محمد فلاح

Call of Duty is a popular first-person shooter (FPS) game. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2007) was the first game in the franchise which did not focus on the World Wars’ history. It was also the first Call of Duty which had a continuous interactive digital narrative (IDN). This article attempts to take a comparative approach to the game. As a cultural product, the game is susceptible to postcolonial and orientalist discourses. This article attempts to apply Edward Said’s theories to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare in order to prove that the game’s IDN was shaped by postcolonialism and orientalism. The game functioned as a cultural medium which disseminated orientalist discourses amongst its player base. As such, this article tries to not only shed light upon a lesser-known aspect of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare but also to demonstrate that computer games are not exempt from external cultural forces.

Background & Purpose: By the advent of video games as an inseparable part of technology and education, the impact of such games on enhancing the level of teamwork has reached an unprecedented attention. The uppermost objective of this study was to investigate the miscellany of aspects influential on the improvement of teamwork among Iranian Air Force freshmen cadets.Methodology: To this end, 50 freshmen cadets participated in this research by playing Counter Terrorist Game in groups of five (10 groups). They were randomly assigned to each of the groups, however, they all were chosen from among volunteers to play the game with no specific randomization (convenience sampling). Each group played four rounds of the game in two consecutive days (each day two rounds) competitively against the computer. After the second day, participants were in depth interviewed about their lived experiences of playing video games with their coursemates utilizing semi-structured questions concerning various aspects of teamwork.Findings: The researchers also observed the participants playing games and employed field notes in order to record the phenomenon under study. The data collected were meticulously transcribed and analyzed and data-driven themes were obtained using NVivo qualitative data analysis software version 12. Conclusion: By conducting this study, it was revealed that there are ten main themes or categories in the context of game playing that can potentially lead towards learning teamwork features. The themes are goal-setting, identity-formation, premeditation, interaction, implementation, leadership, esprit de corps, companionship, trait and tact.

The Greater Middle East Project was put forth by Colin Powel, the Minister of Defense at George Bush Administration on 12 September, 2002. The objectives which have been posed for this plan include: Economic reform, promotion of human rights, establishment of democracy and freedom of election in the Middle East which could be implemented by different instruments and tactics. Of course, it is necessary to detach a division between the announced (explicit) objectives of this plan and hidden objectives of America, because in developing this plan, attempts have been made to have progressive and philanthropic objectives as a cover to its real objectives. The designers of this tricky plan have other objectives in mind. Among these objectives, one may refer to the supply of the security of production and display of energy for America, maintaining the survival of Zionist regime and confrontation with the Political Islam. The question is: What is the nature of recent changes of revolution in the Middle East and to what direction do they incline? The present research has been organized in an analytic-descriptive method and the findings of the research indicate that despite the claims of the analysts and politicians of America to fulfill the Greater Middle East, the colorful presence of Islamic streams at the top of recent changes of the Middle East in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and the presence of religious leaders at the top of the revolutionaries specify that the nature of recent changes is the fulfillment of Islamic Awakening and defeat of the Greater Middle East Project.