how this is terribly wrong on all possible fronts. There’s little surprise, then, that this attempt at criticism is a failure.
It only helps to fuel antagonism and false ideas.
The sarcastic Game Over message punctuated by “Support Our Troops” has to be read “send more”, like handkerchiefs. More people to the grinder!
But the execution is downright horrible, since the final message can be read the following way:
Don't bother picking arms as your rights are being scoffed at, don’t bother fighting back as your beloved ones' bones and blood are turned into mortar, part of a sinister and cynical construct.
This does not apply to 9/11 only.
In fact, 9/11 is probably the less relevant event to pick if you wanted to forward such a message.
Much better examples are to be found across this lovely planet, during the recent years.
Countries in Africa... East Europe... or even Lebanon... you name it.
This man didn’t properly appreciate the game’s entire mechanic, as it’s about resistance.
A fundamental rule that drives the play is “resistance is futile.”
He awkwardly uses it for his political message, which I think is close to what I highlighted at the top of my post.
The game’s message has never been “stop bombing aliens because they’ll come to haunt you and level your cities, as retribution.”
Unless I missed an obscure official backstory about the origin of the Invaders conflict, courtesy of Taito, maybe?
I don't know about German law, but if Taito expects to go after him in America, they are in for a disappointment. First, this appears to be a one-off work of art, not created for commercial purposes. Second, satire is a protected form of speech -- that was established by case law many years ago.