COD and the military

[jaysol]

This is just a question that I have for folks in the military: How do you feel about COD and other such games? I mean, do you like how it portrays you and your respective forces, and war in general?

 

[kortin]

Most war games portray wars and the people fighting those wars rather exaggerated-like.

 

[Stu35]

I don't care.

It's a game, games are designed to entertain - I doubt any rational human being actually plays COD and believes they are experiencing realistic warfare as experienced by Infanteers in Afghanistan or Iraq in the last 10 years.

Those that do are ignorant, but ignorance is not a crime.

In short - I'm in the military, I play COD, I don't see the two as being related.



For what it's worth, however, I find it irritating that they never made 6 Days in Fallujah, as I understand it, the controversy surrounding it was heavily contrived by the media, who effectively used the grief of families who had lost loved ones, to their own ends. I'm not saying I had any special desire the play the game, I just don't like people bending other peoples grief to their own ends (I'm also a bit cagey on allowing Grieving people to influence things because of their personal experiences.)

 

[keideki]

I don't care.

It's a game, games are designed to entertain - I doubt any rational human being actually plays COD and believes they are experiencing realistic warfare as experienced by Infanteers in Afghanistan or Iraq in the last 10 years.

Those that do are ignorant, but ignorance is not a crime.

In short - I'm in the military, I play COD, I don't see the two as being related.



For what it's worth, however, I find it irritating that they never made 6 Days in Fallujah, as I understand it, the controversy surrounding it was heavily contrived by the media, who effectively used the grief of families who had lost loved ones, to their own ends. I'm not saying I had any special desire the play the game, I just don't like people bending other peoples grief to their own ends (I'm also a bit cagey on allowing Grieving people to influence things because of their personal experiences.)

See, here is the problem. People are not rational. I've got a few friends who really got into CoD a few years back when MW first came out, they got all hyped up and joined the military. Not too long ago one of them told me it was nothing like what he thought it would be. So I asked him what he had thought it would be like. "More like CoD" was his exact answer.

 

[jaysol]

But when people play COD, people who have no idea about what war is like, might play, say an Afganistan mission in COD: Modern Warfare 2, or even something like the 'Nam levels in Black Ops, and they might get the wrong impression on warfare, or even the politics of war as something other than what they are, being death en masse, and get an American "My country tis of thee" feeling, propagating negative/prejudiced feelings about others/foreigners. That's what I was wondering about.

 

[jaysol]

I don't care.

It's a game, games are designed to entertain - I doubt any rational human being actually plays COD and believes they are experiencing realistic warfare as experienced by Infanteers in Afghanistan or Iraq in the last 10 years.

Those that do are ignorant, but ignorance is not a crime.

In short - I'm in the military, I play COD, I don't see the two as being related.



For what it's worth, however, I find it irritating that they never made 6 Days in Fallujah, as I understand it, the controversy surrounding it was heavily contrived by the media, who effectively used the grief of families who had lost loved ones, to their own ends. I'm not saying I had any special desire the play the game, I just don't like people bending other peoples grief to their own ends (I'm also a bit cagey on allowing Grieving people to influence things because of their personal experiences.)

See, here is the problem. People are not rational. I've got a few friends who really got into CoD a few years back when MW first came out, they got all hyped up and joined the military. Not too long ago one of them told me it was nothing like what he thought it would be. So I asked him what he had thought it would be like. "More like CoD" was his exact answer.

This is exactly what I was talking about. A kid plays COD and joins the military. Doesn't like it because it isn't like the video game experience that he had. i.e. running and gunning. Someone who didn't like the Chernobyl level might not like it, as many people didn't, since it was "too realistic", but they do like running and gunning, which you won't get from the military.

 

[meglathon]

i look at COD and the military the same way i look a NFS game for driving.
Same theme but zero correlation with feel, tone and reality

 

[keideki]

I don't care.

It's a game, games are designed to entertain - I doubt any rational human being actually plays COD and believes they are experiencing realistic warfare as experienced by Infanteers in Afghanistan or Iraq in the last 10 years.

Those that do are ignorant, but ignorance is not a crime.

In short - I'm in the military, I play COD, I don't see the two as being related.



For what it's worth, however, I find it irritating that they never made 6 Days in Fallujah, as I understand it, the controversy surrounding it was heavily contrived by the media, who effectively used the grief of families who had lost loved ones, to their own ends. I'm not saying I had any special desire the play the game, I just don't like people bending other peoples grief to their own ends (I'm also a bit cagey on allowing Grieving people to influence things because of their personal experiences.)

See, here is the problem. People are not rational. I've got a few friends who really got into CoD a few years back when MW first came out, they got all hyped up and joined the military. Not too long ago one of them told me it was nothing like what he thought it would be. So I asked him what he had thought it would be like. "More like CoD" was his exact answer.

No offence, but if you're being serious the guy needed that reality check.

I'm having trouble believing you because I really don't want to accept there are people out there that are as naive as that. I wasn't that naive when I was a child, never mind a teen.

True story. I know some very maladjusted people. To be fair, he lived a pretty sheltered life. Either way, he came back a very different person. It was a shame to see a happy-go-lucky guy like him become such a somber person, but he needed to see the real world I think. I can understand not wanting to believe the story, it is sad but true.

 

[Nickolai77]

From a civilian perceptive, you'd have to be a fool to think that COD realistically resembles life in the military. Rather i think it resembles a Hollywood-esque military heroic/action thriller sort of affair. It's simply entertainment. Working in the armed forces however, isn't really entertainment.

 

[Daveman]

I don't care.

It's a game, games are designed to entertain - I doubt any rational human being actually plays COD and believes they are experiencing realistic warfare as experienced by Infanteers in Afghanistan or Iraq in the last 10 years.

Those that do are ignorant, but ignorance is not a crime.

In short - I'm in the military, I play COD, I don't see the two as being related.



For what it's worth, however, I find it irritating that they never made 6 Days in Fallujah, as I understand it, the controversy surrounding it was heavily contrived by the media, who effectively used the grief of families who had lost loved ones, to their own ends. I'm not saying I had any special desire the play the game, I just don't like people bending other peoples grief to their own ends (I'm also a bit cagey on allowing Grieving people to influence things because of their personal experiences.)

See, here is the problem. People are not rational. I've got a few friends who really got into CoD a few years back when MW first came out, they got all hyped up and joined the military. Not too long ago one of them told me it was nothing like what he thought it would be. So I asked him what he had thought it would be like. "More like CoD" was his exact answer.

This is exactly what I was talking about. A kid plays COD and joins the military. Doesn't like it because it isn't like the video game experience that he had. i.e. running and gunning. Someone who didn't like the Chernobyl level might not like it, as many people didn't, since it was "too realistic", but they do like running and gunning, which you won't get from the military.

Microsoft boast how successful their Xbox live marketing is because of the huge number of people who clicked on the military recruitment ad when it was displayed next to Halo.

 

[Nickolai77]

From a civilian perceptive, you'd have to be a fool to think that COD realistically resembles life in the military. Rather i think it resembles a Hollywood-esque military heroic/action thriller sort of affair. It's simply entertainment. Working in the armed forces however, isn't really entertainment.

I remember reading a feature by one of the military "advisor" that games like COD consults, and he wrote that the situations that games like COD put you in are only ever experienced by about 1/10 soldiers who are unlucky enough to wind up in a firefight that intense. Most firefights are no were near as intense as the ones on COD levels, which figures really otherwise our soldiers would be returning home dead by the bucket load.

 

[keideki]

You would not believe how many Military Applicants I met during my MEPS trip that were COD fanboys, who thought that the ACR was a standard battle rifle, or that when being deployed that they got to choose weapons from the armory.

You mean I can't run around with Akimbo SMGs and vehicle lock AA equipment?

Heavens to Betsy, I hope I'm not too late to terminate my military application.

Like I said to that other guy, if nothing else, the experience will be an eyeopener. One they are evidentially in need of.

I don't care.

It's a game, games are designed to entertain - I doubt any rational human being actually plays COD and believes they are experiencing realistic warfare as experienced by Infanteers in Afghanistan or Iraq in the last 10 years.

Those that do are ignorant, but ignorance is not a crime.

In short - I'm in the military, I play COD, I don't see the two as being related.



For what it's worth, however, I find it irritating that they never made 6 Days in Fallujah, as I understand it, the controversy surrounding it was heavily contrived by the media, who effectively used the grief of families who had lost loved ones, to their own ends. I'm not saying I had any special desire the play the game, I just don't like people bending other peoples grief to their own ends (I'm also a bit cagey on allowing Grieving people to influence things because of their personal experiences.)

See, here is the problem. People are not rational. I've got a few friends who really got into CoD a few years back when MW first came out, they got all hyped up and joined the military. Not too long ago one of them told me it was nothing like what he thought it would be. So I asked him what he had thought it would be like. "More like CoD" was his exact answer.

No offence, but if you're being serious the guy needed that reality check.

I'm having trouble believing you because I really don't want to accept there are people out there that are as naive as that. I wasn't that naive when I was a child, never mind a teen.

True story. I know some very maladjusted people. To be fair, he lived a pretty sheltered life. Either way, he came back a very different person. It was a shame to see a happy-go-lucky guy like him become such a somber person, but he needed to see the real world I think. I can understand not wanting to believe the story, it is sad but true.

Seems your friend wasn't alone. I've never once tickled the vile peach of hyperbole by exclaiming my lack of faith in humanity... and I'm not going to start now. But by-gum, that's the closest I've ever been.

Maybe it can't break your faith in humanity, but is sure as heck makes you take a good long look at how we raise children here in the states. If parents and the school system are so ineffectual at preparing the next generation for the real world I honestly DO worry about the future.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

In games you can RESPAWN, while even if you think you're invincible, in real-life you don't.

 

[The Funslinger]

I don't care.

It's a game, games are designed to entertain - I doubt any rational human being actually plays COD and believes they are experiencing realistic warfare as experienced by Infanteers in Afghanistan or Iraq in the last 10 years.

Those that do are ignorant, but ignorance is not a crime.

In short - I'm in the military, I play COD, I don't see the two as being related.



For what it's worth, however, I find it irritating that they never made 6 Days in Fallujah, as I understand it, the controversy surrounding it was heavily contrived by the media, who effectively used the grief of families who had lost loved ones, to their own ends. I'm not saying I had any special desire the play the game, I just don't like people bending other peoples grief to their own ends (I'm also a bit cagey on allowing Grieving people to influence things because of their personal experiences.)

Im a gamer, I am also nearly in the Army.

I'm training for the Royal Marines, and one thing that hits me when playing CoD is the amount of hits you'd take. Obviously in CoD you'd just shrug them off. Obviously, CoD doesn't give you the same maneuverability you'd have in real life. Still, it's startling how easy it could be to get hit in a firefight. And obviously, in reality, it's that much more likely you're going to get fucked up by said hits. Made me give my choice a serious rethink, but I'm still doing it.