Poll: Does war really never not change ever?

[Kadamon]

(Say that title 5 times fast)

Beginning of Fallout 3:

"War... war never changes..."

Beginning of Metal Gear Solid 4:

"War... has changed."

Conflicting ideas, both great games. True, but untrue, false, but has a point.

Metal Gear Solid 4 showed us that whenever you are getting rid of the human factor in war, you are destroying the HUMANE factor. Merciless soldiers = merciless killing. You can't supress emotions, pain, or regret.

Fallout 3 showed us that war is not going to change. It is a bloodbath. Violence, rape, murder, torture, greed, it doesn't matter because it'll always be there. But only when we destroyed our world did we see what we valued, sacrifice... for a better good.

So what is your opinion? Can war change? Can war ever really prosper?

War.

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

Did you just use a double negative in your title?

 

[Reaperman Wompa]

War changes as it becomes the views of a single mans actions, and we advance the ways in which we kill our fellow man. Not including politics in the equation war is something that changes over time.

 

[Blind0bserver]

Well, in essence, war is two or more sides systematically killing each others members off to gain something. According to that concept, no, war never changes.

 

[Kadamon]

Did you just use a double negative in your title?

I would absolutely never not do that good sir.

 

[topsyturvy]

War isn't ever going to change; all that is going to change is how they kill you. From the beginning of the human race up to today all war has been about is profit. The Romans had their economy centered around killing people to take their money. The American Revolution, it was led by rich guys that wanted sovereignty so they didn't have to pay more to buy from England. World War 1, the Entente fought the Central Powers because they feared for their colonies which provided raw goods to make things for profit in the factories which explains the militarization and the alliances they made with each other. One last example, the Iraq War, America is there just for the oil and nothing else. Iraq is basically a colony to the US now which makes taking out oil from Iraq cheap.

 

[Marv21]

Well, in essence, war is two or more sides systematically killing each others members off to gain something. According to that concept, no, war never changes.

Very very true, only thing that changes are the people going in it, and how they are going to die....unoptimistic, I know. Yet true.

 

[Jagers1994]

War never changes.

P.S Fallout 3 wasnt the only game that started out like that.

 

[Epifols]

You can't ask that question.

Because war is not a single thing. Some aspects definitely change, some definitely dont.

For example, does eating change? Theres no point to even discuss this unless you have a specific thing you are looking for. For instance, do the morals of war change?

 

[Ancientgamer]

It would be poetic to say that war never changes, in that the base components of death and brutality will always be there, but honestly, you can't even say that anymore. What with robotics, precision srikes, electronic warfare, and cold war style standoffs with WMDs. And with each new large scale war, the ratio of the amount of casualties:amount of time spent drops signifigantly.

And frankly, humans are evil, if war ever comes to emotionless killing, then it will also be less wasteful killing.

 

[Zetona]

(Say that title 5 times fast)

Metal Gear Solid 4 showed us that whenever you are getting rid of the human factor in war, you are destroying the HUMANE factor. Merciless soldiers = merciless killing. You can't supress emotions, pain, or regret.

I've played through MGS4 twice, but I never saw this perspective into the story. Wow...that makes the game a lot more significant in my mind.

I agree that war changes.

 

[Kadamon]

War isn't ever going to change; all that is going to change is how they kill you. From the beginning of the human race up to today all war has been about is profit. The American Revolution, it was led by rich guys that wanted sovereignty so they didn't have to pay more to buy from England. World War 1, the Entente fought the Central Powers because they feared for their colonies which provided raw goods to make things for profit in the factories which explains the militarization and the alliances they made with each other. One last example, the Iraq War, America is there just for the oil and nothing else. Iraq is basically a colony to the US now which makes taking out oil from Iraq cheap.

The American revolution was not about paying too much, it was about oppressment in a way of speaking.

Britian taxed things on the Americans after the French and Indian War, to the point of which it was simply too much for a beginning colony. After boycotting British trade, the British took away all of the taxes... except for the ones on tea.

After sending redcoats to watch over the American colonies, Americans were outraged as to the bums found off the street that were the redcoats. The redcoats were rude, forced people to house them, and stole their jobs from the people they were "protecting" (the pay was poor for redcoats).

After the Boston Massacre (an error on both sides), the Boston Tea Party happened, showing we couldn't really take the... *ahem* from Britian.

Not about fat rich people, Americans were very poor back in that day.

You just got schooled.

Litterally(?)

 

[Consistence]

we can kill each other much faster, in this day and age were really all on a schedule, time should not be wasted

 

[topsyturvy]

But the changes were mostly cosmetic and nothing really changed except you have a shiny name tag saying US instead of British colony. But I guess that was a bad example, the Spanish American War would be better.
George Washington was still rich, he had a plantation with slaves.

 

[Kadamon]

You can't supress emotions, pain, or regret.

Yeah, actually, you can. It just takes practice, and regret is an emotion, if I'm not mistaken.

Well, in essence, war is two or more sides systematically killing each others members off to gain something. According to that concept, no, war never changes.

Also, this.

*Ahem* The suppressing of emotion in MGS4 was done by nanomachines, and whenever PMC's were kicked off of the nanomachine system, they went into a mad craze, remembering every fallen enemy, gunshot, and merciless killing they had ever experienced, which had all been blocked by the nanomachines.

You can't suppress regret, even Solid Snake feared for his life.
You can't escape emotions.

 

[Beffudled Sheep]

I hope that the only change in war is the way we kill other people. More people need to die dammit!

 

[InvisibleMilk]

the only way war changes is the way we conduct war.
Guerilla, Germ, Cold, Nuclear, Mental, etc etc etc.