Apparently not, the closest being
the recent IGN article that queries "those connected to the real events" as I mentioned in my previous post, which some game journos at other outlets make reference to. In particular, there's this critic:
So a job well done in speaking with an actual Iraqi, right? Well, not really, when the article later says:
Wait, an Israeli veteran? Whatever happened to being Iraqi? Just who exactly is this
Yifat Shaik person? Well, simple Googling reveals that
she works at a Canadian university and has been in Canada
since starting graduate school in 2012. She says so herself on Twitter that she was otherwise raised in Israel (most certainly born there) by
an upper middle-class family. Also keep in mind that Israel mandates military service, so "Israeli veteran" is pretty much an oxymoron, and
all she did was fix computers. She seems to hate Israel on a general basis anyway.
So where does the Iraqi part come in? Well, she's actually just half-Iraqi, her dad being the actual Iraqi-Jew who left Iraq for Israel when he was two years old as part of
a greater exodus of Jews from Iraq in the early 50's due to increasing antisemitic discrimination and violence,
which Yifat blames on Europe. Though she has talked about having an extensive Iraqi family on her dad's side,
it seems that her contact with them is minimal.
So if the presented-Iraqi critic has major caveats to being Iraqi, what does that say about the others IGN says are "connected to the real events" of Six Days in Fallujah?
One's only specified as a "Muslim game developer we spoke to with family ties in the Middle East." Nothing that can be assessed further here due to anonymity, but it's already being said as much that this person has not personally lived in the Middle East.
We have
Anita Sarkeesian, who we obviously know well enough to be suspect in anything she says. Going in to her ethnic and national history, she's well known to be ethnically Armenian, though she's born and raised in Canada, eventually moving to California. Both of her parents are Armenians who moved to Canada from Iraq in the 70's. So there is a generational connection between Anita and Iraq, but she has no apparent first-hand experience in Iraq.
Lee Hammoud appears to be genuinely Arab-Lebanese as stated. Lives in Lebanon and everything. But still, his supposed connection to Fallujah is only insofar as being Arabic.
I have no reason to doubt that
John Phipps was a US Marine who actually fought in the Second Battle of Fallujah as claimed,
though it's at least worth noting that the specifics of his military record has apparently been called to question before. It just feels like he's been picked out as the token veteran for game journalists to counteract the consulting veterans who are the basis for Six Days in Fallujah, and that comes from John himself being a game journalist with a clear anti-US military bent. Ironically, though, this white American is by all means more qualified to speak on Fallujah than anyone else in this article.
Lastly, there's Alex. Just Alex, supposed Lebanese-Arab game developer. At first, you may suspect that this first-name-only basis was chosen for anonymity. similar to the unnamed Muslim. However, it turns out that this is none other than
Dina Abou Karam, the infamous SJW English community manager for Mighty No. 9. Some time ago, she changed her name to Alex, including de-emphasis on her last name, when she decided that she's "non-binary."
It appears that she was indeed born and raised Lebonese, has otherwise lived elsewhere for most of the past decade. Not Iraqi.
Well this has turned out to be a learning experience to see how there's often more than meets the eye when it comes to who gets quoted for an article.