Kotaku 
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Denver, 6:46 AM
Thu Dec 17
63 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/23/09
How about chess? the knights can make a right or left turn to destroy a peon that's not involved in it's conflect. "CHESS ARE EVIL"
The towers and the king can make ROC moves.. but... but those are physically impossible in real life!! "BAN CHESS!!"
Come on... the more and more it seems having an escape or having fun becomes blured with reality and soon reality won't be fun because fun will become illegal because it is based on any kind of idea that involves something. just something.
terrible!
11/23/09
I know I skimmed the report as did many here. How many would have even opened the file if it dealt with real issues?
Honestly, I don't think the idea was to target vidoe games for violation of IHL - just use it as a vehicle to make people more aware by publishing something that could cause "controversy."
11/23/09
/troll
11/23/09
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11/23/09
Hey, I just want to know if they're even catching it at all. "Hmm, one soldier crouching over his apparently slain opponent. Probably just checking for a pulse to see if it's safe to leave him and move on. Nope, seems perfectly okay to me."
11/22/09
Yes yes, of course they had a good intention, but it seems they don't understand that games are designed to be fun, not tedious. Of course we know game isn't real. (and everyone should worry about someone who thinks that way) And nobody's going to base their opinions in real life according to a game. (and again and everyone should worry about someone who thinks that way)
Why don't we flag all the movies that feature terrorists and corrupt governments while at it?
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11/22/09
We saw how well the public reacted to THAT one.
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11/22/09
[www.collegehumor.com]
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11/22/09
Maybe the larger question here should be, can we allow video games to be a major source of explanation, to kids and adults, as to what war really is like?
GTA has many despicable things in it, but we all know that stealing cars is wrong, that killing people is wrong. It's very easy for us to distinguish what's right and wrong in a normal social arena, hence, GTA doesn't shape your mind as it pertains to being a good or bad person. When it comes to war, and especially modern warfare, 95% of us know nothing and video games are just as credible a source to this generation as any textbook or documentary on the History Channel. Then you add the variable of media credibility, or the lack thereof, and what you have is mass confusion about what war really is.
11/22/09
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11/22/09
First is that it has clearly been written by someone who is almost entirely unfamiliar, not just with violent shooters, but with videogames in general. Obviously there is nothing wrong with that per se, but in this specific case, I think the obvious ignorance about the directorial intent behind a game, or the way in which certain in-game situations are supposed to function, harms the credibility of the report.
Second is that the tone taken is somewhat peculiar inasmuch as that it seems to be taking on some kind of reformist or censorial mantle. Statements such as: "it would be recommendable to avoid putting these kinds of scenes
in video games as they could mislead players in terms of what is allowed to be done" seem to me to assume a pretty low level of capability on the part of the gamer to distinguish between reality and fiction. This is a trap that the mainstream media often fall into and it's disappointing to see that level of ignorance on display in what presents itself as a piece of academic research.
I think that the way that Rainbow Six punishes the player for inflicting civilian casualties is a good thing, but that is because of it being good game design, not because I think games have some kind of moral duty to be presented in that way. The report reads as if it assumes that the role games should be playing is educating gamers about international law, and that other gameplay or narrative concerns should be secondary. To me, that is bizarre.
But, whatever I think about the (substantial) failings of this particular report, it is attempting to address some important issues. A lot of games are violent. Few of those come anywhere near situating that violence in a realistic context, even when they might claim to be pursuing realism. We live in a world where gratuitous violence is exploited for entertainment potential all the time, but that that doesn't mean that, once in every ten (or even hundred) titles, a game can't come along with something more intelligent to say about war or about crime.
In the real world, rules of international law, and the pressures of perceived moral imperatives, act as influences on the behaviour of combatants in a manner that is often lazily caricatured, if not completely absent, in videogames. I think it is well worth asking why that is, and whether some games might be improved if efforts were made to better incorporate those kinds of themes and constraints.
11/22/09
Why, look at Serious Sam or Doom. Totally not grounded in reality, but no less fun because of it. Not every game needs realism or dramatic themes; as distasteful as it may seem, they could even go as far as completely trivializing violence for comedic or shock value. That's what creating a work of fiction is all about. It's about having the freedom to make things as realistic or as fantasied as one wishes.
By god, that freedom shall not be abrogated by ignorant stiffs and their incessant whining for us to "think of the children".
11/23/09
11/23/09
Kudos.
11/23/09
11/22/09
There's a reason why you'll find forks and knives with swastikas on them hiding in some veteran's attic in Wisconsin. While I'm sure these soldiers were told not to do so, I could imagine that swiping an artifact from a particular battle would seem like nothing more than a notch on one's belt--a sign of victory; and wouldn't necessarily be stolen for monetary gain.
11/22/09
BTW, I live in Wisconsin, that hurts.
11/22/09
11/22/09
#speakup