Auto video games is currently working on a new game centered on the Iranian revolution of 1979.
Navid Khonsari is a voice actor who voiced Dwaine in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. He also voiced pedestrians in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, as well as the “killer bees” caller to Chatterbox FM in Grand Theft Auto III and Cerberus Guard #3 in Manhunt. The Iranian-born Khonsari also worked as one of the directors for Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto Vice City and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas and a writer for Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto Vice City.
Khonsari not only directed the Grand Theft Auto trilogy, but also was credited with establishing the cinematic feel for such Rockstar franchises as Max Payne, Midnight Club, Manhunt, Red Dead Revolver and The Warriors. He is credited with pioneering the use of live action film techniques in video game cinematics.
The forthcoming game, titled “1979,” is centered on the Iranian revolution and the US embassy hostage crisis. Khonsari hopes his game, which allows players to chose to play from the perspective of up to 10 characters including both Iranians and Americans, will help educate players and allow to them to play from a perspective other than their own.
“Nobody is to say that this person is right and this person is wrong. It is just a matter of what the situation is dictating and the legions of people that are making decisions, that has kinda caused this conflict. But the people involved in them might not be the true aggressor. There is a number of different facets to it. And I’m not pointing to say that Americans are bad or Iranians are bad. I’m saying the situation is bad.”
That will be different from the usual game format..
“With the games that I’ve kind of worked on,” Khonsari explained, “quite often they’ve had a good guy and a bad guy. Having lived in Iran and been in Iran during the hostage situation and then immediately having moved to Canada, and living in the West, I came to realize that there is a number of different sides to a story. And that this aspect, if introduced in a game, could kind of revolutionize how we play games. It’s not a matter of bad guys going after good guys or good guys going after bad guys, it’s a matter of a whole bunch of people being in a number of different colors, whether they are Iranian, American, pro-democracy, pro-theocracy, whether they want to just make money on the side by sneaking in alcohol or whether they want to make sure that everyone follows the religious rules of Islam—these are all different stories and to be able to actually convey that and let people interact as those players I thought would just open up this entire genre of gaming.”
In an interview with Russia Today, Khonsari said, “We’re primarily looking at about eight to 10 different roles. Initially, you’ll start the game off as an Iranian but American-born, US State Department translator who’s coming in with the objective of trying to free the US hostages. Initially, I’m using troops that exist in history. So the initial alliance of the US with Saddam Hussein is one thing that we look at, maybe you come in through the border between Iran and Iraq. Or maybe you use the US alliance with the Taliban at that time who were fighting the Russians, you know you use that alliance as a way of coming through the Afghanistan border. Or, you do what was actually done that time under the Jimmy Carter administration and you land some helicopters in the desert with the objective of getting to Tehran and freeing the hostages.
“The initial part of this game is very similar to a lot of the popular games that are out there. I think what’s different about it is that right off the bat we’re allowing the player to chose how they want to go about doing this. And in that we’re kind of educating the player as well about these are the possibilities that existed at that time; these are based on historical truth and historical alliances,” Khonsari said.
However, some may question his historical accuracy since the United States never had an “alliance” with Saddam Hussein and the two countries were very hostile during the time period of the game. The United States also never had an “alliance“ with the Taliban, which never fought the Soviets as the organization was not created until 1994, long after the 1989 departure of the Russians from Afghanistan.
Khonsari, who was born in Montreal and now lives in New York, went on to describe the game, saying, “Once you get into the country though, you can’t go around shooting. You have to kind of make sure that you stay incognito and that you get yourself to Tehran in order to try to free the hostages. At that point you start making alliances, and at that point you start seeing how people work in Iran.
“There were a lot of people at that time that were opposed to the Shah and were very happy to see them leave the country, and felt that a new wave would come about and that that wave would be under the terms of democracy. Others felt that this could be a great way for communism to finally come in to be able to truly bring equality to everyone. And, of course, we had what did dominate—theocracy and the rule under Khomeini, and Islam being the key facet of how life should be led there. So I wanted to be able to kind of provide all of these things and to provide all of these opportunities to these players to play all of these characters.
“Most often when people are designing games, they’re thinking of the Westernized player.… But as things are changing and more and more people are getting access to be able to play these games, I wanted to be able to have representation for the people that are in other countries. I mean, there could be people who are very, very much believers of theocracy being the way nations should be led and I wanted to provide them with a player that they could play. But also I wanted to give the person who’s always played the US soldier the opportunity to play as the theocratic student and in that maybe learn something,” Khonsari said.