Gralian said:
When i joined the rifle & pistol club, i thought i'd be a crackshot because of all the shooter games i'd played over the years.
How wrong i was. So very very wrong.
My shots were all over the place and it took a lot of practice, concentration and patience to get to the standard i am today. Video game skills are non-transferable to the real world. What it does do is give you a rough idea of what it is trying to imitate. For example; playing Modern Warfare 2 hasn't made me into a soldier by any means, but i have a good idea of what being in a war would be like.
No. No. NO. NOOOO.
That is nothing like a real war. That's a game. A real war is gritty, chaotic, no time, one shot can and will kill, you don't usually have time to fine aim. Seeing a buddy lose half his arm in real life is nothing like a game. In a game, you have practiced, you can know where people come from, and all it requires is two thumbs of movement. In a war, you're entire body must be honed to perfection, and half the time it barrels down to luck in whether you live or not. Driving in a war zone, to suddenly see the truck in front of you explode from an IED, then having to get out of your vehicle, with the heat of the flames, dust in your eyes, screaming people, huge noises, adrenaline pumping can not be replicated in a game.
You were right about skills in games being non transferable to real life. But your comment about war is wrong. A game has the niceties of war, where you shoot and are shot at. Simple. Real life has everything else.
Luckily, I have not seen war, but my father has. Please don't believe playing a game would prepare you for the horror of reality.
The only skill that has helped in real life is holding a wiimote steady for extended periods. It did steady my aim with a pistol. That's about it.
Oh, and the really realistic flight sims with the joystick and that lever thing. Some piloting places do count those as actual practice hours (if you're using the right software of course)
EDIT: Saw your reply to the other guy. IT does give a rough idea. A better example may have been America's Army 3, where it goes so far as having to visually confirm kills. It's meant to be realistic.