WarCo Aims to Train War Reporters

[Hevva]

WarCo Aims to Train War Reporters

The gritty realism of this conflict journalism game has fledgling reporters in mind.

Preparing journalists for the dangers of war reporting is an expensive affair, something which is beyond the reach of most freelancers and students. To help prepare them for the stress of working in a combat zone, the team behind WarCo [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/112959-Warco-Offers-a-Unique-Perspective-On-War] (a war simulator which replaces your gun with a camera) have announced that they're working on a special "training" version of their game which will cater to the needs of reporters who are unable to undertake proper training.

In an interview with the BBC [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15166663], Tony Maniaty, the mind behind the game, said that he doesn't see why his game couldn't be helpful in training conflict correspondents. "Surgeons have been training how to do operations with video games and interactive games are even being used to treat soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. It's very common," he said. "I would never say this game should replace proper hostile environment training but if we can save the lives of a few journalists it'll be worth it."

WarCo - and its training aspect - has been criticized by several experienced war correspondents for failing to portray enough realism. "My worry is that it dehumanizes a war zone," commented Allan Little, one of the BBC's most experienced combat reporters. "The key to understanding a war is to understand individuals who are living through it - and there aren't really any individuals in this game...I think anything that encourages the view that you can understand real-life shooting wars better by playing a game has to be treated with caution."

Others, such as James Rodgers, a senior lecturer in International Journalism at London Metropolitan University, worry about the "glamorizing" effect of games like WarCo. "I can see how something like this game could potentially be a useful training aid for a generation that's very comfortable with video games," said Rodgers. "But I think it really needs to avoid glamorizing the profession because people really do get killed."

According to the Virtual Iraq [http://www.cpj.org/killed/], the PTSD-treatment game mentioned by Maniaty, but if its mechanics are constructed well enough, it could give people a glimpse of what life is like behind the camera at war.


Source: BBC [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15166663]

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[FogHornG36]

Want a hint on being a war Reporter? don't look impotent, insurgents don't want to kill Forrest Gump, they want to kill Lt. Dan

 

[RandV80]

Will the game have proper regenerating health and cover mechanics?

 

[Therumancer]

My basic attitude is that a certain degree of political bias is showing through here. Trying to bring human empathy and those emotions to wartime reporting is one of the big mistakes, and also why so much of it has a left wing stance. Reporters need to remain above that in doing their job and endeavor to be as unbiased as possible. When you start trying to get empathic about it, the tendency is to sympathize with those on the receiving end of the violence, rather than the reasons for it and what is actually going on. Hence why if during a firefight some baby gets hit, you have reporters going on about "Soldiers kill baby" as opposed to the reasons for the firefight, what it was supposed to accomplish, and whether the objective was met. Wars are very much a big-picture kind of thing.

Now, a lot can be said for reporters who have brought a human touch to harsh situations, but such things are best brought up after the fact (ie when the war is over), and also such reporting is best in small doses. It does a lot of damage when everyone is trying to be "that guy" as opposed to maintaining professional detachment, which is what the majority have to do for fair reporting.

Oddly if the game encourages that kind of detachment that is a positive thing, even if many of the reporters with their current political leanings might not think so. It's a problem when something as trivial to the big picture as a dead baby or some injured civilians that have a reported emotionally going "OMG, OMG, OMG" trump the big picture and the actual facts of a situation. Indeed I'd argue that a lot of the people covering war zones right now don't belong there, they are there to report on war and the military situation, not on human interest stories.

 

[Nikolaz72]

Dress yourself in tinfoil and walk around with a huge camera. Terrorists wont shoot you. (Theory yet to be tested)

 

[Cyberjester]

Intelligent comment here

Get off the Escapist, we don't need your kind here..



Nah, well said.

Normally I'd be against war reporters since I hate escort quests and I can't see it being any different for a soldier. But if a reporter was able to become detached and accurately and safely cover a war zone, then this program should be mandatory for class work.

 

[Agent Larkin]

Well I would give it a go.

If nothing else the idea at least sounds interesting, controversial granted but still interesting.

 

[Rawne1980]

Want a hint on being a war Reporter? don't look impotent

I'm pretty sure the very last thing on reporters mind is looking like they have erectile dysfunction.

 

[hansari]

I would think this unnecessary...your going into a warzone. Your role is rather irrelevant. So long as your physically in a warzone, expect the same amount of danger as anyone else.

No spectator modes...