Games "permit" virtual war crimes - hmm

[pete]

BBC News - Games 'permit' virtual war crimes

I think we need a new Internet Law that states something along the lines of:

"Is this PR/News/Publicity angle so mind-bendingly stupid that you could see Greenpeace doing it?" and call it the Greenpeace effect.

[Theblacksheep]

Governments commit real war crimes and nothing happens, see its realistic.

[jcollings]

Well after a game session I often feel like putting on a spikey blue suit and running round the neighbourhood collecting rings - Doesn't everyone?

[localzuk]

The entire study is based on this ""Thus," said the report, "the line between the virtual and real experience becomes blurred and the game becomes a simulation of real life situations on the battlefield.""

They think that because it is interactive, reality becomes blurred with the game. Which is nonsense. In Need for Speed games, I can race around rounds, and out run police cars. I'd never do it in real life. In GTA games I can steal an ambulance and run over the ambulance driver and in older releases I'd get a bonus for that! To claim that people don't know it is just a game is ridiculous.

To also claim that countries always get held accountable for their actions during war is naive.

Seems like these organisations should focus on actual human rights and war crimes and recognise games for what they are - harmless fun.

[somabc]

To also claim that countries always get held accountable for their actions during war is naive.

Well the losers always get held accountable, so if you win the game you should be allowed to do whatever you want and if you lose you should have a special level called UN-International Court of Justice where you have to try and justify your actions with bonus points for lengthy speeches condemning the court and inventing illnesses to delay the trial.

Does anyone else think its pointless trying to make games reflect the real world, they are an art form the same as movies, books etc. Nobody told Picasso when he painted Guernica you can't paint that its a war crime.

Welcome to Gran Turismo 6, your first step is to pass your driving test so that's 6 months of lessons, but to earn money to pay for them you'll have to work in the local Tesco stacking shelves first and unfortunately there is a global recession so 3 months in instead you have to queue down the job centre and sit about on the couch watching daytime TV dreaming of being a racing driver.

[TheLibrarian]

I remember one time I managed to block all exits to a theme park I created.

Gosh, should the media liken me to Dr. Mengele?

[sandeep2504]

good thing they didnt play postal 2!

[CHR1S]

So the US government make a free PC game to recruit people for the army and (i guess) its ok because its good for the US of A.

Im getting kinda Peed off with all this rubbish in the news now, I can see it coming that I will be arrested one day for killing a prisoner of war instead of cooking him dinner in MW:4! Perhaps that might not be such a bad thing, cushy prison cell with my own console and meals cooked for me