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Do Gamers Commit War Crimes?

Mark.J

Administrator
Staff member
ISPreview Team
Here we go again, stupidity knows no bounds, the next thing they'll want to do is try and police our imaginations in case anybody has "unclean" thoughts:

Video games depicting war have come under fire for flouting laws governing armed conflicts.

Human rights groups played various games to see if any broke humanitarian laws that govern what is a war crime.

The study condemned the games for violating laws by letting players kill civilians, torture captives and wantonly destroy homes and buildings.

It said game makers should work harder to remind players about the real world limits on their actions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8373794.stm

Ok firstly, "kill civilians, torture captives and wantonly destroy homes and buildings" - I'm pretty sure there are no real people or homes in video games, it is all complete fantasy, just like nuking the house of an annoying next door neighbour in your dreams.

At the age of 6 I ran over my sisters prized collection of Barbie and Ken dolls, but this was not a war crime (ok, my sister might disagree, but at the time she made Robert Mugabe look democratic) and definitely did not reflect some deep rooted desire to commit mass murder or hurt real people.

More than 95% of people I’m sure are sane (adults or children) and know the difference between what is right and what is wrong; they can also tell fantasy from reality. Dare I even run parallels with all the TV shows and films that depict similar violence with greater realism and yet they receive less condemnation.

The 5% or so of people who are not sane, the type that enjoy killing innocent animals (group of kids near here recently stamped a baby dear to death) or even people, they are messed up for real-world reasons that are not rooted in video games. At worse a violent game might even give them an outlet for such emotion without inflicting it upon real people, though I’m sure others would say it just encourages it. I just wish games players would stop getting a bad rap for what societies nutcases inflict upon others.
 
I remember when I was 6 and used to play the game "Hopper" on my old Acorn Electron and C64. I've always had the instant urge ever since to run across the road and avoid cars :rolleyes:
 
These types of video games are rather popular. If players cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality then surely there will be some real world statistical evidence highlighting, for instance, an increase in aggressive/violent acts carried out by young men. But I suppose pressure groups prefer pontificating instead.

John Walker, one of the writers on the Rock, Paper, Shotgun games blog, said: "Games really are treated in a peculiar way."

He doubted that anyone would campaign for books to follow humanitarian laws or for James Bond to be denounced for machine gunning his way through a super villain's underground complex.

He said the authors did not understand that gamers can distinguish between fantasy and reality.

This is a good point, if anyone doubts the violence and evil caused by books they might like to take a look at the Bible or the Qur'an - but I suppose the Swiss were too concerned about people blowing up "protected objects" like churches and mosques to care less about the real world. :rolleyes:
 
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I think the people who wrote this are geniuses.

How else can you get paid for playing some of the best games on the market?

Coming next:

Do Pro Evo and FIFA games fully adhere to the laws of football? Does Resident Evil treat Zombies unfairly? And most importantly, are rabbits being unfairly victimised in the Ravin' Rabbids 'games'? We need to know!
 
I think the people who wrote this are geniuses.

How else can you get paid for playing some of the best games on the market?

Coming next:

Do Pro Evo and FIFA games fully adhere to the laws of football? Does Resident Evil treat Zombies unfairly? And most importantly, are rabbits being unfairly victimised in the Ravin' Rabbids 'games'? We need to know!

Resident Evil already came under fire for being 'racist'. RE4 had you shooting at Hispanic zombies and the latest has you eradicating infected people in African villages, so the PC campaigners have already deemed them completely unacceptable.

What bothers me is that most of these games are no worse than your average film. There's little to no sex in them (which for some reason seems to horribly offend people) and the violence is nowhere near as gore-filled as your average action film. People take issue with them because they're interactive, as opposed to the passive violence we're so used to seeing on TV and in movies. Strange.
 
kill civilians, torture captives and wantonly destroy homes and buildings

I need to practice releasing a dirty bomb fired from a tank at my ISP's toilet window. What game were they playing?
 
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Not a cause for concern, the ones creating real wars and killing innocent people and invading countries are government and nobody else. If you want to kill someone in real life is not because you play video games, is simply because you are out of your mind.
 
pretty much agree with everything posted in this thread.

tbh tho what l think it boils down to is the following... ppl need and love to complain about something, most of the time those who do complain are the prim and proper types who have never touched a console in their lives or only buy kiddie games.

most of the ppl l hear complaining are the highly religious church goers.. at least round here at least, but still it really bothers me that all this legislation is being made on pointless crap.. while it doesnt cover video games l can see it eventually happening, take hentai (animated porn) its now against the law to view what the coin "shocking" images which contain somewhat more shocking subjects which depict simulated violence tho the laws arent limited to just that aspect, granted they carry over to real images but the fact is we are talking "simulated" here. suffice to say thats one of the main examples that came to mind for the point l was trying to get across.
 
Oh yeah, these games are dangerous all right.

The minute I finish playng any kind of shooter I immediately run out and start attacking people. In fact, with Half-Life, I went around attacking people with my crowbar!!! :cool: Tremendous fun it was, too. :)

These games must be stopped. Stopped I tell you!!!! :eek: :eek:
 
Ive been looking over this thread now for around a week and i'd like to venture my opinion , i think when it comes to gaming , it can influence some kids between 12 and 17 to commit crimes , now im saying this as a hardcore gamer , i absolutely love everything about gaming , but some games just go way way way to far.

A few examples...

Obviously as you can tell im a call of duty player , ive bought and completed every game they have ever released , modernware 2 on the other hand , had me cringing on all fours , i could not believe the level of violence when you had to pose as a terrorist and walk into a packed airport and slaughter a ton of people , it was ridiculous and foul i was almost going to turn it off , it felt so realistic i couldn't help but put myself in the same real life situation as the game plays itself out to me , im my honest opinion it was of bad taste to add that level.

The notorious grand theft auto series -

Ive played a few of them vice city , gta 3 and what not , the games don't feel realistic , but do promote a load of messed up stuff , sleeping with prostitutes , running over people to get awards , drug use , etc.. GTA doesn't feel realistic because its sorta of cell shaded , but it doesn't mean someone from 12 up is going to be prone to acting like the characters , i mean its cool aint it? Well to a simple minded child it is.

Overall , violence in video games is fine , as long as its handled tastefully and doesn't have a grim premise to it , games that use controversial subjects to get sales are a abomination and should be taken off the shelves immediately , example?

Hitman 2 -

Go into a mosk and shoot a bunch of Muslims....
 
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I'd have to agree with most of what you say about "bad taste" and felt equally perplexed by 'that level in COD', but to say that older kids (15+) would actually then go out and commit crimes because of it is IMO a bridge too far and I know a few of them that would be quite insulted :) .

Certainly nobody under the age of 15 should really be playing mature content like that but you'd already have to be pretty messed up in the head to let a game influence you. Nothing is real.. it's all fake, the brain knows that. When you do something in COD or GTA4 you're not doing it against a specific group of people, just pixels.

If you remember back to your own youth then "simple minded child" would have probably insulted your intelligence beyond measure.

"violence in video games is fine , as long as its handled tastefully and doesn't have a grim premise to it"
Kind of a contradiction :) .
 
l think it boils down to is the following... ppl need & love to complain about something, most of the time those who do complain are the prim & proper types who have never touched a console in their lives or only buy kiddie games.
 
..who cares? Man has killed man since we worked out how to do it, and it shows no sign of letting up yet..

Video games are just the latest thing that to be blamed. When I was young it was 'video nasties' getting the blame..blah blah blah imo


..IIRC..when i played that level in MW2 i didn't shoot any civilians...yes, you didn't have too..the level progressed just fine tagging along watching the bots :)
 
the way l see it, these groups dont have anything better to do.. they blame everything for violence but not themselves.. after all ppl cause violence, not video games. tbh l see them more of a medium of letting off steam without hurting anyone.
 
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