ARE Videogames really death trainers?

[Fullforce]

For a few years, I've been openly scornful of the attitudes of Jack Thompson, the lawyer who's made his career suing videogame companies for wrongful death; I've felt that his arguments are specious at best, and maliciously deceptive most of the time. Well, the guy just got a helping hand from a surprising source - the Washington Post. It's an article in which both soldiers, and those who train them, state plainly that the videogames they play help them both in battlefield tactics, and in breaking down the barriers to shooting another person. Yeah, there are a couple of paragraphs in the story devoted to soldiers who were NOT made insensitive to death by video games - but it feels like a tacked-on afterthought in an attempt at 'balanced coverage' to me. Any way you cut it - you can be sure this article will turn up in court, in Jack's briefcase.

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The Washington Post Article (Login Needed)

MSNBC Summary (No Login Needed)

Discuss.

[gungho]

Re: ARE Videogames really death trainers?

ARE Videogames really death trainers?

Yes.

No.

...the voices in my head are arguing again ! lalalala - I'm not listening. :ar15: :dead:

[Revenge]

Re: ARE Videogames really death trainers?

They are if you want them to be...

[Hoppum]

Re: ARE Videogames really death trainers?

If you even have to ask yourself this question your an idiot.

[Fullforce]

Re: ARE Videogames really death trainers?

Just thought it might make an interesting read...

[Eternal-Souljah]

Re: ARE Videogames really death trainers?

It's only a death trainer if you want it to be, any civilized person knows that. But psychopaths or people with a screw loose in general already have their mind set on killing, its just a small incentive to spark them off.

[imported_Casey]

Re: ARE Videogames really death trainers?

It's only a death trainer if you want it to be, any civilized person knows that. But psychopaths or people with a screw loose in general already have their mind set on killing, its just a small incentive to spark them off.

Yup. I mean, what normal law abiding citizen is going to say, "Oh, since I can shoot people in games, I should be able to do it in real life too!" ?

[imported_Zach]

Re: ARE Videogames really death trainers?

Discuss.

What's the point?



Seriously, asking a community of gamers to discuss this is like asking a group of convicted criminals if they were falsely arrested. What do you think they will say?

[AFEDslayer]

Re: ARE Videogames really death trainers?

Exactly, i hate this whole epidemic of parents and such that are trying to ban violent games. Its games like this that let kids release there anger by owning some cyber enemies. Anyway my answer is a blatent NO!!!

[Fullforce]

Re: ARE Videogames really death trainers?

I'm not saying it is, I'm just saying that its curious that the US Army themselves is changing their training to better suit the gaming generation.