Depiction of war in video games

[Rak]

A PMC and his views on depiction of war in video games. I thought this was an interesting read, I wonder what does the ArmA community think about it?

http://www.mediumdifficulty.com/2012...-place-in-war/

[Tonci87]

Really good read!

[kylania]

Interesting article. I think most players know the "war hero" isn't real, but it's a hell of a lot more fun to play than a guy that doesn't remember taking out a kid because he didn't get a kill.

[PELHAM]

Nothing fresh there? People have been writing that stuff since Vietnam. It's all true.

RE the gaming side people who play other FPS games complain about the restrictive movement in Arma2. They never 'get it' no matter how hard you try to explain it. I think the only way would be to dress them in full battle kit and see how far they get sprinting around and jumping off roofs. Passed out with broken ankles after 20mins!

RE collateral damage we have everything apart from kids simulated. It would not disturb me to see them in game and might deter those mortar and A10 junkies who like to flatten whole towns rather than being a man and killing up close. 2 problems though:
1. Kids come in a variety of sizes which takes up a large chunk of models and modelling time as you have to make 2 of each type.
2. As soon as you did it, some hack would scream 'PC game glorifies shooting children' so no one will do it.

He also doesn't mention people who shoot dogs, fully grown men who shoot defenceless dogs are just as shitty as those who shoot women and children.

[Clarkey1]

Good read, just saw this on Kotaku, came here to post it and what do you know!

I would absolutely, without question, 100% play a game where the soldiers are depicted as guys like this. The 80% of Infantrymen as he puts it.

...Other missions involve you being under fire for the entire patrol. You never see the enemy, just fire at the long grass in front of you as you crawl slowly to some cover. If you get up, you will be cut down within seconds...

Video games not depicting war? Pfff play some ArmA son.

EDIT:

RE the gaming side people who play other FPS games complain about the restrictive movement in Arma2. They never 'get it' no matter how hard you try to explain it. I think the only way would be to dress them in full battle kit and see how far they get sprinting around and jumping off roofs. Passed out with broken ankles after 20mins!

^^^ 100 times this ^^^. It may or may not be an engine limitation but you don't have to have ever been in the military to realise it must be HARD to move wearing 60ish kilos of gear. Just watch a video of soldiers on patrol (it's not like their in short supply). If you're not blind you'll notice the way they move looks awkward and restricted. Just some of the words I've heard to describe ArmA's movement.

[DMarkwick]

He may be correct in what he writes, but really, how is it relevant to anything? A game is a game, he might as well complain about Hollywood depictions of war heroes and he'd be just as correct, and also just as irrelevant. War is being used as an entertainment topic, and it has always been used as an entertainment topic, right back to when the first child ever picked up a stick to emulate a sword.

[PurePassion]

I guess he wants to express the general deception and heroism of war and soldiers and uses videogames as a medium to transport this message in the form of something familiar.

Nice read and a good article!

Thanks for sharing

[Mr Burns]

RE the gaming side people who play other FPS games complain about the restrictive movement in Arma2. They never 'get it' no matter how hard you try to explain it. I think the only way would be to dress them in full battle kit and see how far they get sprinting around and jumping off roofs. Passed out with broken ankles after 20mins!

mmh, not d'accord.
One evening we played Reezo´s excellent roadblock duty mission, and the guy who actually did this stuff in his life just utters "this is like real work, haven´t i had enough of this?"
As many ways there are to make something in a videogame more realistic by adding this & that on top of the players shoulders, always bear in mind that it´s a game we play.

Looking at my most recent gaming history, there´s that checklist thing in MS Flight, and god no i don´t want to learn this shit. It makes the whole thing more realistic, but then again some people are happy to have the motor running by a simple button press instead of "oh fuk what have i done wrong this time again".


As for the real topic at hand, which should be named "only a troubled mind copes well with daily basis death & killing" there´s this quote from OFP (B.Bush): War is not nice.

I guess some people who fight wars aren´t nice either

[Serclaes]

RE the gaming side people who play other FPS games complain about the restrictive movement in Arma2. They never 'get it' no matter how hard you try to explain it. I think the only way would be to dress them in full battle kit and see how far they get sprinting around and jumping off roofs. Passed out with broken ankles after 20mins!

Or just have them hold a rifle and body armor in shooting stance. Switch a little between high ready/low ready.


Good read on that article. I think I'd like a closer to reality depiction of war.

[vilas]

eh
game is for fun, keeping training reflect and such like, gaming is fun, also technic is nice, but real life is dirty crap
i don't like wars, i don't like politicians, i don't like generals , i don't like PMC ideas , they serve pocket, not "white eagle, history, tradition, religion",
also when there is high-tech against poor people, it is also for me not fair and not good, there are no equality in chances, no warrior ideas, which people fighting martial arts believe,
noone who train Karate would attack man on wheelchair (it would be not honor to attack poor and weak, right?), but some high-tech FLIR with 1 meter of chobban attack old guy with Mosin :/
i believe in army which defend country against attack, but PMCs are for me usual killers and criminals cause they do it for money, not for patriotism and "white eagle"
shame that there are wars abroad countries borders,

from my point of view war should be only against country attacking another country to take their resources (against greed of leaders and elites) or against leaders who oppress nations and put them in poverty (just wonder in dream world special troops killing banksters, presidents of banks, it would be just war, against greed bank managers )
unfortunately we will never see US socom attacking big banks and some money-barons :/ cause real opressors of humankind are those monsters in most expensive suits, they made most of suffering, poverty, because of their greed,
but just wars are sometimes called terrorism :/

wars are always caused by small group of most rich and most greed, not by nations , nations only suffer, soldiers die and generals get medals , it should be opposite, those leaders should die and those sons should live with wives, kids, cats, dogs etc. eventually playing war only in games

the less wars the better, cause human suffering and human life is most precious (i don't talk about criminals, burglars, rapists, etc.)