are some video games preparing us for what's "out there"?

Hi all, first post. I saw another thread discussing whether some TV shows were being used to introduce people of earth to the idea of other civilizations, etc, and I wonder if the same thing is afoot in some RPG's...here's a game I've played..
eve-online.com...

the most graphic-intensive space game I've ever seen. Is it possible that someone is using games like this in the same way that T.V. shows may be being used?

[edit on 22-6-2006 by seansean]

here is an article of how they are really trying to push this issue for to have all violent games banded from children or individuals under the age of 18 years old. It has been attempted before, but never goes thru because of legalities.

Ban on sale of violent games challenged in court

09:49 AM CDT on Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Associated Press



BATON ROUGE -- A new Louisiana law aimed at keeping violent video games away from children is the target of a federal lawsuit.


U.S. District Judge James Brady late last week issued a temporary restraining order barring authorities from enforcing the measure. A court hearing was set for June 27.


The order was issued just hours after the Entertainment Software Association and Entertainment Merchants Association filed a class-action lawsuit Friday that seeks to have the new law declared unconstitutional.


The law bans the sale, lease or renting of violent video games to buyers under age 18. Those violating the law face fines of up to $2,000 and a year in jail.


In their request for a temporary restraining order, the two nonprofit trade associations argue that every previous legislative attempt to restrict violent video games has been struck down as unconstitutional.


In the lawsuit, New Orleans attorney James A. Brown likens video games to movies, literature, music, art and other forms of non-obscene expression protected by free-speech rights.


The state attorney general's office, which will defend the law in court, declined through agency spokewoman Jennifer Cluck to comment on the suit.


(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Wow, this is a very interesting thread for me, as I was about to start one with the same topic myself! I've been playing the demo for a new pc game called Prey.

Now, the game begins, you enter a bar, you're greeted by your grandfather and your girlfriend working there. It's got playable poker machines, 'Barracuda' by Heart is pumping away on the radio in the background. Then suddenly, the room darkens, green searchlights start howling around the windows outside. It's hosing down with rain. The TV on the wall breaks down to interrupt with a breaking news bulletin about power being cut. Suddenly the tv signal is cut. A massive UFO hovers above the bar, bathes the area in lights and everything is disorientating and you are taken up into the craft. This 'alien abduction' scene is very well done and sets the stage for what's to come.

You and your grandfather and girlfriend are taken up and clamped up, unable to move. Inside the craft is like hell-warmed-up, the walls are living, breathing, organic. Horrible vats of blood and churned-up body parts resembling what is described about the Dulce base. A compatriot helps you break free of the conveyor line you are on, but you bear witness to seeing your grandfather pinned to an alien 'dartboard' where he is "cored" by a massive metal pipe in the stomach and several other places - a horrible way to go - after being test-sampled and mutilated, he is mulched up and the next person steps up to the plate next in line. A horrible gory process. You see skinny men in their y-fronts getting chased by alien creatures in an area to the left and right of you, only they are upside down defying gravity.

Later on, you stumble into an area where a radio broadcast is tuned into a mock Art Bell show, with callers describing the current events on Earth. You also teleport into a sunny outdoor desert area where you are reunited with your grandfather who is now 'in spirit' and tells your character that his ancestors were 'The Ancients', which also reminds me of the soul harvesting we hear of and how our planet were ruled by these 'Gods' in the distant past.

The storyline in Prey struck me as very intriguing, and quite unsettling. So many parallels, probably others I didn't mention. I also felt Quake 4 was about a spacewar between the American "good guys" and the evil Stroggs. If you look at the war game genre, you have titles such as Call of Duty and America's Army getting young people amped up to go to war and 'shove a cap in their sorry ass' - nothing more than jingoistic propaganda if you ask me.

Could it be this game is part of a drip-feed disclosure desensitisation effort from agents within? (*cues Twilight Zone / X Files music muahaha*)



[edit on 22-6-2006 by RiotComing]

Science fiction. Nothing more, nothing less. The companies who design these software titles are aiming at a very specific demographic, predominantly male gamers between 16-25 years of age. They are well aware that people in this age range find Sci-Fi enjoyable, escapist and immersive which brings me neatly to the crux of the matter... money. Cold hard cash. They are aiming squarely at a market considered have more 'disposable income' than most other age ranges. Granted they are damn good games ( i have played Eve for many many months and have just finished the Prey demo) but that is all they are.

As a firm believer in extraterrestrial life visiting this planet I can categorically and without remit say that game makers are not in it for disclosure, they are in it for money.

Good post.

I think though, that the youth are being groomed for the next world war. Violence in games is eveywherre & getting more graphic & realistic. Like games such as Ghost Recon Advanced Fighter, Battlefied2, Americas Army, Soldier of Fortune etc.

They are great & I have to admit, the more realistic & violent the game, the more I want to play it. And in real life I play paintball & airsoft regurarly & I have alot of knowledge & tactics that I have even learned from games.

Gamers do usually know more than non gamers from playing simulation games which contain alot of fact & information.

They get to you at an early age.

www.sikvid.com...

Heh, interesting idea. Doesn't really work with EVE Online though, as everyone's human, no aliens at all. It's set 20,000 years in the future, with part of mankind shut off forever in another galaxy the other side of a broken wormhole.

Perahps some of you watch WAY too much television and play WAY to much videogames. They are what they are. Nothing more, nothing less.

Seems to me that it is the other way around. Art takes our primitive fears, our modern beliefs, and our futuristic dreams, and plays them out before us. For many young men, hunting, being hunted, and meaningful vilence are primary preoccupations. Add in a powerful supernatural enemy and you have elements of Grendel and Beowulf, and so forth.

I've noticed a lot of aliens in advertising in the UK recently.
Is Eve online any good?

Originally posted by nyk537
Perahps some of you watch WAY too much television and play WAY to much videogames. They are what they are. Nothing more, nothing less.

Actually I'd say I haven't done ENOUGH videogaming. Recently, I've bought Fight Night Round 3, Dead Or Alive 4, Burnout Revenge, Oblivion, Far Cry Instincts Predator and Rockstar Table Tennis and haven't played hardly ANY of them! I don't know what it is, just haven't seemed to make the time for them. I love games but I guess I prefer a quick 5 minute blast before dinner rather than sit down in front of a screen for 10 hours constant!

But yeah I take your point, yeah perhaps there is no conspiracy here after all. It's all entertainment, nothing more, nothing less..

Originally posted by Zenem
Good post.

I think though, that the youth are being groomed for the next world war. Violence in games is eveywherre & getting more graphic & realistic. Like games such as Ghost Recon Advanced Fighter, Battlefied2, Americas Army, Soldier of Fortune etc.

They are great & I have to admit, the more realistic & violent the game, the more I want to play it. And in real life I play paintball & airsoft regurarly & I have alot of knowledge & tactics that I have even learned from games.

Gamers do usually know more than non gamers from playing simulation games which contain alot of fact & information.

Agreed.. a LOT of military folks play EVE, with good reason..lots of flying, weapons, tactics and so on..and it's violent as hell. But, lots of fun. Downside: very addictive

Originally posted by seansean
Is it possible that someone is using games like this in the same way that T.V. shows may be being used?

The point was that these TV shows and movies are NOT being used to prepare anybody for anything. They're fiction and designed to entertain us and make the producers money. That's all. That's the extent of the agenda.

Oh, add to that list: "The Last Starfighter." Nobody is using video games to train future or off-world soldiers and fighters. Kids just like to waste their time on the crap.

If I may spin this a bit. What about when star terk had all that crap before it exsisted? Computers etc etc. 20yrs and all those fancy gizmos exsist within NASA at least some. Anyone see that episode on the NASA employee also a star trek nut that went over all the items in mention.

Originally posted by chemlabco
If I may spin this a bit. What about when star terk had all that crap before it exsisted? Computers etc etc. 20yrs and all those fancy gizmos exsist within NASA at least some.

It's called imagination. Taking a current technology and imagining what it might be like in the future. You can do it, too. Take any common object and try to imagine what it will be like 400 years from now. Stereo headphones, for instance. They'll look like earrings, or be implants, so you just touch your earlobe to operate them. Cell phone? Same thing.

Star Trek got a few things right, but it also got plenty wrong. How about that computer that talks with the clunky, mechanical voice? Or that get all confused and blow up when you present it with a paradox or ask it to calculate Pi? Like it never heard of multi-tasking. Or Kirk having to push a button to talk on the intercom? Just to name a couple.

So if we're being "prepared," why get it wrong? Also, why all the different portrayals of aliens? Are they going to be our good friends, or are they gonna kill us an eat us? You can find both images portrayed. Which is true?

ever see the game siphon filter 2????????

seems strange that the game takes place in afghanistan

then about a year or 2 later

we were there doing the same crap that was in the game!!!!

i also remember hearing about a game
that the wtc buildings were attacked...but cant remember where
or what it was

oh yeah,
and theese games
where you fly a plane(or somekinda ship) and shoot stuff up

preparing our kids to use theese new predator drone planes

its a bit easier to kill if you are far away
and cant see the enemy's face

Originally posted by yeah right
i also remember hearing about a game
that the wtc buildings were attacked...but cant remember where
or what it was

I haven't played this myself, but apparently you could fly your plane into the Twin Towers in Microsoft Flight Simulator.