The Last War ... it is no longer merely a war inside a game

لَا إلَهَ إلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ

The Last War

It is not a matter of the first shot, and it did not begin with a decision to declare the revolution, or to declare the reclaiming of the land.

It began with a message that spread among Arab and Muslim players, after a series of events that participants say took place in the game developers’ Discord community, and what they considered insults that touched upon their religion and sacred matters, alongside an escalating conflict over territories inside the game.

At first, it seemed like any other dispute between players: lands are occupied, companies are built, resources are exhausted, and armies advance and retreat, but something changed. Voices began to say that the issue was no longer merely virtual land or a company inside a game, and from here emerged the term that would later become the title of the entire stage.

« The Last War »

The intention was not, as the enemies of the homeland understood it, merely a large-scale attack to achieve military gains. Nor was the plan based only on occupying cities or dismantling companies. There was another decision: to exhaust everything that could be exhausted, and to buy almost everything that could be bought of tanks, aircraft, and equipment. And whenever the equipment was consumed, more was purchased, and whenever the enemy thought that the stockpile would run out, a new batch of tanks, aircraft, ammunition, weapons, and new equipment appeared ... then more ... then more ...

The goal is not, according to the narrative circulated by those who hold this position, to achieve a quick victory, but rather to make the battle itself a message, and here the enemy fell into the greatest misunderstanding. They understood the matter as a war of resources, believing that we would reach a stage where we say :

“We have lost enough, let us stop”

But the meaning of the message carried by those behind “The Last War” is completely different :

We no longer measure this battle by what we will gain from lands, nor by what we will lose from companies. The game has become, for them, a means of expressing a protest stance within the virtual world, and for this reason the response to the question :

“ Will you continue? ”

was simply :

“ What are we going to continue in? ”

The answer to the question, for them, was not about a specific military position, but about the idea itself. If the enemy is waiting for a withdrawal because of economic and military losses, then those who hold this position say that they are prepared to continue the attrition day after day, week after week, and month after month, as long as they see that the issue that pushed them into the confrontation has not been resolved.

And here the confrontation came to carry a greater symbolic dimension for its participants. They do not say that the country or the land is more important than companies, resources, and the economy, but quite the opposite. According to their narrative, the game is no longer the issue at all, but has merely become the arena through which they chose to express their position. For this reason, the phrase “The Last War” no longer means to them a single battle that begins and ends on the evening of October 1, but rather it has become a dividing point between what came before it and what will come after it.

As for the enemy, they may still see before them merely players spending their resources on aircraft and tanks ...

But those behind “The Last War” say that there is something else behind that equipment ... a message ... a message saying that they, within this virtual world, will not treat what they consider an insult to their religion and sacred matters as though it never happened. In the end, the battle inside the game may be decided in favor of one side or another ...

The lands may fall ...

The companies may be dismantled ...

And the countries may disappear from the map ...

But the question that will remain, according to this narrative, is not who won the war?

But, did the enemies even understand why it began?