Pakistan Army Retribution

Pakistan Army Retribution
Pakistan Army Retribution
Publisher(s)	Punjab Information Technology Board
Platform(s)	Android
Release	WW: December 2015;
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player

Last updated April 30, 2019

Pakistan Army Retribution is a Pakistani first-person shooter video game based upon the 2014 Peshawar school massacre. Developed as part of a peaceful campaign, it was designed as showing schoolchildren that "the best weapons are the pen and the book". After a negative review by English-language newspaper DAWN , the developer intentionally removed the game from the Google Play Store.

Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the world’s sixth-most populous country with a population exceeding 212,742,631 people. In area, it is the 33rd-largest country, spanning 881,913 square kilometres. Pakistan has a 1,046-kilometre (650-mile) coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west, Iran to the southwest, and China in the far northeast. It is separated narrowly from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor in the northwest, and also shares a maritime border with Oman.

First-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre centered around gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective; that is, the player experiences the action through the eyes of the protagonist. The genre shares common traits with other shooter games, which in turn makes it fall under the heading action game. Since the genre's inception, advanced 3D and pseudo-3D graphics have challenged hardware development, and multiplayer gaming has been integral.

On 16 December 2014, six gunmen affiliated with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) conducted a terrorist attack on the Army Public School in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar. The militants, all of whom were foreign nationals, included one Chechen, three Arabs and two Afghans. They entered the school and opened fire on school staff and children, killing 149 people including 132 schoolchildren, ranging between eight and eighteen years of age making it the world's fourth deadliest school massacre. A rescue operation was launched by the Pakistan Army's Special Services Group (SSG) special forces, who killed all six terrorists and rescued 960 people.

Gameplay

Pakistan Army Retribution is a first-person shooter. It is during the 2014 Peshawar school massacre, which events the game depicts.^[1] After the game begins by playing the Pakistan national anthem, the player must defeat Taliban terrorists across nine levels. On-screen controls allow the player to move around, as well as shoot enemies. A radar shows where enemies are.^[2]

The Qaumi Taranah, also known as Pāk Sarzamīn, is the national anthem of Pakistan. Its music was composed by Ahmad G. Chagla in 1949, preceding the lyrics, which were written by Hafeez Jullundhri in 1952. It was officially adopted as Pakistan's national anthem in August 1954 and was recorded in the same year by eleven major singers of Pakistan including Ahmad Rushdi, Kaukab Jahan, Rasheeda Begum, Najam Ara, Naseema Shaheen, Zawar Hussain, Akhtar Abbas, Ghulam Dastagir, Anwar Zaheer, and Akhtar Wasi Ali.

Development and release

Pakistan Army Retribution is based upon the events of the 2014 Peshawar school massacre,^[2] the deadliest terrorist attack in Pakistan.^[3] Marking the one-year anniversary of the events, it was developed as part of the Peaceful Pakistan campaign, promoting peace and tolerance in Pakistan.^[1] Being one of "dozens of videos, jingles and social media items", Pakistan Army Retribution was commissioned by the Pakistan Army and the Punjab Information Technology Board and developed by an independent studio for Android.^[1]

Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google. It is based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open source software, and is designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. In addition, Google has further developed Android TV for televisions, Android Auto for cars, and Wear OS for wrist watches, each with a specialized user interface. Variants of Android are also used on game consoles, digital cameras, PCs and other electronics.

Reception and subsequent pull from Google Play

In its review, Munir Rahool of DAWN was critical of the graphics and controls of the game. The subject matter especially was thought of as to be "poor taste". "Any recreation of the carnage that day seems insensitive" and questioned if the game was made to honour Pakistan Army soldiers.^[2] After the review, people on Twitter also outed their criticism on the subject of the game.^[3]

Twitter is an American online news and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as "tweets". Tweets were originally restricted to 140 characters, but on November 7, 2017, this limit was doubled for all languages except Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Registered users can post, like, and retweet tweets, but unregistered users can only read them. Users access Twitter through its website interface, through Short Message Service (SMS) or its mobile-device application software ("app"). Twitter, Inc. is based in San Francisco, California, and has more than 25 offices around the world.

After the criticism on social media, Umar Saif, chairman of the Punjab Information Technology Board, voluntarily pulled the game from the Google Play Store.^[4] Saif said that "In hindsight it was not a good thing to do" and that the developer responsible misunderstood the intention of the peace campaign.^[1] He said the game "opened issue surrounding radicalization" and spoke off security issues.^[4] He thanked people for pointing out the mistake.^[3]

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References

1 2 3 4 Boone, Jon (2015-01-18). "Video game based on Pakistan school massacre is withdrawn". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2016-02-22.
1 2 3 Rahool, Munir (2015-02-11). "Review: This Army Public School attack game fails on every front". DAWN . Archived from the original on 2016-02-21. Retrieved 2016-02-22.
1 2 3 "Pakistan removes Taliban school massacre video game after social media uproar". ABC . 2015-01-18. Archived from the original on 2016-02-21. Retrieved 2016-02-22.
1 2 McKirdy, Euan; Saifi, Sophia (2015-01-19). "Video game based on Peshawar school attack pulled". CNN . Archived from the original on 2016-03-07. Retrieved 2016-02-22.

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[The_Guardian-1] 1 2 3 4 Boone, Jon (2015-01-18). "Video game based on Pakistan school massacre is withdrawn". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2016-02-22.

[DAWN-2] 1 2 3 Rahool, Munir (2015-02-11). "Review: This Army Public School attack game fails on every front". DAWN . Archived from the original on 2016-02-21. Retrieved 2016-02-22.

[ABC-3] 1 2 3 "Pakistan removes Taliban school massacre video game after social media uproar". ABC . 2015-01-18. Archived from the original on 2016-02-21. Retrieved 2016-02-22.

[CNN-4] 1 2 McKirdy, Euan; Saifi, Sophia (2015-01-19). "Video game based on Peshawar school attack pulled". CNN . Archived from the original on 2016-03-07. Retrieved 2016-02-22.