While local bars now regularly host “Guitar Hero” nights and Internet games such as World of Warcraft bring together entire online communities, a video game based on the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks is dividing gamers and Sept. 11 groups alike.

The original online flash-based game, “New York Defender,” was released by the French website Uzinagaz.com shortly after the attacks and allows players to shoot down planes flying toward the World Trade Center and other New York City landmarks.

The game became popular shortly after its release in Oct. 2001 and spread via word-of-mouth, e-mail forwards and viral media websites such as eBaumsworld.com. EBaum’s World spokesman Mike Parker said the company thought the game was a good fit for the site when a user first submitted it several years ago.

The game now has over 326,000 views on eBaum’s World alone, but Parker said he has not received many complaints.

“We’re not here to judge things — if we feel something is going to be viral enough to be passed around, we’re going to put it up on the site,” Parker said.

Hold the Door For Others, a New Jersey-based organization that helps victims’ families cope with the losses of Sept. 11, declined to comment because they “did not want to add to the press coverage.”

Unlike World War II simulations, the “New York Defender” games do not feature blood or allow the player to beat the game.

Matrix Games spokesman Sean Drummy said World War II simulations are not as heavily criticized, even by veterans, as other violent games because they leave the most controversial topics out of the games.

“Doing anything that would be questionably controversial with veterans would basically be biting the hands that feed us,” he said.

He said the company’s customers, many of whom are ex-military personnel and war veterans, appreciate the game’s accuracy, modeling and historical fidelity.

Focusing on relatively recent topics can also make games controversial, which is why Matrix turned down a game about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict called “Peacemaker,” Drummy said.

“It is a very, very modern battle,” he said. “For World War II there aren’t a lot of people around anymore who can say ‘That’s not the way it really happened,’ but the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is still very new.”

Drummy said he understands how games could help people heal but he thinks they ultimately serve entertainment processes.

“The sky’s the limit, man!” he said. “Does it have to be about 9/11? My answer is no. There are plenty of fun games that come out every day that aren’t about 9/11.”

Boston University College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Erin Bashllari, a Flash game enthusiast, said that he agrees that Sept. 11 may be too new of a subject for video games.

“It’s been 65 years since World War II,” he said. “Sixty-five years from now, people will make games about 9/11 and not be offended by it.”