Are the powers that be using video games to condition us for the future?

I remember seeing someone on here said they had a dream where society becomes a techno utopia in 50 years than in 100 years that society would devolve into a third world slum governed by a tiny corporate elite.

Are they using video games to condition people for a dystopian future? Or are video games just a reflection of the times?
www.youtube.com...

Was there a time when the elite wanted a Star Trek like future?
www.youtube.com...

a reply to: CmdrShep2154

Yes to both. The military uses video games both for recruiting and for training. I am pretty sure every drone pilot currently killing people by remote control in our military is an avid gamer. Wasn't that pretty much the plot of Ender's Game?

There is loads of symbolism in games. I would say it is right up there with movies. In fact, when you watch a movie, you watch it once or twice, but a game, many people spend hours just soaking it up, making it even worse. Not only that but I believe many of their plans are put into storylines of some of the bigger games.

Psychiatrist get paid to help make games more addictive.

"Video game companies are increasingly tapping psychologists' expertise to make games even more compelling, challenging and fun."

www.apa.org...

Then they get paid to undo that work.
"Gaming addiction can be treated on the NHS after it is declared a medical disorder"

www.telegraph.co.uk...

originally posted by: CmdrShep2154
I remember seeing someone on here said they had a dream where society becomes a techno utopia in 50 years than in 100 years that society would devolve into a third world slum governed by a tiny corporate elite.

Are they using video games to condition people for a dystopian future? Or are video games just a reflection of the times?
www.youtube.com...

Was there a time when the elite wanted a Star Trek like future?
www.youtube.com...

Video games are a hobby and leisure time
Nothing more
From a 40 + year veteran gamer.
Don't read anything into it other than what it is .

a reply to: Gothmog

As a retired Psychology professor, I can tell you that video games do condition the brain.

It may not have "affected" you, from your perspective, however, if they did not change the brain then why would the military use them to condition troops to kill on the battlefield and to fly drones to anonymously kill people?

The media totally denies it, but it has been proven over and over and over. Television reconditions thinking, or we would not have commercials. Video games are specifically designed to be more addictive than TV, they do deep reconditioning of the brain.

You may not believe it, and that is ok. But it is the truth nonetheless.

a reply to: Gothmog

We grew up with the low tech though.

When we were 5 years old there was no such thing as 3D and HD let alone VR.

I have no idea if realistic video games can impact a young child's morality but I wouldn't rule it out.

Just for you:

a reply to: CmdrShep2154

Despite my almost irresistible urge to make fun of the premise I actually think it is a very interesting point you are making, computer games are the perfect medium for psychological conditioning, desensitization and also planting ideology into children's minds at the very formative stage of there psychological development.

In part this is because they behave almost like a drug, seen how angry a gamer get's if they get distracted and how detached and uncaring they can become about the real world around them - which is actually for many people so bad that they actually flee into the virtual environment of computer games just to escape it.

Also in fact Computer games do have a serious social affect and that is that they are turning an entire generation into console couch potato's that would rather socialize with a close group of known friends' than go out and meet new people and this is of course harmful to there chances of mating and having offspring as well.

It's a controversial subject were computer games are concerned BUT they can even be used to push political ideology's into kid's mind's which those doing the pushing would call education while more sane people would refer to more correctly as brain washing.

Now unlike a fellow long time gamer I disagree, they can be very harmful indeed.

Been playing computer games since the day's of the Sinclair Spectrum, the BBC Micro Computer, the Tandy/Dragon 32, the Commodore 64, the Amstrad CPC464, through the years since and up to being a PC gamer today.

They are however far less harmful than drug's and if a gamer has an already well grounded psychology then they are not harmful at all but most people are actually rather more suggestible and that is were the harm may occur, children exposed to violence also has the serious danger to desensitize them, my generation we wanted to be the lone gunslinger from the good the bad and the ugly or superman or Luke skywalker all of them good guy's, most kid's program's had a moral lesson in there episodes but these day's the computer games seldom have any moral lesson if any at all, the kid's TV is so thick that it does not teach it just keep's them occupied etc and so in that respect we have also to take computer games in context, they are only part of a bigger social problem as our society is polluted by corporate greed and the corporate need to turn children into mental vegetables whom will consume whatever crap they want them to buy.

In this respect I could mention computer game drop box's, online gambling and product placement in computer games as prime examples and then point out that kid's want to emulate there hero's even when those hero's are not real and do not have any moral integrity relating to the real world.

a reply to: The2Billies

As a retired Psychology professor, I can tell you that video games do condition the brain.

Yes , I am trying to keep my brain in good health with plenty of "conditioning"
I hope you meant conditioning in the way of exercise
I am at that age.
Else....

Just saw this part of your post

It may not have "affected" you, from your perspective, however, if they did not change the brain then why would the military use them to condition troops to kill on the battlefield and to fly drones to anonymously kill people?

They dont.
That conditioning is done in Basic Training .
The simulators only assist in training to use the equipment during AIT .

Denying ignorance
Why ?
A paper and 50 cents used to get one a cup of coffee .(not much more)

originally posted by: Wide-Eyes
a reply to: Gothmog

We grew up with the low tech though.

When we were 5 years old there was no such thing as 3D and HD let alone VR.

I have no idea if realistic video games can impact a young child's morality but I wouldn't rule it out.

Just for you:

Same tech , just improved
Shhh....3D is 26 years old.

originally posted by: Gothmog

originally posted by: Wide-Eyes
a reply to: Gothmog

We grew up with the low tech though.

When we were 5 years old there was no such thing as 3D and HD let alone VR.

I have no idea if realistic video games can impact a young child's morality but I wouldn't rule it out.

Just for you:

Same tech , just improved
Shhh....3D is 26 years old.

I wish I'd paid more attention to Manic Miner...

I'd be Jet Set Willy by now. Like Elon Musk

originally posted by: CmdrShep2154
I remember seeing someone on here said they had a dream where society becomes a techno utopia in 50 years than in 100 years that society would devolve into a third world slum governed by a tiny corporate elite.

Are they using video games to condition people for a dystopian future? Or are video games just a reflection of the times?
www.youtube.com...

Was there a time when the elite wanted a Star Trek like future?
www.youtube.com...

That idea falls apart when you discover that most people don't play that kind of game all that often. Indie games and games like candy crush are still insanely popular, so at most you'd be conditioning white men aged about 15 to 35. Because everybody else is playing splatoon Mario kart and smash brothers.

If course, breath of the wild might secretly be conditioning us to wear green tights and to be unnaturally attached to hats.

Two nice examples are infinity Ward's call of duty modern warfare one, which played the Ukraine civil war scenario to the T.
Another is Westwood's command and conquer generals, which preceded the creation of ISIS with its own international terrorist organization known as the GLA, global liberation army. They operated in the same types of vacuum of governance, fought all militaries of the world, and utilities are the exact same tunnel systems and war crimes such as suicide bombers, chemical attacks, and various other low tech methods.

Playing as them was a bit of a challenge, but it got easier due to power gained as you win each campaign.

The only people who would deny the conditioning effects of games and movies are those who would never admit they could be brainwashed because they have not studied psychology or th brain in depth.

I was a brainwashed child, and it took me studying how the brain can be influenced through triggers and media conditioning to become honest enought to admit it as an adult. Most people are not honest enough for such instrospective analysis because too many see themselves as so much better than other in their mind/perspective.

I find it ironic that many adults on ats deny they could ever be conditioned or controlled, and then lament the msm as just such a tool of conditioning. And then they spend all their productive hours, here on ats, arguing over msm news, real or fake!

Conditioning at it's finest. Denying it in words and then proving it in action. It's quite amusing. Makes me wonder if intelligence levels are falling across the board.

originally posted by: Wide-Eyes
a reply to: Gothmog

We grew up with the low tech though.

When we were 5 years old there was no such thing as 3D and HD let alone VR.

I have no idea if realistic video games can impact a young child's morality but I wouldn't rule it out.

Just for you:

do young children still have morality? I thought that the school system discouraged things like that.

originally posted by: The2Billies
a reply to: Gothmog

As a retired Psychology professor, I can tell you that video games do condition the brain.

It may not have "affected" you, from your perspective, however, if they did not change the brain then why would the military use them to condition troops to kill on the battlefield and to fly drones to anonymously kill people?

The media totally denies it, but it has been proven over and over and over. Television reconditions thinking, or we would not have commercials. Video games are specifically designed to be more addictive than TV, they do deep reconditioning of the brain.

You may not believe it, and that is ok. But it is the truth nonetheless.

Very true. It is called programming and it seems Humans are very easily programmed and once so programmed its very difficult to de-program a person because the program is self reinforcing. It is why the leftists in the schools are so successful in their indoctrination of youth. Sad really how your future has been so utterly compromised. In 20 years, AOC will seem to be everywhere.

a reply to: funbobby

Full-time drone pilot here - Mining company though, not related to armed forces.

And YES I game.
No booze or drugs. Gaming is my vice and I owe it to gaming for making me the pilot I am.

a reply to: TheGreatWork

"The storm is coming"

Fortnite

originally posted by: Gothmog

originally posted by: CmdrShep2154
I remember seeing someone on here said they had a dream where society becomes a techno utopia in 50 years than in 100 years that society would devolve into a third world slum governed by a tiny corporate elite.

Are they using video games to condition people for a dystopian future? Or are video games just a reflection of the times?
www.youtube.com...

Was there a time when the elite wanted a Star Trek like future?
www.youtube.com...

Video games are a hobby and leisure time
Nothing more
From a 40 + year veteran gamer.
Don't read anything into it other than what it is .

But that is YOU goth. YOU. You began a life without these games. They were a sideline for you, not the go to all the time as they are now. You, and I did not carry around little boxes in our hands playing games every time we had a few seconds of down time. We did not have on-line anonymous communities ready to play against.

I think I have to disagree with you here. You and I may not be as effected by these omnipresent games as these younger generations show symptoms of being.

I mean, I can see a future, where there is little work to do, and people cannot afford to go places or do much in the way of having fun but can afford a gaming unit that they can jump into when ever they want, putting on their VR helmets and audio link-ups and just tripping into other realities until they have to poop and then just jump back in again. And with pov porn, who knows how long younger generations might take before resurfacing.

As long as the future is like Dark Souls, I'm all for it.

a reply to: Gothmog
Basic training is to break you and build you
Make you follow orders, bow to authority..
Shoot a weapon and know the rules of the Geneva convention, so only shoot them if they shoot at you.