Games and War Crimes study

[jez29]

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

Basically, the gist of this study in this article is that war games feature an 'astonishing' absence of rules or sanctions regarding international laws of war. This study concluded that games send an erroneous message that conflicts have no limits and that any behaviour is acceptable, meaning that gamers who become real combatants will be influenced by these experiences.

Personally I think that the study has a point regarding the level of conflict and violence in some games (don't get me wrong though, I like blowing stuff up in games as much as anyone), but when it comes to the conclusion that this could lead to soldiers disregarding things like the Geneva conventions, it looks like another example of how games are still treated differently from films or other media.

Its seems a reasonably worthy study to do, and the news article itself is balanced enough (although the headline's a bit sensationalist), so I'm not complaining about either of these, but what do you think? Is this just another example of the gaming witch-hunt or something that needs to be addressed? Should devs consider incoporating war laws into their games as this study recommends?

 

[Sebenko]

well, yeah. I don't think there are more than a few games where mass murder of civillians is punished with more than a pathetic "boo hoo, you're bad" or "we're going to take away $100 of the $1000000 you have for buying crap, which you can get back ten times over for blowing up the nearest jeep."

 

[KhaineII]

Agreed.

It's nice to see a study that isn't based on, "GRAH! Violent vidjah games are bad! We're making murderers of our children! KAJFDSJLC..."

But certainly, video games seem to disregard international rules of war. I'm looking at you Call of Duty.

 

[Distorted Stu]

"Call of Duty 5" They didn't study very hard then. Im pretty sure soilders irl no not to shoot their names into walls and kill innocents.

 

[ShadowsofHope]

It said games were sending an "erroneous" message that conflicts were waged without limits or that anything was acceptable in counter-terrorism operations.

So.. War on (of) Terror as an example?

Its a game, some semantics are there, some are not. Its entertainment, not god damned military training. (to the dismay of those who think it is)

This is why education exist, in fact.. to teach people about these things in the real world. It is not the fault of games for those people whom take it seriously, only those people's fault.

 

[Axeli]

Sounds like war to me.

Seriously, how naive is the idea that you need video games before war can turn an average person into a monster? It doesn't need any help to do that, as anyone who has any clue about history would know.

 

[Viking Incognito]

I am so sick of "studies" that demonize gaming. I defy anyone to disagree that most of this is just fueled by grumpy old people (the researchers)trying to discredit the new age tech that they can't understand.

 

[Death_Korps_Kommissar]

Cause we all know no country never,ever commit war crimes. -__________________-

 

[Frenger]

There have been studies that shown that it doesn't take much at all to make a person to commit horrible crimes. Just shove ten "prison guards" and ten "prisoners" in a compound for a couple of days and let it brew. Shit will hit the fan within a week.

So that computer games makes things "easier" is complete and utter bullhonkey.