@skelly1331 @koda2010 I didn't mean to suggest that video game could FULLY prepare one for the military or real life combat situations. However, they can help teach techincal details of weapons and equipment and strategy that might be useful in some situations. In theory, by making soldiers better trained, it could contribute to helping them preserve their lives or fulfill their missions better than they would absent the exposure to the video games.
I remember just a few months ago (but before Sandy Hook) I was reading articles about how video games were actually leading to a decrease in violent crime statistics because kids were staying indoors instead of running around outside with nothing to do but make trouble for themselves:
Even assuming playing violent video games does somehow facilitate murders and violence by unstable individuals, on the other side of that equation has to be a debate about how much better prepared young people are who opt to join any of the armed forces as a result of what they learn playing those same games. The question then becomes whether the virtual training people receive from playing, for example, Call of Duty, is a benefit that outweighs the fact that some mentally ill people also use them as a platform for devising their crimes. My guess is is that there are a lot of soldiers in the armed forces right now who understand and are more prepared for various combat situations precisely because they had some virtual exposure to it through video games. It seems that from the military perspective, there can be no doubt that even extremely violent video games have an overall POSITIVE affect on society and that the occasional murder, etc. is just a regrettable, but necessary consequence of having that positive benefit.
@BrutalPandaX2 @koda2010 The issue is regulating the sale of video games to minors on the basis of content. That is an unconstitutional limitation of free speech. The point is that it's not the government's business to be making decisions about what is or is not acceptable artistic content. For example, you may be misled by a false analogy to the fact that children aren't allowed into certain movies. However, this is a PRIVATE industry arrangement between theaters and the ESRB. The government does not and could not (again b/c of the constitution) ever regulate that behavior itself. The situation is exactly analogous to video games.
"Although there's no proven correlation between the fictionalized portrayal of horrific scenes and real-world atrocities, there is no denying the prevalence of brutal acts in our media." You could have stopped writing this article after this sentence: there is no demonstrable correlation between fictionalized and real world violence. Period. Until such a clear correlation is demonstrated (I'm highly skeptical it ever will be though), any talk of legislating the content of artistic media - i.e. video games - is just self-interest politics and ideological bullshit.
I was disappointed that FC 2 didn't try to incorporate the "Island of Dr. Moreau" story line elements of the original. Unfortunately again they don't seem to have tried to reincorporate that in FC 3, but FC 3 still looks like a something to keep on the radar screen. Thanks again for another solid review!
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