Video Games: Turning players into war criminals

[Canonbeat234]

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LONDON (Nov. 26) -- On Black Friday, geeks across America will head to electronics stores in search of discounted video games. But they should pick carefully. Take home a violent game, and they could be playing with war crimes.

According to a new study by two Swiss human rights groups, TRIAL and Pro Juventute, many combat-heavy games actively encourage players to kill injured soldiers, attack civilians and destroy churches and mosques. As satisfying as these actions might be for players, they flagrantly violate real-life criminal and humanitarian law.

The organizations reached this guilty verdict with the help of three attorneys, who watched gamers blast their way through 19 titles, including recent hits like "Call of Duty 4," "Army of Two" and "Metal Gear Solid 4." Each time a player flouted the Geneva Convention or another international treaty, the legal team took note.

Their final report reads like Radovan Karadzic's rap sheet. "Call of Duty 4," a first-person shooter set in Russia and the Middle East, is accused of allowing gamers to "attack civilian buildings with no limits in order to get rid of all the enemies present in the town who are on roof tops ... Under [International Humanitarian Law], the fact that combatants/fighters are present in a town does not make the entire town a military objective."

And what about "Far Cry 2"? This mercenary-on-a-mission bloodbath allows players "to shoot a person who is surrendering," which "amounts to a violation of the prohibition of attacking those who have laid down their arms." Of the 19 games examined, only one -- "Close Combat: First to Fight" -- received a verdict of not guilty.

Unlike real-world war crimes, of course, this virtual havoc doesn't leave anyone dead, limbless or living as a refugee. But the report's backers worry these games could damage public perceptions of what is and isn't acceptable in combat, leading people to think that nothing is off limits in modern warfare.

"Young people are generally very good at telling the difference between play and real life," says Michael Marugg, director of policy affairs at Pro Juventute. "But some people are not so skilled at making those distinctions."

David Jenkins, who writes about the gaming world for Gamesindustry.biz and other sites, disagrees. In his view, Marugg underestimates the intelligence of players, and their ability to judge right from wrong. "People play these games because they know they're not real," he says. "They break speed limits in racing games because they can't and won't do that in real life. And they play shoot 'em ups because they don't want to become a soldier and actually kill people. This is just fun, harmless escapism."

Marugg says that Pro Juventute has no interest in quashing the sort of enjoyment Jenkins describes. Instead, the organization hopes to encourage game developers to create more responsible products. "Games have always had strict rules, just look at chess," he says. "So why can't video games follow similar rules?" Marugg adds that Pro Juventute would like to see consumers given more information about the content of games. If a gamer knows that a specific title plays fast and loose with (virtual) human rights law, for example, he or she might decline to buy it.

Jenkins, though, doesn't see why developers should change their ways: "The fact that we have a healthy turtle population, that plumbers aren't going around jumping on people's heads and kids aren't murdering each other with flamethrowers, all tells me that video games don't influence the way we behave."

Other experts dismiss the report's recommendations as little more than cultural snobbism. "Nobody would dare suggest that a classic war novel or movie should be organized around a moral principle," says Tanya Krzywinska, professor in screen studies at Britain's Brunel University and president of the Digital Games Research Association. "Can you imagine what would have happened if Francis Ford Coppola had been asked to make 'Apocalypse Now' according to the Geneva Convention?"

Next time, Krzywinska suggests, the report's authors could investigate something slightly more worthy. "We should really be looking at whether our governments follow the Geneva Convention," she says, "not a few gamers."

War Crimes on Video Games

 

[Law]

It's just a video game.

>"Games have always had strict rules, just look at chess," he says. "So why can't video games follow similar rules?"
Because they wouldn't be fun.

 

[Ferrariman]

Because breaking the law in a video game must mean you are breaking the law.

 

[Advi]

I've been playing a lot of NSMB lately, and I feel like getting high on shrooms and stomping on turtles.

 

[Ferrariman]

I was playing portal and discovered how to make a portal gun in real life.

 

[Advi]

I was playing Tetris, but when I tried to stack the stuff in my closet into rows, it was still there.

 

[worlok375]

I was playing mario and I now have the urge to break every brick in the house!

 

[Deleted_171835]

I was playing Pac-Man and I now have the desire to eat everything and anything in my house.

 

[worlok375]

I was playing Pac-Man and I now have the desire to eat everything and anything in my house.

Like human heads?

 

[Anakir]

I was playing Super Smash Bros. Melee and now I know how to Falcon Punch people in the face. Oh, and also how to say Yes.

 

[Law]

I was playing Postal 2 and now I'm about to go outside, piss on somebody, then proceed to set them on fire.

 

[Veho]

I was playing Pac-Man and I now have the desire to eat everything and anything in my house.

To paraphrase, I was playing Pac-Man and now I spend my time in darkened rooms, popping pills and listening to repetitive electronic music.

 

[Hop2089]

I was playing Project Witch and Idolmaster and enjoying the art of dressing up young girls with suggestive and fetishy outfits.

 

[Uzumakijl]

I was playing Project Witch and Idolmaster and enjoying the art of dressing up young girls with suggestive and fetishy outfits.

^ Any other posts can get creepier than this. /Thread



So, videogames shouldn't be violent but movies/tv are allowed to be way more violent while they have no age restrictions?

If childs are playing violent games is parents fault.

Also media needs to chill, There's no reason to act like that for a game with fictional violence, while everybody can read extremely gore stuff in a newspaper which actually happened.

I know some games like "Manhunt 2" Just abused violence in lots of nonsensical ways, But seriously "Virtual human rights"?

 

[ZAFDeltaForce]

I was playing CODMW2 and went to my local airport, proceeding to mindlessly shoot down innocent civilians with an automatic weapon.

 

[Domination]

I was playing pokemon and I bought some balls and threw at random animals.

Animal abuse? D:

 

[redact]

i was posting in a thread and then i... C-C-C-Combo Breaker!!!

seriously, these guys have no life, spend your research grant money on something a little more worthy of studying >_>

edit: typos :/

 

[Raika]

I play Cooking Mama but I'm the worst in my cooking class. Irony...

 

[mrfatso]

I was playing grandia 3 and the first thing i did was took a sword and went outside and trying to do an air launch on random passer-by, suffice to say, my attacks were cancelled.

 

[Demonbart]

I play Cooking Mama but I'm the worst in my cooking class. Irony...

It is now proven that playing Cooking Mama kills your brain cells.
But seriously, I was playing Kingdom Hearts the other day, and now I feel like bashing random fantasy creatures with my house key.