How Gaming Has Changed Since 9/11

4. Removing The Twin Towers From Everything

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, it was considered too raw and emotionally-charged to include imagery of the Twin Towers in anything.

TV shows and movies edited around previously shot scenes or sequences, with something like The Simpson's "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson" episode being taken off the air for years, until it was deemed more "acceptable" for it to return.

In gaming, the Twin Towers are still seldom seen, and were actively removed from things like Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and Syphon Filter 3.

I can only think of one example where a game made post-2001 still included the towers themselves. 2006's Driver: Parallel Lines had a less "complete" version of them in its 1978 levels, changing to a building site when the game returned to 2006.

This latter approach is far more common, rather than games revisit a time period like the late 90s, when it might be too near the knuckle seeing the Towers as they were before 9/11 itself.

Interestingly, for whatever reason, 2018's Spider-Man forwent including the current Ground Zero memorial or the Freedom Tower, showing the imagery is still something of a contentious issue, depending on the creator.