Australian Christian Lobby Compares Games to SAS Training

[fanklok]

Wait wait wait my MW2 playing is preparing me to be an elite military super soldier? Well if we follow his logic then that means that instead of spending millions and millions on military training facilities and wasting all that ammo on live fire ranges and training missions we could just hand every recruit a 360 and say that's their combat training? Damn you forgien folk sure have us americans beat on cost effective combat training.

 

[Hawgh]

Hot diggity, I'm going to be a wizard.

 

[S.R.S.]

So is it a good thing or a bad thing?
Keep in mind the people that actually play aren't combat prepared (physically fit).

 

[Ph0t0n1c Ph34r]

Hr has a point about breaking down stigma of killing. In WWII, originally US soldiers trained with bullseyes, and it why found that men wouldn't shoot the enemy, so it was changed to a hman outline.

But just because someone plays a violent game dosnt make him a killer. Does it make a person pre-disposed to violence more violent? Maybe, but what he days is just fear mongering and generalizations. What can you say? It's Australia. Some peole give Christians a bad name.

 

[GeekFury]

Hot diggity, I'm going to be a wizard.

I'll tank! Now get a me a priest, cleric or paladin!

 

[Khada]

The first argument that has ANY sort of logic behind it. It's still not enough though, only the mentally unstable would be driven to violence against another due to a video game.

 

[Adzma]

I'm really sick of this. People need to stop reacting so badly to everything.

No, not the Aussies and their hellish ratings system; they're ridiculous and need to lose the Big Brother mentality that they can legislate morality.
I'm sick of hearing this tagged to christians.

Since you don't live in Australia you can't exactly understand our point of view on this. The Australian Christian Lobby and political party Family First are among the most backwards, idiotic and conservative bunch of retards in the entire nation. What they don't seem to realise is that unlike in the US, Australia isn't an insanely zealous Christian nation, in fact, most of us don't give a shit about religion. And yet it's these Christian groups that get their voices heard.

 

[Hollock]

If they ever start up a monster catching squad count me in for I liek mudkips

 

[tsu-money]

I can now say that I have no desire to live in Australia whatsoever.

 

[Agayek]

Christian Lobby

Whew, saved again by my brain's self-preservation "off" switch that triggers on such phrases. Such stories never end well.

Is this guy really trying to claim that playing God of War will cause me to be less resistant to the idea of killing people? Sorry Jimbo, the only thing that makes me any less hesistant about killing another human is if my own life/the lives of those around me are in danger of ending if I don't.

Mehhhhh. When I was younger, everything was TV's fault, then the Internet's fault, now it's gaming's turn. I can't wait to see what's next.

Next up is the virtual reality add-on to Internet that provide full sensory feedback.

 

[Canid117]

So... how much you want to bet he has never actually played a video game?

 

[Snotnarok]

These people are out of their mind when they compare reality to games. I've played literally hundreds of shooters yet I've NEVER even held a real gun, and I can say with confidence that I have no idea how to reload or fix a jam on one of those things. I've shot a bb gun at some cans, does that count as hardcore murder? Heck when I had to reload I felt helpless because there's no R key on it!

 

[Madshaw]

I have 3 irrefutable pieces of evidence to disprove everything he just said:

1. Not all Australians are Christian

2. Not all games involve extreme levels of violence

3. This is not the Enlightenment era. We do not need to justify the fact that people are reasonable and can make intelligent choices on their own

couldn't say it better myself. Let people use free will please...don't shove god in our face...

heisn't shoving god in your face, he is saying that his moral systyem put inplace by his god has helped him to reason thusly, he isn't telling you to believe the same things as him

 

[Xsjadoful]

Ah the number of times i've finished a session of assasin's creed and proceeded to stalk people across rooftops with knives hidden in my sleeves, i can really see where he's going with this one

 

[laserwulf]

As a combat veteran (OEF & OIF) and gamer, I can say from both sides of the equation that violent video games and military training are about as similar as watching "24" is to CIA anti-terrorist training. Although gaming does involve repetitive simulations, there is SO MUCH more to actually firing a real weapon (and plenty of other facets of military skills) that Mr. Wallace should be ashamed to use his background to make such a broad and emotional generalization. Even after playing Counter Strike for three years before Basic Training, I was scared s___less when I handled a live hand grenade for the first time... because I knew it was REAL.

Why is it so hard for grown Australians (and plenty of Americans) to realize that video games are no longer just for kids? The whole excuse of 'violent movies are not interactive, so they are alright' is bull; Mr. Wallace merely knows that you don't take a 9-year-old to "Saw".

Finally, why does the notion that people who are affected by a legal decision coming out to voice their opinions, make it somehow invalid? Of course people who don't care one way or another are not going to bother throwing in their $.02. Mr. Atkinson is lucky that I'm not Australian, as I'd be campaigning to get someone so daft thrown out of office.

 

[Cpu46]

And hes complainging about this, im sure he wont be when the Zombies begin to attack and are swiftly defeated by thousands of children with supposed SAS training.

 

[Nuke_em_05]

Hi! Welcome to 2010!

Take note that the argument of video games destroying the link between reality and virtual reality has been used for about the past 20 years (and video games themselves being around about 10 years more than that).

Also, take note how at least three decades worth of adults have played videogames all that time, and yet very few acts of violence have been directly influenced by videogames. Even then, those cases are attributable to an already violent personality that would have probably snapped anyway without regard to the type of stimulus.

Keep taking notes as I mention that SAS, and other military personnel, do not end up killing civillians. All that intense, direct, purposeful training does not alter their ability to disntinguish someone to kill and someone not to kill.

As a Christian, I dissaprove of Christian lobbyists. The type of "Christians" that form them generally are just the type looking for an agenda to push and skew their "Christianity" to support it; and just make the Christians who understand that it isn't our place to convict look bad.

 

[gillebro]

I have 3 irrefutable pieces of evidence to disprove everything he just said:

1. Not all Australians are Christian

2. Not all games involve extreme levels of violence

3. This is not the Enlightenment era. We do not need to justify the fact that people are reasonable and can make intelligent choices on their own

couldn't say it better myself. Let people use free will please...don't shove god in our face...

This is Australia we're talking about. God will be shoved in our faces for quite some time.
We're certainly not all Christian but that's not going to stop these dicks from making us all try to live like we are. If it were up to them we would all be transported back to several hundred years ago when not being Christian or even a particular kind of Christian was punishable by law.

The amount of things I've killed in games must be well into the hundreds of thousands by now. Give me a gun and tell me to kill someone and I'll end up in the foetal position in the corner. His argument doesn't really work.

This. I don't understand why it's assumed that gamers are idiots, unable to differentiate between fantasy and reality. I'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who, when given an actual AK47, would be like "Oh yeah, I know how this works. It handles just like it does in MW2."

 

[Outamyhead]

Well that disqualifies most of the WoW players, unless there is room in the SAS for 250+LB recruits with an almost allergic reaction to sunlight, or physical activities Just kidding WoW'ers, but the Australian Christian rock band movement probably have that preconception of gamers in general?

Maybe they should look at scientific fact instead of scare tactics with visual shots from games, I sure as heck don't feel the need to go out and kill anyone, wouldn't have a clue how if it wasn't for actually learning some self defense from my teacher of the art I chose.

If anything I vent my anger on the game of choice, so I see them more as a form of therapy tool than a training tool, but then who's to say how long a criminal that blames a game for his troubles had been playing it per day?

Look at that teenager in France that ran around petrol bombing cars, if anything he learned that from the news or movies, heck even the A-team. Or the Columbine incident, they blamed the Matrix for that, the movie hadn't even come out yet, and the home videos of the kids showed they were f*#%ing nuts.

I still think the problem lies with a parenting issue or the crowd that children choose to hang out with...which kind of comes back to a parenting issue again, unfortunately the video games industry is the scape goat for the worlds current issues.

Next up on the hit list, 3D projected movies are the spawn of satan and causing thousands of murders as a result of mind altering strobes.