At least they weren't deterred by the abuse of Steve Jackson
by Feds who thought he was writing a criminal training tool...
Seattle WTO Riots -- Are You Game?
SEATTLE (Reuters) - If you missed out on the
tear gas, rubber-pellet fire and window-smashing
fun of Seattle's 1999 anti-World Trade
Organization (news - web sites) riots, cheer up,
you can still play the video game.
Thanks to Rockstar Games, a unit of New
York-based Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.
(NasdaqNM:TTWO - news), would-be hooligans
can vent their anti-corporate venom by punching
out riot cops and looting storefronts from the
comfort of their own sofas.
Rockstar's Web site,
http://www.rockstargames.com, urges players of
the game ``State of Emergency'' to ``smash up
everything and everyone in order to destabilize
the ATO,'' the oppressive American Trade
Organization and its riot troop henchmen.
Using any item available -- ``pipes, bricks and
benches, even dismembered body parts'' -- players
are exhorted to keep the riot going as long as
possible.
Preview images show one rioter cowering on the
pavement as helmeted cops pummel him,
buildings in flames and leggy, skimpily dressed
young women striking martial arts poses.
Dick Lilly, a spokesman for Seattle Mayor Paul
Schell, said such a game sends a bad message to
children and distorts the message of peaceful
protesters.
``It demeans the valid concerns of the people,
almost all of whom demonstrated peacefully
during the WTO event, and it glorifies the
violence of those who behaved unlawfully,'' Lilly
said. ``Free speech should not be equated with
law breaking. A game like this may wrongfully
make that connection.''
A spokesman for Rockstar denied the
forthcoming game was in any way linked to
Seattle or the WTO.
``As with any fictional work, any similarity to real
world events is purely coincidental and
unintentional. In fact, the game has been in
development since September 1998, so it
predates the demonstrations against the World
Trade Organization,'' the statement said.
Seattle police arrested more than 500 people after
thousands of protesters, claiming free trade hurts
workers and the environment, shut down WTO
meetings in the fall of 1999 by blocking city
streets.
On the fringes of the protests, vandals wrecked
cars and windows, lit bonfires and threw rocks
and bottles back at the hundreds of heavily
armored police officers who responded by
spraying noxious gas and rubber pellets into the
crowds.
