Videogames: The create murderers. They breed rapists. They warp our children. Now they violate international law and allow gamers to commit heinous war crimes. That's the assertion of two human rights organizations, in any case. They conducted what one could kindly call a ludicrously unimportant study to come to their conclusions and have managed to prove ... well, nothing.
Trial and Pro Juventute are the two groups who played these games under the guidance of humanitarian lawyers, looking at such games as Army of Two, Call of Duty: World at War, Far Cry 2 and many more. It seems that their only real goal in this study was to piss and moan about the results. Piss and moan they did.
"The practically complete absence of rules or sanctions is ... astonishing," states the study. " ... "[We] call upon game producers to consequently and creatively incorporate rules of international humanitarian law and human rights into their games."
Games were chosen over movies thanks to their interactivity, which the study claims blurs the lines between reality and fiction to create a "simulation of real life situations on the battlefield." The report was critical of the fact that characters can be tortured, summary executions can be found and "protected objects" like churches and mosques can be destroyed. Videogames don't wage war according to the Geneva convention, basically.
This is one of the stupidest game-related studies ever.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
10:20 AM on 11.23.2009
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wait, whats that? Real crimes against humanity happening right in over a dozen countries? You dont say...
Morons.
Quick! Commit harakiri!
oclelot sure knows his human rights law, the shadow moses uprising was by the books
As the study itself mentioned, these games (and by extension, popular entertainment) suggest that war is waged without limits, and that warcrimes don't get punished. That's an issue, especially in today's climate. Certainly, you'd expect people to be able to distinguish reality from fantasy, but as I mentioned above, this is having an effect on how people view serious matters, such as interrogations of 'enemy combatants'.
From what I've seen, many films and novels a far more graphic than most videogames, so why don't these "lawyers" go and look at them?
Wait what?
If a 'game' was entertaining enough to include eduction in defining what war crimes are, international law, I'd say that is a niche product that provides an added value. I'll leave it at that.
As for game mechanics of punishing violence toward civilians- the best example of a game that does this was not one of the games they tested.
Best analogy I can think of currently for punishing acts of violence towards (game)civilians
is in Left4Dead.
All the survivors in LFD are civilians. If they are griefing and harming each other in a co-op game the team does not survive. You can kick players in LFD2 with a vote.
That seems about as much of a sanction as you are ever going to get out of a game company.
Banning players from servers after being kicked however many times is another way to solve the problem.
Dehumanizing gamers by this constant BS that they are somehow unable to differentiate "reality" from cartoon pictures coming out of a plastic box is bold faced intellectual dishonesty.
Not being able to discern reality is what happens when you have media companies dumping these retarded, bankrupt theories day in day out through your tv at you.
As an Aside-
From what I read this term of propaganda that is used all the time, "Counter Terrorism"?
When we are (the United States) going to commit acts of terrorism under US and International Law we call it, "Counter Terrorism."
A serious issue that really is not something that should be treated lightly in the confines of an game.
/article
While I strongly believe that a deep and supposedly 'realistic' depiction of reprehensible activity is problematic in a culture that glorifies violence in a very real way, video games are merely another expression of art and not at all the source of the problem. The source of the problem is, of course, within us and our large appetite for such things.
Totally realistic
Idiots
What, people should know that war crimes suck?
Alright... well, is anyone in a position to commit a war crime?
Oh, they are? Then who?
Oh, soldiers? Yeah, sure. They do that. But that's not because of video games, that's because they follow orders.
Hmmm, what? Presidents do it too? Oh, that's fine too. That's what voters permit them to do by electing them into office.
Wait... what was their point again?
If any thing even the most fictional games are giving us a somewhat realistic view of what really goes on in war time. No honor amongst thieves and all that.
All you idiots care about/are thinking about is the games, you don't take a single second to consider the reality of what they are ficticiously representing. This is propaganda designed intentionally warp your perception of world events. Why do you think the military loves video games and encourages people to play them? They want you to think of murder as a game.
Also, Jim Sterling is a fucking idiot.
Video games are just games, and someone who can't tell the difference between game and life is so messed up in the head they'd end up doing something horrible (or straight into a padded cell) even if they never played VGs a second.