Poll: Welcome to the Army, son.

[Shadow Tyrant]

You know what would be awesome? If all the future world wars were fought on on some online FPS server.

"Mom, I totally teabagged like five Russians today!"
"I'm so proud of you sweety! Keep on fighting for your country! And don't forget that anti-soreness cream for your thumbs I packed away in your laptop case!"

"Mom, I got shanked by some guy in China today. There weren't any health packs near by and...and...I lost my connection."
"Ohhh, there, there sweety. You did your best. Come upstairs and get some dinner."

 

[Alex_P]

The only thing that would change the very stagnate development of military technology is another world war, I don't any of us want to see that happen just so we could become bad ass super soldiers. Not saying that kinda change would be bad, it would be awesome - just wish I had that kinda technology to fight with.

It's not stagnant.

For example, the UAV revolution is well underway.

-- Alex

 

[zirka]

I've been a heavy first-person shooter for about 10 years now (I'm 20), but I've also been playing alot of Paintball, and I can tell you one thing.... FPS experience didn't help me much when it came to paintballing (except that I was a more aggresive newb than most new paintball players are). I mostly play in large fields, with lots of cover and most placed have lots of trees and shrubs. The high-paced action of online FPS requires high hand-eye coordination, but this doesn't seem to transfer much to my ability to aim a paintball gun well. It's like a console gamer that plays FPSs all the time on his console has never tried FPSs on the PC, then when he does try on the PC he is back to square one and can't aim at all with the mouse and try to get him to move and look around at the same time without walking into a wall. The only way you can trasnfer your gaming experience is either through tactics you've learned or somehow the tools you use in gaming (eg. game controller or mouse) are applied in actual real-life combat.

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

No. Seriously, do you think that pressing buttons to reload, clicking to shoot, and HUDs would train an average gamer to become a super soldier? I really don't think so. There are things that games don't show about war, like sickness, one-shot kills, no respawns, that make gaming a whole 'nother thing to war.

One shot kills are already shown, STALKER.

 

[Vumsy]

Also, video games do not give you physical fitness.

I'm not saying it would... Duh.

What in video games removes empathy from a person? And what makes you think that empathy has no place in the battlespace?.

Gears of War for instance, you don't exactly feel sorry for the guy you're using chainsaw on. And in most multiplayer games you kill friends for fun, for christ-sake!

This is all a crock. Commercial video games don't do squat to help you ready for reality. The are simulators that would help, but these are far far more expensive than any gamer will be shelling out.

I'm not saying that you only need to play video games in order to become Rambo. All I'm saying is that video games show you the ropes and at a low point, mentally prepares you. All the army have to do is train you into fitness, handling different weapons and into real combat.
(To be honest, I don't belive this either, but I want everyone understand the question.)

 

[magicmonkeybars]

a soldiers job is not to kill, it is to die.
all that training isn't ment to make a man a killer, most people are already quite capable of that without training.
it's the dying part that has to be taught and isn't that the part most fps'ers hate.....
gamers make bad soldiers because gamers like to win and there is no "winning" in war.

 

[Iron Mal]

Let's look at the stereotype (and thus main perception) of gamers: spotty, lardy geeks who still live with their mothers, rarely see daylight and scream HAXORZ over the mic...not exactly military material (especially when you consider that you have to have a decent level of fittness just to join the emergancy services, never mind the army), I can't exactly see the idea of training these fellows into an elite army of psychopaths being taken seriously.

To the people who stated that games remove empathy from a person, this is the point where we must define the difference between games and reality. For example, chainsawing an alien in GoW is fine since 1. they are aliens and 2. they aren't real. If someone was to hand me a chainsaw and point me at someone else, my first reaction would not be to run up to the aformentioned person and cleave them into chunks. I can quite confortably kill my friends in Halo and Turok because it is very clearly not actual combat, made even more apparant if you are with friends and they are laughing as you do it (clearly not the cold blooded murder we are trying to suggest it is). It's just a bit of fun, its when you start making a psychological evaluation of it that you will begin to see it as a murder simulator.

And finally, games probably wouldn't mentally prepare you. If this was what the army did then you'd have every front line soldier in the army believeing that they are their own Master Chief or Marcus Fenix who, no matter how grim or dire the situation may be, will pull through and survive whatever is thrown at them. This may be a positive view to take, if a bit deluded, resulting in pretty much every grunt being greased before they can trun the safety off.

 

[squid5580]

I am sure there are ppl in the armed forces who could benefit from video games. Just not the foot soldiers. Pilots could possibly benefit from having game experience since they do rely more on hand - eye co ordination and it isn't too hard to make a simulator for them.