Real Black Ops Guy Discusses Violence in Games

[TsunamiWombat]

This sounds like a reasonable intelligent man.

Who happens to kill people for a living.

I also love his quote about humanity having about 15 minutes of peace since the dawn of history.

 

[DazBurger]

Sooo... This man wants ARMA? Great! Give the man ARMA!

 

[Waaghpowa]

"We have, for some reason, a penchant for doing damage and killing our own species. Maybe the videogames are a release of some of that drive."

Although this may be somewhat true, the behaviour of some people who play online shooters may make some people want to kill them for real

 

[Waaghpowa]

Edit: Laggy double post

 

[Megacherv]

Amaerica's Army 3 is pretty good actually, quite realistic in that it teaches you the actual methods and in the ways that soldiers seem to be taught.

 

[BrunDeign]

It seems like people have made realistic war games and they haven't done especially well, so I don't know. Maybe they just haven't been made right.

Also Cracked.com now has a new person with the coolest name.

 

[Sebenko]

I was gonna say Arma II, but everyone else got there first. Someone e-mail him about it.

 

[Mr. Omega]

Goody, now I have a new book to buy . Nice to see he has both good things to say along with his criticism.

Still, people who join the army because they liked war games... *facepalm*

 

[dementis]

If only 6 days in fallujah hadn't been killed off, that sounded like it was going to be wanted he (and other people i'm sure) would've wanted.

 

[w-Jinksy]

Anyone else think he'd like

Spoiler: This game?

As much as I hated that game, I admit that it is the most realistic one I've played.
Then again, I mostly play on RPGs so...
EDIT: NINJA!!!

arma 2 is way better, more realistic.

 

[jamradar]

I think that the game he wants is Arma II. That or Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. But Arma II is a actual military simulator, whereas OPFR is juat a realistic shooter.

 

[saito82]

Operation Flashpoint...we spent a whole night on a single mission at one lan party...you get shot in that game and its over

 

[MGlBlaze]

Love the little comment on the game box art not being technically accurate, this guy knows his stuff.

Likewise; I found it very interesting... quite humorous too, actually. I knew they were M1911s but not the specific variant or the fact that both of them were apparently broken.

Anyway, I have to say, I like this Mr. Hammersmith a lot. That said though, with the (over-the-top and stupid) controversy surrounding violence in computer games at the moment, I have to wonder what the public reaction to a game that really IS ultra-realistic would be. Fallen-Angel said it best;

Good lord no, can you imagine the reaction to a game that "teaches gamers how to really act in such a situation?"
THEY'RE TEACHING OUR CHILDREN TO BE SOLDIERS! AAUUAUAUAUAAUHAGAAHGAHGHHHHH!

Spoiler: Like this?

Unfortunately, I must agree with you... I like the fact my parents know that I'm not stupid enough to go and re-enact Kingdom Hearts or something. Then again...

 

[ExileNZ]

I can't be the first person to note that his perfect game came out years ago:
Operation Flashpoint.

Of course, I'm not even sure I managed to beat the demo, let alone anything else. It took 5 minutes of driving in a jeep to get into occupied territory and then you pretty much died in the first shoot-out.

So, yay for realism!

Though I'll admit it's the first game I ever played where it was actually worth crawling up and down a hill with my legs shot out because I was so close to the end and I didn't want to do the whole thing again.

 

[Weaver]

What about America's Army that the US government made? I assume that would be pretty realistic...

 

[Dastardly]

= sneep =

So... "These games aren't as real as real life," is basically what we're getting here. It's really an answer to a question no one earnestly asked. Does anyone out there besides the biggest idiot think these games are meant to serve as a tutorial of some sort?

I do think it telling what he claims to have noticed about "those guys" on the battlefield. I'd be interested in some more numbers and data in that regard, but it's a plausible claim nonetheless. Video games certainly could lead to an overinflated sense of accomplishment (like guys who think they're badass for having a high score on Pac-Man or something)... and when the game, at least in some way, imitates a real-life activity, I definitely think some guys can start to think they really do know what's going on in those situations.

This could potentially lead to a lack of care and attention when they find themselves in that situation. If you believe yourself to be knowledgeable, you're less likely to stop and think at moments where stopping and thinking could be critical. In actual combat, this could kill more than just you, since the battle isn't a single-player campaign where the other guys are expendable NPCs...

But again, this is just his claim. It could be one of those, "I could see this happening" that sort of bleeds into a vague sense of, "I think I've seen this happen a whole lot, and I bet all those new, young guys getting hurt were into gaming." It'd be a worthwhile study, so that the military could adapt its tactics to breaking some of those FPS-instructed habits.