Poll: Would you be comfortable killing your country's military in a game?

[Jandau]

I'm from a small country that isn't particularly well know, so it rarely comes up as an issue. But there was one example: I can't remember the name of the game, but you played a demon-possessed crusader and one level took place during the siege of Zara at the start of the 4th Crusade. Not only did this level require me to kill my countrymen (I'm Croatian), but it was also based on a real historical event, and one that is hardly the proudest moment in the history of the Crusades - basically, the Venetians got the Crusaders to sack Zara, a Catholic city that was a rival of Venice, as payment for transportation to the Holy Land.

And I have to admit, it did make me uncomfortable. I disliked fighting my countrymen, especially in a context where they did nothing wrong and were the victims...

 

[cikame]

There are people who feel strongly about their country and countrymen so obviously those people would respond very poorly to having to kill them, personally i don't really have any fondness for the UK or its people so i'm totally fine with it.

There are plenty of multiplayer games already where one team is technically killing western soldiers, but there's no gravity to that it's just red vs blue, you kill "players" rather than soldiers. Insurgency is a bit different in that one team is very obviously the American army with plenty of voice work coming from the soldiers giving them an identity, but we haven't taken it to an extreme yet i don't think... Maybe Battlefield 3 where you kill your squad leader but the story reason for it is comically stupid so it misses any controversy.

 

[Kathinka]

The whole notion of being offended or uncomfortable by that strikes me as rather odd. It implies that "your" countries military is somehow more worthy, it's soldiers being the more valuable human beings than those of other militaries. The thought carries some unfortunate, deeply ingrained racist undertones camouflaged as patriotism.

 

[Korolev]

I could, as long as they made it believable. Give me a good story reason to shoot the soldiers of my own military, and I could do it.

 

[Demetirus]

I can't say I'd be too bothered. It's just a game. Though I'd have a hard time shooting at folks I know are there, for the most part, out of a desire to be peace keepers.