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| Do you believe that Video games are programming children to be better soldiers ?
Posted: 6/7/2008 7:55:53 PM | Videogames don't make people better soldiers but it can peak their interest in the military and make them want to join but so did GI JOE and all the war movies kids liked before videogames were ever really around.
I think people should be complaining about young kids who hunt because you have a kid who has been told how to use a weapon and is really killing things......I'm just joking but I know some paranoid person out there just realized kids who hunt are going to cause the world to collapse. | |
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| Do you believe that Video games are programming children to be better soldiers ?
Posted: 6/7/2008 9:10:22 PM |
Videogames dont make soldiers any better at all since a controller or mouse still isn't a gun. They dont learn how to use the weapons and chances are they wouldn't even be physically fit tp be a good soldier.
Shooting something in a videogame translates to reality how?
Sitting in front of a screen, controller in hand, playing at killing people... awfully similer to sitting in front of a screen, controller in hand, using an armed robot (like the S.W.A.T. and bomb squads use) or UAV (like the Preditor) for recon or to kill people. | |
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| Do you believe that Video games are programming children to be better soldiers ?
Posted: 6/7/2008 9:28:19 PM | ya maybe so but a videogame doesn't have to be violent to improve hand eye coordination.
Chances are though if you are someone who controls those robots you arent a complete idiot who would shoot up a school and blame it on videogames.
Even if videogames desensitized people it doesn't make them killers though, but for the purposes of the military it is a good thing, we do use human shaped targets for a reason and that reason is to prevent us from freezing up if we had to shoot someone instead of going from a plain target to a real human. | |
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| Do you believe that Video games are programming children to be better soldiers ?
Posted: 6/7/2008 10:01:15 PM | I think they are better for our entertainment than watching television, a coliseum death match or wrestling. 
Some games are designed to help people communicate more efficiently and work better as a team, even from halfway across the world.
Personally my favourite games are the multiplayer creative outlet types. Little Big Planet looks like fun. | |
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| Do you believe that Video games are programming children to be better soldiers ?
Posted: 6/7/2008 11:41:14 PM |
Chances are though if you are someone who controls those robots you arent a complete idiot who would shoot up a school and blame it on videogames.
Even if videogames desensitized people it doesn't make them killers though
Oh no, not at all. I think video games teach skills that will be useful to the form of warfare that will become dominant in the future, but I don't believe that video games are the cause of the recient surge of schoolyard shooting or anything else like that. Those kids were messed up anyway (probably poor parenting). Their favorite videogame may have inspired them on the style of killings, but if they didn't play those games they'd just base it off of some movie or something else. | |
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| Do you believe that Video games are programming children to be better soldiers ?
Posted: 6/11/2008 7:21:47 AM | As a person who has been playing video games for as long as I can remember here are some things first person shooters taught me which I consider valuable lessons:
- taught me that guns kill people, fast and messy. If I ever consider what it would be like to be a soldier on a battlefield, I only need to remember how many times I got shot in some of the more realistic, unforgiving FPS games to realize I don't want to be a soldier or ever see a battlefield.
- completely dispelled any left over illusions from Rambo-like action movies about one-man armies - modern games are very good at hammering in lessons about teamwork and strategy being most important factor to success. I think if there is one thing a person should know to be equipped to help in a crisis, it's this.
- dispelled any childish illusions about coolness of being gun-totting criminal or gun-ho cop, particularly games like SWAT and Rainbow six, which emphasize patience, coordination and tactics and kill the player very fast for any foolish behavior
- taught me that in stressful situations it’s important to remain cool and clear headed and panicking or rushing leads to screw ups. That said, this particular lesson is taught in theory only, meaning games won’t help you actually control yourself in a real life crisis.
What these games definitely didn't do:
- desensitize me to violence. In-game violence doesn't phase me at all, real life violence is shocking.
- in any way give/improve any skills in shooting or fighting, didn't help with reaction or dexterity either. Two months of tennis, badminton and basketball did more for me in terms of dexterity and reaction then 10 years of fps games.
- ever cause me to want to hurt or kill people. If anything, having seen virtual violence in games, the thought of shooting people in real life has become more appalling because unlike my naive thoughts when I was playing with make belief guns as a kid, the 'fantasy' no longer ends at how cool I would look pointing a gun and pulling the trigger, but brings up thoughts of how people who have recently been walking, talking and thinking can suddenly become bloody chunks of meat; and now such thoughts come with graphic and life-like pictures, courtesy of latest generation realistic looking FPS. If anything, these games scare sane people away from violence.
In terms of being good for training soldiers – well, the lessons about tactics, and teamwork coordination are important, dispelling stupid illusions in virtual reality rather then having people learn the lessons the hard way is good too. That’s where the usefulness ends as far as I am concerned. | |
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| Do you believe that Video games are programming children to be better soldiers ?
Posted: 6/11/2008 9:42:39 AM | Kicking around a deceased enemy's head...hrm...lemme see...Soccer...Polo...Lacrosse...shall we continue??
Didja ever notice there was less violent crime per capita in the past because it was met with Final Punishment?? Theft was the noose, Robbery was the noose, Burglary was the noose, Murder got you drawn & quartered...
If you take the criminals out of the genetic population you end up with less people likely to commit crimes...the rest of them see the evidence of what happens when you do bad things and decide that "It just ain't worth it." With the CURRENT death penalty scheme in the US, it's just not a deterrent anymore...you're almost as likely to die from old age waiting for the Chair as you are from the Chair. That's not a deterrent. That's a joke. To be effective, punishment has to be harsh, just, and IMMEDIATE.
in other words, keep a sharp eye out on yer little minimi's and make them fear you worse than the Law. An involved parent is a happy one. An uninvolved parent is the reason we have 25% of black men in prison. Video games have nothing to do with it...unless they got busted for stealing a PS3. | |
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| Do you believe that Video games are programming children to be better soldiers ?
Posted: 6/11/2008 3:09:02 PM | Right on, BigShriek. If a criminal wants to kill someone, he'd be stopped by the prospect of being hanged or fried on the chair. But waiting indefinitely for the execution to happen? You're right, that's a breeze.
I think more murders are committed because it's easier to commit them than ever: People are desensitized to violence and sex, people can get guns, people have money to buy guns, people have more motivation to kill (drug wars), people have less remorse, because fewer people have morse in the first place.
As far as the genetic cleansing of criminal traits: It's been proven that it is passed down by genetics, but a lot of people who are likely to kill have 1. Procreated before killing; but then again 2. they may be killed before they could have children, and 3. in jail, waiting for an empty chair, they are not procreating, that's a fact.
But we are not cognescent of the genetic details of the transference of this trait. It is entirely possible that the criminal trait is passed down by the x chromosome, in which case women who have the criminal trait pass it to all their children; and men to their daughters only. In which case it's futile to kill killers, because most killers are male. yet most transmitters of the gene are female.
Maybe the Y chromosome? Then it would make sense, but history has not indicated that there would have been a constant reduction of criminality.
And then there is a chance that criminal disposition is useful for society in some instances and under some circumstances. It may be a big survival advantage for the individual or even for the group it belongs to. It is not my opinion, but they say that all great noble tycoon families, on any continent, had been established by some highway robber or some alcohol or slave or white slave pilferer. This shows something. If Ghenghis Khan was criminal minded, he's shown the success of that trait as a survival trait: Every fourth person in China and one out of every 20 people in the rest of the world are direct descendants of his. (Or indirect descendants of his. What's the difference?)
I talked enough. Think about it. | |
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| Do you believe that Video games are programming children to be better soldiers ?
Posted: 6/11/2008 7:51:29 PM | For all the hours I've spent putting blocks into place as they fell, solving esoteric puzzles on strange landscapes, reading through pages and PAGES of badly written text on my way to save the princess, jumping to floating platforms, and shooting icky creatures in fog laden towns, I don't think I acquired the necessary skills to break down and repair a gun, move to take a forward position, garrison a secured location, communicate in the proper manner with other soldiers, be able to read and interpret a topography map of enemy positions, or maintain the proper level of respect for superior officers.
No sir, I learn those skills watching war movies. | |
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