The developers of Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 wanted to hold a special event for the launch of their shooter. However, the PR agency that organized it took some liberties that ended in a series of racist stereotypes about Arabs and the Middle East.
What kind of event was it? To celebrate the launch of the new military shooter Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts 2, the Polish developers of CI Games hired the US event agency Incredible Adventures to provide a special show for a dozen journalists and influencers.
One morning, they were all loaded into a bus and taken to a kind of boot camp. There, the stereotype of a village from the Middle East was staged, complete with shabby mud huts, broken vehicles on the road, and a table with some rotting meat on it.
According to journalist Eric Switzer from the site “The Gamer“, this was already a harsh grab into the box of racist clichés about the Middle East and the fact that a pro-Trump flag flew over the whole facility didn’t make it any better.
This controversial flag was seen over the facility – Source: The Gamer 
This is what the enemies looked like – Source: The Gamer 
The “village” – Source: The Gamer
What happened next? During the event, participants were herded through the “village” by war veterans and instructed in various combat techniques. They were given airsoft guns to shoot at actors wearing kaftans and headscarves, making the characteristic battle cries stereotypically associated with Arab jihad fighters.
However, the event made sure that the supposed Arabs were not declared as Arabs, but rather as “bad guys who have a lot of good Americans on their conscience”.
In the end, there was a survival kit that included, among other things, a telescopic baton.
Developers didn’t want Arabs as enemies in the event
How it all ended: Eric Switzer was shocked and disgusted by the event. He wrote an article about how inappropriate and racist the event was and expressed his irritation that some other participants seemed to enjoy it.
Developers and organizers apologize: Nevertheless, his article created waves and the developers soon spoke out. According to CI Games, they had explicitly requested Incredible Adventures to make sure that the actors playing the enemies in the event were dressed like opponents from the game. However, this was rejected by the organizer, who instead brought in the cliché Arabs. Due to the COVID pandemic, no developers were present at the event as they come from Warsaw in Poland.
In the game, according to the developers, great care was taken to avoid depicting enemies in a clichéd manner and clear cultural associations were avoided:
We are making great efforts to ensure that we avoid stereotypes or the negative portrayal of cultures. Respect and tolerance are cornerstones of our corporate culture and we were shocked when we realized that an event intended to be fun and engaging for participants instead caused offense to some attendees.
Also from the PR agency Evolve PR, which planned the event, came an apology upon request from the site Kotaku:
We were not involved in the planning of the physical event itself. We read the story and apologized to Eric as well. Had we known the details, we would not have participated in inviting anyone to the event.
Racism and the portrayal of cultures through stereotypes remain a problem in gaming. An insider also states that the upcoming MMORPG New World had to be changed because it was racist.
