The Human Race and Video Games

Good evening,
This thought came to me earlier whilst playing on a video game, i am a 19 year old male who has just lost 3 days of work a week due to budget cuts at work, i now only work 2 days a week so i have a lot of time free time on my hands, i just spent a year as an apprentice so i'm just chilling out at the moment.
Right to my post, the game i was playing was Battlefield 3 a war simulator, bear with me, ill get to the ET part soon, this got me thinking. Wow this game is realistic, i know what type of rocket to shoot at tanks, what part of the tank is weakest, sniper rifle distances, even the gravity drop and wind speed on the bullet.

Now millions of adults, teenagers and heck even children play these types of games everyday. Games like ARMA 2, which has the same engine which the US and other militaries use across the globe to train there soldiers in a simulator, these programs where once top secret can now be bought for mere ££.

Now, to the ET part, if ET did invade our planet you've pretty much got a large proportion of Humans which have already been conditioned into war strategy, different varieties of military vehicles, call signs, weapons.

Think of it like this, everyday children, teens, adults train on these simulators everyday ( once only reserved for military personnel) , for many hours, days even. Without even realizing it we are training to become potential war commanders. Playing out war scenarios, shooting other players, the same real life tactics go through your mind, hide here, place mines there, this window is a good vantage point, lines of sight. The point in the game is being tactical and winning.

Now here is my question, do you think these skills would play out if we were invaded? Would the youth of today have some know how in tactics, and strategy because of these games?

Do you think other ET races might have these sorts of programs??

I think if that's the case the ETs would rage quit the invasion of our planet due to talented campers who just spawn kill.

A game can teach you some basic war tactics buts not going to turn you into a solider. If it was that simple then there would be no need to train solders.

Originally posted by Tea4One
I think if that's the case the ETs would rage quit the invasion of our planet due to talented campers who just spawn kill.

Lol they wont even be able to get out of their ship.

reply to post by godofme


I think people have taught themselves how to camp and noobtube. That's about it. They might be good in trajectory speed and distance.

Very interesting topic. But u cant just take some guy or girl that is good at a war out on a real life battlefield there is difference.

Modern gamers would have Basic war knowledge and strategies.

They still wouldn't have the fitness and the mental strength to be thrown into a real battle with a real chance of death.

Originally posted by Tea4One
I think if that's the case the ETs would rage quit the invasion of our planet due to talented campers who just spawn kill.

I wish I could give you more stars for that line! I almost #e myself!

reply to post by godofme


Ummm..... well,.... first things first... this is a question that can't possibly be answered the right or the wrong way, because we have yet to discover an alien species. Up to this point all we have is speculation, our imagination, and fantasy. Who is to say what alien species are out there, how they behave, what they're thinking, and whether they're thinking at all? Whatever you can imagine at this point is the answer to your question. It depends on how advanced they are, whether they are war mongering or peaceful, whether they have limbs at all, and whether they possess any sort of weapons. Think about it for a moment.

P.S. I'm referring to the ALIEN question above.

As for whether people can be trained to be soldiers through video games,... I think video games are useful to some degree, but will not (at this point in time) substitute real life scenarios. You don't have to fear for your life in a video game. It doesn't psyche you out as much as an actual battle-field would, because there is no room for mistakes, and you can't re-spawn when you do make that mistake. Obviously the physical training is going to be lacking.

reply to post by godofme


Here is Hollywood's answer to your question dating back to the 1980's.



more on this movie:

www.imdb.com...

A videogaming boy, seemingly doomed to stay at his trailer park home all his life, finds himself recruited as a gunner for an alien defense force.

It's all about the technology employed in reality, the limited scope of the game to consider reality situations, the actual fitness and mental toughness of the characters in a reality scene, the number of frags to account for in the game version (if you've been playing a hardcore, one-life-only character in on-line competition for years and never died then you certainly could consider a career of it lol).

Hopefully you'll take that simulated training as a good set of life lessons in regards to defending others, and abandon the hope of ever needing it, not seek to "put it to good use"! That being said, I still value my EQ & Oblivion "special training", must be close to seven years battleground and soldering experience. Not to mention my general skills in Rome, Total War as leader of the Scipii, or my status as Master of Orion ... lol ... hey, they were only pixels.

Hmm. This is an interesting thought. It makes sense, I cant think of any less forcefull way to somewhat effectively train random citizens to become soldiers... But if aliens did invade with dark intentions for us I doubt they would take the effort to destructively kill us. They'd probably just spread some disease and plauges like in War of the Worlds. Nice thread

reply to post by godofme


I think your focus on attacking aliens is not the focus of our military. Considering all these shoot-up type games kids are playing, the military is quietly enjoying how these games are conditioning kids to join the military. I see it everyday, some of these high school gamer kids can't separate a game from reality. They dream of doing this in real life, and that real life is going into the military and eventually firing real weapons.

Not all these kids are naive, but some feed off each other and before you know it, they're both talking about how cool it would be to join the military. With the military now using drone planes and possible future robotic killing machines, some of these kids see their gaming skills as a stepping stone into operating all these radio controlled killing devices.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of these military war games are being secretly financed by the Pentagon. Lets face it, it's easy to brainwash kids at a young age. Just look at how all the radical religions and any religion for that matter, starts controlling children to follow a particular faith at a very young age.

Think about it, the reason why most young boys favorite sports team are the same as their father's is because the father unknowingly conditioned their boys to root for his favorite team.

Politics is the same thing. Most children who were raised in a democratic or republican household became affiliated with the same political party their parents supported.

Training to kill aliens no, training to meet the military quota for recruiting, yes.

Sounds like a sci/fi novel I read once.. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.. though it takes place in a speculative future rather than present times. An interesting read though if you enjoy such things.

Originally posted by supine
reply to post by godofme

 

Here is Hollywood's answer to your question dating back to the 1980's.

more on this movie:

www.imdb.com...

A videogaming boy, seemingly doomed to stay at his trailer park home all his life, finds himself recruited as a gunner for an alien defense force.

Starred you for this...

Now THERE is a movie just waiting to be remade..
A nerdy kid, stuck in summer school, a hero in COD eta al....... i think you get the picture....

America's Army

A game made by the U.S. Army. Completely free and you can play on servers with service men and women. We play it fairly often here.

My hope for world peace is that one day the nations of the world would sit down in sophisticated rooms with a their respective teams and have LAN wars. No deaths, no real life violence, just frags... maybe some nerd rage, but that's easily dealt with. This is what I wish all the FPS games would teach the new generation of gamers.

Nice post, I've sort of thought of the state of gaming the same way, how millions of Americans and others around the world are, in a sense, actively training in engage or be engaged scenarios on - as you say - simulators not unlike the ones our military uses to give our soldiers a taste of combat before deployments.

The difference lies in what it means to train as a member of a larger team, and the physical aspect that goes along with it - Not just the mental. Humping it around with a hundred pounds of gear in reality while holding a variety of tactical formations is a bit different than working a keyboard in a game as an individual player.

To answer your question though - Yes, sure, the youth would have some concept of tactics, but the buck would stop there.

In the end, the ET's lasers of destruction would not notice a difference - That they of course trained on in simulators before invading our planet.

Other than that, Communication > Teamwork > Training as a unit and the group cohesiveness that comes with it > Video games

I think its funny that you bring this up, there is actually a book out called Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It takes place in the future after the "Buggers" attack earth and the government drafts teenagers to go up to a space station and play "games" that simulate an alien invasion. Its a great read if you get the chance.

As for BF3 conditioning individuals for real life combat, not so much. I mean yes it gives you a basic understanding of squad tactics and such, but when Real bullets start whizzing by your head i think it would be a totally different story

Unless we would happen to be resisting against incompetent alien invaders, I don't think it would get to the point of ground combat. I speculate that alien conquerors would engineer a virus to eradicate us. It would be best if it took a while to activate so that it has had a long chance to spread before CDC groups can issue any quarantines.