Apparently there is a new video game that will soon beg the famous commercial question, “Where’d you get that app?” It is called Smuggle Truck: Operation Immigration. This new video game requires the gamer to smuggle immigrants across the American-Mexican border while trying to keep the human cargo from falling out of the truck.
The scores are counted based on how many immigrants you safely smuggle across the border.
The gamer’s driving skill is also a way to earn points, good drivers earning ironically a “Green Card.”
I have been raised by my parents to think the way things are being handled at the border is wrong. Although they are being “handled,” an abundance of illegal immigrants are still allowed into our country.
It is understandable that these immigrants do not wish to go through the endless, tiring process it takes to become an American citizen, but it is only fair if they wish to become part of our nation.
This exhausting American process is actually the reason the game was created in the first place. “As we lived through a painful 12 months of our friend struggling through the absurd legal minefield that surrounds U.S. immigration, we felt that we should create a game that touches on the issue,” the developers said.
This game has created a bit of an outrage, being called names like racist.
“It’s nice to know that you think people dying while crossing the border is something to ‘play,'” wrote Milo M. Alvarez on the creating company’s Facebook page.
Apparently the creators wanted to design a fun (but inappropriate) game to play which would require people to question and improve the “problematic immigration system in the United States.”
I am all for video games. My roommate and I (her mainly) party it up with “Mario” in our dorm room on our Nintendo 64. Our guy friends all play “Call of Duty” and “Halo.” Everyone we know plays some sort of video game.
I’ve never really overthought the purposes and themes behind video games, but this one caused an outrage in my mind. Which raises the question: what are we letting our kids play these days?
My mom always looks up and checks on a video game before she buys it for my brother. She realizes the most violent ones are the most popular, and she accepts this fact. But I know she would never buy him a video game that required my brother to smuggle immigrants across the American-Mexican border.
I am not sure why I think so, because I have done no real research on the matter, but I know smuggling immigrants is wrong. I know I am proud to be an American citizen although I did no real work to become one. And I know one of my Hispanic friends had to go through the immigration process. Although it was tiring, I know he was happy to do so because it is official. He is an American now, and no one can take that from him. He knows all the words to “The Star Spangled Banner” and he fits in with pride.
They are saying, “Oh, this game has deeper meaning. Oh, this game is to help people take notice and resolve the issues going on with illegal immigration.”
Well, you’re probably not the one that’s going to be playing the game. I would say children will be the takers, if their parents are silly enough to purchase this travesty.
The moral of the story is parents need to watch which video games they buy their children. It is nothing to play with, pun intended. I know my parents would not want me learning how to smuggle people across the border.
Becca Horton is a freshman majoring in communication. She can be contacted at [email protected].