A retired history teacher in Myanmar, Sein Lin had never played a video game in his life. But a month ago, he stumbled across “War of Heroes-The PDF Game” on Facebook. Since then, he has played almost non-stop.
For the 72-year-old, killing virtual Myanmar servicemen is a way to participate in the real-life resistance to the country’s armed forces, which seized power in a coup last year and have since killed thousands of civilians. Since its debut in March, “War of Heroes” has been downloaded more than 390,000 times. Many say they are motivated by the game’s creators’ promise to donate the proceeds to resistance forces and people displaced by the fighting.
“I can’t kill soldiers who are decimating civilians, but killing in the game also gives me satisfaction,” says Sein Lin. “One way or another, by playing the game and clicking until I die I will help the revolution.”
Known as the Tatmadaw, the local Armed Forces previously ruled the country for half a century and have been at war with the population for years. Since last year’s coup, which toppled elected leaders, the regime has cracked down on dissent, arrested oppositionists, machine-gunned unarmed protesters, bombed guerrilla camps and set fire to thousands of homes.
Many opponents of the regime took refuge in the forest, where they formed the People’s Defense Force, or PDF, an army of more than 60,000 fighters under the leadership of the clandestine Government of National Unity. A similar number of fighters in urban areas formed semi-autonomous guerrilla units known as the local people’s defense forces.
“War of Heroes” was created by three Myanmar developers who fled the country before the generals took power on February 1, 2021. One of them, Ko Toot, says they were motivated to create the game after the arrest and the subsequent disappearance of their colleagues in the tech industry who were involved in protests against the coup or had family members involved.
A paid version of the game was released in mid-June, and in a matter of days it was regularly appearing on Apple’s App Store’s top ten lists in the US, Australia and Singapore. “Myanmarians all over the world are also downloading the game,” says Toot.
In the game, players fight battles and kill regime soldiers. They go up the ladder as the game gets more difficult. At higher levels, players can attack civilian spies, turncoat celebrities who support the military junta, and even the coup leaders themselves.
The game description says: “We need you to join the resistance forces to protect innocents against the evil military forces. Your duty is to become the best freedom fighter”.
The free version earns money when players watch ads. The paid version does this when players download the game or buy ammo. Anyone who plays enough to earn the equivalent of $54 receives a “certificate of achievement” for participating in the Spring Revolution, as the Myanmar protests are known, and for donating money. Developers say they have donated $90,000 so far. About a fifth of that total was spent on assistance to the forcibly displaced, and the rest was donated to more than two dozen local advocacy groups.
Players in Myanmar need a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to bypass internet access restrictions for the game. To avoid being detained at checkpoints or random police searches, players uninstall the game from their phone before leaving and redownload it after returning.
The game has already attracted some unexpected fans, including a Buddhist monk and a member of the Tatmadaw.
Pyinnar Won Tha, 32, is a monk in Lashio, a city in northeastern Myanmar, and an inveterate “War of Heroes” player. According to him, although Buddha dictates not to kill living beings, the Myanmar people need to protect themselves from the military junta. “Playing a game for PDF is against Buddha’s teachings, but I don’t feel guilty because we are dying under the regime,” he says. “If someone threatens our life, we need to kill that someone to defend ourselves. If not, they could kill us at any time.”
The monk says that “War of Heroes” is the first war game he has ever played. He became a fan due to the developers’ pledge to donate money to those who lost their homes and resistance fighters. “In true Buddhism, monks must be respected. But the military junta tortures and kills monks,” he says. “So it’s fair to play, to give them karma.”
“War of Heroes” has become so popular that even some soldiers are playing it. Since the military coup, the number of defectors from the Armed Forces is increasing. Those who continue to be part of the Tatmadaw but are against the regime are known as “watermelons”: green, the color of the army’s uniforms, on the outside, but red, the color of the pro-democracy movement, on the inside.
One soldier, whose name will be withheld to protect his safety, said he would defect if he could, but knows that if he did, the Tatmadaw would take revenge on his family. So, to help the revolution, he transmits classified information to the security forces. And he plays “War of Heroes”.
_183634.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1 "The resistance of Aegaleos was overcome and Panionios took the top!")
