Abstract
In May 2005, I was studying Arabic at the Language Institute of the Damascus University in Syria. I stayed in the sūq sarūja area, a beautiful, shabby part of the Old City. Every morning on my way to the university, I passed through the main computer and video game market, where vendors sold mostly copied US and European games and a few unauthorized Arabic localizations of the latter. If you chose to buy a game, the vendor would ask if you wanted an original or a copy. If you wanted a copy, the vendor would simply burn the game onto a CD and sell it to you for the equivalent of US$2. If you asked for an original, the vendor would essentially repeat the same operation, plus he would print a colored booklet for an additional fee. A similar process was applied to software, music, and movies, which were all widely available from street vendors throughout the city.
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© 2013 Nina B. Huntemann and Ben Aslinger
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Šisler, V. (2013). Video Game Development in the Middle East: Iran, the Arab World, and Beyond. In: Huntemann, N.B., Aslinger, B. (eds) Gaming Globally. Critical Media Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137006332_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137006332_18
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