Have FPS games trained you to use a weapon? Survive in a warzone?

[Hero in a half shell]

It's just a thought that came into my head, but with the sensationalist media attention we get saying games desensitise you to violence and train killers etc. What is your personal experience?

How do you feel about guns and other weapons, about handling and shooting them?
How do you deal with gore or violence in real life?
How would you feel about shooting someone, would you have a problem killing someone on a battlefield, would it affect you?
How much gun knowledge do you think you have garnered from playing video games? Would you be able to identify different types of guns? Know how to fire, reload a gun? How about where the safety is located? How to use and adjust a scope?

And what about military tactics? Would you know how to react in a firefight? When to take cover and when to run? How to flank, how to use cover?

Spoiler: My experience

I do have a weird love of all things military, from swords to rifles to fighter jets, and I love to read about battles, wars etc. and while war-type videogames did not create that enthusiasm it has definitely helped it.
I would also say that videogames have given me the impression that I know a a great deal about how to operate guns and survive in a war environment... But in the few times I've ever been able to practically use it I've realised games teach crap-all about shooting guns and moving about effectively: What little action I have had with an actual gun has quickly shown me that I can't hit the broad side of a barn (I suppose I would improve with regular practice, but it goes to show that at least one vital thing completely fails to translate across to the real world)
I also remember the first time I went paintballing, I was all hyped up for the match, my adrenaline was pumping, and I was going to get out there are wreck havoc... until the game started, when I quickly realised, while cowering behind a wooden crate, that I had absolutely no knowledge of how to act in a war situation. Simple concepts like how to use cover, when to change position, how to effectively use covering fire etc. were all completely unknown to me, I learned all that slowly every time I went paintballing, not when playing games.

So I don't think games can teach you anything about war that you couldn't learn from a book: You can learn to identify a weapon from it's appearance, how many bullets in certain gun's magazines, but as to actually reloading, cocking, fixing scopes you would be pretty unprepared and haphazard trying to recreate what you've seen in-game.

 

[TFielding]

The most I've learned from video games about weapons is how to spot a video game player whose entire experience with guns is from video games. (One handed pistol firing, talking about guns and seriously discussing dual wielding, Violation of Every safety rule ever)

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Not even close. Real life and fantasy are two completely different things. I'll go down your checklist real fast and then add a few thoughts of my own.
-EDIT-
I should preface this by saying that I have played a lot of shooters. I tend to prefer Battlefield games though over ones like Call of Duty. That is just for competitive multiplayer though. I've done a plethora of others just for singleplayer.
-END EDIT-
How do I feel about guns and other weapons? I am fine with handling them and shooting them but I am not even close to proficient with them. Despite kicking ass in Battlefield, if you handed me a firearm and put me in a battle situation, I would be worthless.
How do I deal with gore and violence? I think its terrible. My stomach would come up on me on all sorts of stuff I deal with in a video game. I can't be grossed out by stuff I know is fake but if I know its real, that's another story.
How do I feel about shooting someone? I couldn't. I am not okay with killing and it would have to be some serious life or death situation for me to even consider it. I kill people all the time in video games but in real life, I would probably get killed before I was willing to take someones life, even someone who deserved it.
My gun knowledge? Very little. I can name a few notable guns and I know a little bit more than someone who hasn't played shooters likely but I am still fairly clueless. I know which end the bullet comes out of, that is about it.
Operation of guns? I can use them. I can aim and fire relatively alright in the scenario of a gun range. I couldn't strip a gun or clear a jam, or probably even adjust a scope accurately. I do know how to reload and all that jazz. I am more familiar with a paintball gun than a real one.
In regards to military tactics? Sure, I might know a fair amount from my experience playing shooters and it might work out in say...playing paintball or something. However if you threw me into a real life situation where people were trying to kill me? No, none of that would carry over. Again, it is the difference between a game and real life. There are so many things in an actual warzone that you do not experience in a game. I don't think anyone who "just plays shooters" would be prepared to handle a real warzone without actual training.
There was an episode of Penn and Tellers: Bullshit that covered this pretty well. I recommend checking it out. While I am sure there could be exceptions, games are not real life and I don't think it'd translate over.

 

[Erana]

It really doesn't, I don't think.
Along the same vein, people act like you'd be really familiar with gore and mutilation from all the violent video games out there, but put a gamer at a bench and make them dissect a fetal pig in a basic level biology class and half of them will freak out.

The thing is, there are a lot of ideas and real-life scenarios that games draw from in order to create an experience, but they are not the point of them.

Its like saying that most young women should know New York like the back of their hand because tons of chick flicks are set there.

 

[SonicKaos]

I've played with airsoft and paintball guns before and I find that I actually have great aim, but never tried a real gun before. I hate gore in real life for the most part so seeing it would freak me out a little, but if I were in a combat situation, I would be more concerned with making sure it wasn't my gore than anything else. I don't think reloading would be all that difficult to figure out if I don't already know how to do it.

If I were forced to kill someone, I think I could do it if they were actively trying to kill me as well. I probably wuoldn't like it, but if it must be done so that I could live, then it will be done. That said, I plan on draft dodging should the need ever come up... I like living.

I could name a few guns of course from playing games, and perhaps even know a tiny bit about tactics... but it's still different when it's YOUR life on the line.

 

[ThongBonerstorm]

Playing FPS games makes you as much of a trained weapons expert as following the instructions on the mac n' cheese box makes you a professional chef.

 

[the spud]

"Oh shit! I just got shot in the leg! Here, I'll hide behind this tree for a few minutes and it'll heal."

OT: No, infact the only way I can think of them helping me is now I can discern between different shades of a color very affectively.

 

[Ironwampa]

No, in fact after years of sitting inside playing fps's I think I'm worse off in using a weapon and going to a war zone.

 

[Kae]

Yes, since I've played so many videogames I'm 150% convinced that not only can I use guns with perfect aim I also can run for miles and miles carrying a bazooka in each arm without getting tired!

 

[Dawns Gate]

Thats what my CO asked us that same thing when I first joined the reserves and one 'kid' said. "I hope I get to use a riot shield!"
He dropped out two days later...

 

[Silenttalker22]

To someone who has really never handled a fiream, they might at least be familiar with how to line the sights up. But beyond that, the mere act of pulling the trigger correctly is more involved than in games.
To say nothing of how big a difference it is when your actual life and health are on the line.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

No. My grandaddy taught me how to handle a rifle, and let me tell you, videogames could never have taught me what he taught me -- well, not FPS's anyway. Duck Hunt would actually be a pretty good starting point, although it would only get you part of the way there.

There is one thing I did pick up from FPS's that I find to be useful in games of Humans Vs. Zombies (so, you know, the closest to an actual warzone I ever intend to get): I'm really good at telling the distance and position of sound sources (footsteps, talking and so on), something honed through years of playing online FPSs with headphone surround. So, not really a military skill, but something that's useful in a hostile situation.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

In some ways, yes.

I had never done ANYTHING weapon related other than video games and when I went to play my first game of airsoft, I kicked ass. Using cover the right, hiding, using short bursts and even basic aiming.

Gaming definitely helped.

 

[thePyro_13]

I got some interesting info from playing the old version of Americas Army. I wouldn't expect to be any good with those weapons, but I know much more about guns in general from playing that game.

I learnt quite a bit about field aid as well(which is much more useful than random trivia about m16's).

 

[TFielding]

Thinking back just now, playing America's Army has helped me in First Aid classes a few times.

 

[sivlin]

I feel like every gamer likes to think that they would be better equipped at handling real world combat situations... but everything that you learn in games about combat just doesn't apply in the real world. You are generally playing as an extreme example of a soldier in a modern army. Essentially, that means that the person you are playing as is a perfect shot (barring your own inadequacies)and they have extreme endurance and are at the absolute pinnacle of human physique and athleticism. This compounded with the fact that they have perfect reactions to enemy combatants as controlled by the user. In general, without military training, the average player will be extremely subpar in ALL of these categories. Not to mention the focus it would require to be as perfect in a red zone as you can make a character be in a gaming situation.

I would consider myself pretty good at first person shooters. I own a 9mm and often go to the shooting range and I am just an okay shot. I can hit the target. Sometimes in the general area of where I was aiming. I do tend to always hit the target but I am definitely saddened at how not amazing I am .

Much of it has to do with my eyesight, I'm sure, but it is definitely something that never stopped by destroying at counter-strike and CoD!

 

[Jacco]

No. That's like saying you know how to hack a computer system because you watched Oceans Eleven. It doesn't translate.

Gun battles are decided by a great many things, not just how fast your perks are. You have to compensate for breathing, your arms get tired holding the weapon level after just a few minutes and the natural movement of your body causes drift, especially aiming at further targets. Your adrenaline is going and you have to know how to avoid tunnel vision. You have to know how to unjam a weapon (because in real life the DO jam, often at the worst possible time).

I just laugh when I see someone spouting off and how they could kill me because of their extensive knowledge of the (COD) military . If they started pulling video game conventions in an actual fight, I'd have them down in ten seconds flat depending on the distance.

That best, video games simply make it less of a thought process to go through pulling the trigger (though I would argue that even this is shaky).

 

[walrusaurus]

Pretty much the only real world information you get from video games regarding guns is their names.

The only violence i think video games have desensitized me to is that against the undead. When the Zombie apocalypse arrives you better watch out, I'm gonna go all psycho-sexual sadist on their unliving asses.

In retrospect that last sentence doesn't sound quite the way I intended, but i'm to lazy to come up with a less... suggestive... phrasing.

 

[gostlyfantom]

I am sure that because of video games, i can MAYBE use SOME firearms without them blowing up in my face but thats about it.