10 Video Games Changed After Real-World Events
6. Command And Conquer: Generals - Operation Iraq Freedom
Have you seen that Gwyneth Paltrow film, "Sliding Doors"? In it, we get to see how wee Gwiff's life could have changed if she had just caught her train on time - catching her cheating husband in the act, having a life refresh, and falling for that guy out of A Touch of Cloth.
Sometimes, a little bit of lost time can mean calamity, when life punishes your little slip-up with a gargantuan sequence of increasingly worse tragedies that make you feel like you're the ball in that board game, Mousetrap.
This is what occurred when Danger Close, Aspyr and EA had to delay Command and Conquer: Generals briefly, only for it to release... just before a critical US attack in Iraq. As part of Operation Enduring Freedom (the USA's campaign in Afghanistan to combat the Taliban), the USA would actually mimic some (quite prophetic) tactics used in the game.
Due to already having delayed, Command and Conquer: Generals would release as normal... in most regions.
Some, such as Germany, found the disturbing mirroring of real-life events too much, and asked for fictitious army names to replace the real ones found in the game. China banned it outright, for featuring a hostile Chinese force that they considered "a smear on our national image".
Strangely enough, this wouldn't be the first time Command and Conquer prophecised calamity - Red Alert 2 featured an advertisement with the World Trade Centre being assailed by aeroplanes.
JOHN HANNAH, that's the guy's name.
Go watch Sliding Doors.