War on Terror Blog
Wednesday 28th January 2009
Official: War on Terror is Art
At least in official circles, the phrase, "War on Terror", looks like it's being relegated to an unfortunate blip in history, while the crimes committed in its shadow continue regardless. In this reflexive mood, there's more opportunity and scope for analysis; people start looking at the subject in different ways.
So we were very excited when one of the curators of the Embedded Art exhibition at the Academy of Arts in Berlin got in touch to ask if they could use War on Terror as part of the exhibition.
we'll hopefully be playing a game of WoT at the museum in the evening Described as "an interdisciplinary exhibition focussing on the societal shifts caused by the universal desire for security", the exhibition features 28 specially commissioned works of art from different artists. War on Terror is going to be on show in the exhibition's archive room in the main exhibition hall, along with photos, books and other objects related to the subject.
Not only that, but we'll hopefully be playing a game of WoT at the museum in the evening of Saturday 31 January as part of their "Long Night" events programme, which promises to be a lot of fun.
To make the most of our brief stay in Berlin, we'll also be hosting a games night at the Spielwiese games shop on Friday 30 January from about 7pm where we'll also be demonstrating our new card game (which is also the reason we've been quiet for so long ... more on that later).
So if you're in Berlin, please drop by to either or both events and say Gutentag. It'd be lovely to see you all.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 28 January 2009 - 0 comments
Tuesday 27th January 2009
Brave New World
So Bush is gone, Obama is the new 'leader of the free world' and the 'War on Terror' and everything else remotely associated with the Bush administration is being rapidly swept under the carpet by just about everyone (apart from Israel, who are still revelling in the possibilities afforded to them by the magical concept of the "pre-emptive strike"). Is this the new beginning we've been hoping for?
Sorry to put a downer on things but we don't think so. While most of the world is singing, "Ding! Dong! The Witch is dead" and project 'Rebrand America' is virtually complete, we'd like to take this opportunity to cool our heels a bit and get a couple of things straight.
First off, you can never, ever truly move on, without both acknowledging and dealing with the mistakes of the past. That's what we should be doing. However, now that George Bush Jnr isn't the most powerful man in the world, the American media is intent on marking the occasion by compiling amusing and mildly mocking clips of Bush's fumbles, essentially reducing 8 criminal years to a series of TV bloopers. The most nauseating we've seen so far being Letterman's Top Ten Bush Moments. Remember, this is the same man that the United Nations special torture rapporteur has just said should be tried for war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly even genocide.
Let's clear this up. George W. Bush is a bastard, an evil bastard, up there with any of your traditional despotic hate figures. In terms of body count alone, he has no modern equal. To present him as some sort of clueless, bumbling fool almost humanises this lowlife, so we took the liberty of remixing Letterman's clip to include what Bush really ought to be remembered for. (You're not even meant to end a sentence with a preposition, but that's just how ruddy angry I am right now, I simply don't care).
By the way, if you're thinking ol' Dubya can't be held responsible for all the bad things that happened in the numerous wars he waged, consider what the Nuremberg Tribunal concluded following WW2 - that initiating a war of aggression is the "supreme international crime", in that "it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole". The buck stops with the decision makers and they all need to be held to account. Simple.
Secondly, it's not pleasant but it's vital to remember that while Bush and Co. behaved like psychotic loonies, they are sadly not unique. The policies and ideologies that the Bush administration presided over are really only a very extreme version of what has been before. The Bush Doctrine and the Clinton Doctrine are not too dissimilar when you look at the core ideas behind them. In fact, the Clinton Doctrine declared that the US had the right to use force in order to protect American "interests" abroad. That's not even evoking the mythical defence ploy of "pre-emptive strikes". So yes, it's wonderful to finally see an end to the tragically inept and brutal Bush years, but let's not forget that he's part of a pattern going back well over half a century.
President Obama, the money (although not the odds) is on you to change all that. Here's hoping ...
- posted by Andy S on 27 January 2009 - 0 comments
Wednesday 24th December 2008
War on Terror in the IT Crowd (again)
Just a quickie - we're a bit late on this but the final episode of the 3rd season of the excellent IT Crowd is on this Friday C4 at 9.50pm (UK viewers). We're very proud and humbled to have War on Terror forming part of the office set dressing once again.
Andy S is particularly excited as he actually attended the filming of this season finale at Pinewood Studios and got to meet the cast and crew after the show. Graham Linehan, the fountain of comic wisdom behind the IT Crowd, even announced to the studio audience that War on Terror was a 'fantastic game' during a break in filming.
Incidentally, did you hear the news? We know it's wrong to gloat, but it just goes to show that there is sometimes justice in the world.
Last but not least, since we may fall silent for a while, Merry Christmas/ Hanukkah/ Dngzhi / Winter Solstice / Holidays - whatever your particular cultural or spiritual persuasion. See you next year.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 24 December 2008 - 1 comments
Thursday 4th December 2008
Playing games...
From 1pm on Saturday 13th December the War on Terror designers and illustrator will be appearing live at Playin'Games. A long-time stockist and all round decent games shop in the centre of London.
There's going to be a general fun atmosphere all day in the shop, with staff explaining various games and no doubt getting into the spirit of things. We'll hopefully be getting a game of War on Terror going, edition 2 rules of course. We might even crack out the new card games we're working on.
Or you could just buy a copy of War on Terror for each of your close family members and make Christmas so much better than last year (unless last year you gave all your close family members a copy of War on Terror. In which case we don't know what to suggest). We'll be on hand to deface / sign any copies that are placed in front of us.
Playin'Games can be found at 33 Museum Street, London WC1 1JR, just around the corner from the British Museum.
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 4 December 2008 - 0 comments
Wednesday 3rd December 2008
George W. Bush a Fan of War on Terror?
Of course he is, he loves a bit of aggro, we all know that. What we didn't know is that he hates abstract nouns so much, he's willing to fight them in his spare time too.
Let us explain, yesterday, we got several excited emails urging us to check out this thread on Board Game Geek (a popular board game website). It transpires that someone there had stumbled across a picture of George Bush in another forum and keenly noticed something familiar in the background.
It was just ridiculous enough to be true. Theories immediately sprung up about how War on Terror wound up in the Oval Office. People were even blowing up the photo to check for forgery and the general consensus was: it's genuine. See for yourself:
Unfortunately, as is always the case, some Internet sleuth pissed on our cornflakes and unearthed the original photo, thus revealing the game photo to be a fake. Or is it? Maybe the original photo had the game in and this was then photoshopped out to avoid national embarrassment ....
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 3 December 2008 - 0 comments
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