Russian Media Suggests Modern Warfare 2 Trained Terrorists

[theultimateend]

What? You mean the Russian government is trying to blame a game that shows their country as the unjustified aggressor? No wai!

ACTUALLY the game doesn't portray them that way at all, russia is basically setup by groups working to make war happen now so the old and useless generals and mercs have something to do. in the game american dressed and talking terrorists attack a russian airport thus pushing russia into attacking America.
so they are in no way portrayed as the unjustified agressor.

Wait so now we have to actually play a game before we can rant about it?

I don't like this new world we live in .

 

[Booze Zombie]

Wait so now we have to actually play a game before we can rant about it?

I don't like this new world we live in .

It are a strange and unfriendly new world; our ignorance isn't welcomed here..

 

[themerrygambit]

Unfortunately this is not a cut and dry argument. I wrote 50 page research paper on the effects of violence in video games and it's effects on people.

While 95% of the people who play this games will only do so for recreation and enjoyment, there is a small contingent that use it for "training" or recruitment purposes.

The #1 culprit of this is the U.S. Military. They have been using Modern Warefare on school campus's or job fairs to recruit new cadets. And the military has been using video game based simulators for decades Both FPS and vehicle based simulators.

The reason for this is that they are effective at 2 things. Training standard procedure and desensitizing soldiers from the idea of shooting another human being and seeing blood. It it fact creates a reward system for the amount of kills you get etc.

They have been employing these subtle mental desensitization tactics since the first world wars. What the military noticed was that less than 25% of their soldiers were "shooting to kill". This is because all species have a natural aversion to killing their own kind... it's literally a subconscious mental barrier. Obviously having only 25% of your soldiers being effective on the battlefield is simply unacceptable. When they researched the reason why this was happening they found it had to do with the fact that soldiers only trained on shooting circular targets that didn't resemble humans. So the military began developing tactics to break down that mental barrier to killing by A) using a mental Breakdown method now utilized in all military bootcamps to create obedient soldiers B) Train standard procedures to the point where soldiers react in an automatic fashion without hesitation. C) train soldiers to kill by shooting realistic looking humanoid targets whenever possible.

Soldiers are rewarded when they perform a lethal killing move successfully. This causes them to associate a successful kill with "good" over and over again.

Video games like modern warfare do many of those same things automatically just because of the sheer fact that it's a realistic "game". You shoot at very realistic enemies. You even watch their heads explode when you get a headshot. Or see their body fly apart when you hit them with a rocket launcher. It gets the user used to seeing blood and rewards them for it. It's simple Pavlov theory.

Another interesting statistic. There was a child shooter in Kentucky about a decade or so back who shotup 8 people at school with a handgun. He landed 6 headshots and 2 body shots... that's near 100% accuracy. Vastly better than highly trained swat or military statistics. The crazy thing? he had never fired a gun until the day before when he tested out his dad's in the back yard.

How did he do it? He played one of those stand up shooter games in the arcade day in and day out. According to witnesses his stance during the shooting was feet shoulder width apart both arms straight out in front with perfect shooting form. One witness stated "he looked like he was at a shooting gallery"

So Again while the vast majority of people will never resort to violent acts because they play violent videogames. At the same time it's foolhardy to think that it doesn't have any effect at all.

I'm willing to bet that a good portion of modern warfare players wouldn't have too much of a problem picking up a real gun, figuring it out and shooting at another human being if there was a legitimate call to arms or reason to do so. They would already be somewhat desensitized to the idea of killing someone solely on the fact that they see it over and over again for several hours a day.

While that particular Russian media outlet's claim is a bit far fetched it's by no means without grounds.

 

[BabyRaptor]

*crosses fingers* Please no one show this to Fox "News".

It's Faux Noise. Get it right.

 

[Druss the Legend]

... I think those that have been radicalized already - Jihadists, al-Qaeda, or other kinds - they look at the games and see that these games will serve them to train."

Because they have power points and big LAN networking cabling in their cave hideouts, along with thousands of extremists playing thousands of Xbox's and Playstation's, rather than going on big hikes, live fire ammo training and the such.

I can see why their recruitment for their cause is so high.
/sarcasm.

 

[Zeema]

plz to note : MW2 doesn't tell u how to make bombs.

BTW Everyone knows there's No Respawns in RL

 

[trophykiller]

*crosses fingers* Please no one show this to Fox "News".

Well placed quotation marks win.

 

[ApophisMP]

Today its Modern Warfare 2, Tomorrow it will be George Bush. People always blame everything else in the face of terrorism

 

[Smooth Operator]

I've often wondered about how they think a video game is going to train terrorists for these soughts of things, i mean, what do they think Call Of Duty can teach to a suicide bomber? they dont need to learn anything, they just need to be all soughts of crazy and be able to act casual before they detonate their explosives.

Actually they only need a good dose of spoon-fed patriotism, just like every other soldier does.

OT: I heard Modern Warfare 2 eats children! *gasp*

 

[Hookman]

Where do I start? First of all this was a suicide bomb attack, and No Russian was a shooting.
Secondly, the claim that Al-Qaeda would use MW2 for training is ridiculous in more ways than I can count. Of course, I'm not suggesting that No Russian wasnt a pointless level designed to cause controversy but the only thing it has in common with this bombing is that it is in an airport. I guess thats enough for the media to blame it!

 

[zerorott]

Terrorists play videogames? I mean surely there's something else occupying their time than just wasting hours mowing down virtual people. Just think how organised and how much more efficient terrorism could be if they just got off the damn xbox! by that theory, we should be thanking videogames for distracting terrorists from more grandiose schemes.

fools

 

[Astalano]

To be honest, the West is mostly at fault, particularily America, for this.

If you keep demonising Russia they'll demonise your propaganda games.

 

[The Long Road]

I dunno, I always saw it as a crazy guy tricked both Russia and the US into attacking each other. The fact that said crazy guy WAS Russian was purely circumstantial. Don't want to spoiler anyone but in the end of the game it turns out to be a crazy American who plays the role of the true villain. So by your reasoning all of America is more to blame. Hell, it's a British SAS agent that inexplicably launches a thermonuclear warhead at America so maybe the Brits are the real antagonists for destroying the lives of many more civilians then either other side did in the game. I guess all I'm saying is be aware of your biases, your own personal point of view has a lot to do with who you think is the villain in that game. As usual the monsters we see says more about us than it does about the monsters.

The Americans were trying to eliminate the guy who helped bring the whole situation to a head in the first place. I got the impression that when Pvt. Allen's CIA op went bad, things just spiraled out of control and Shepherd just said "Fuck it, I'm going to get him even if I have to betray everybody." Trying to avenge 30,000 Marines sounds like a pretty good reason to send SpecWar teams after somebody.

Plus, from a gameplay perspective, the player spends the vast majority of his time shooting, stabbing, and exploding Russians. Whether it's Russia, America, or any other country with soldiers, they're not going to like a game that shows their military getting steamrolled by one or two guys.

 

[Valkyrie101]

this was inevitable. however one might question the use of explosives in the attack when mw2 clearly trained in firearm use.

One might also question how forcing players into a linear shooting gallery, which obeys few of the laws of realism, in any way trains them to carry out, let alone plan a terror attack.

As Gildan Bladeborn said, all it can do is give them ideas, and a suicide bombing or shooting is hardly original.

 

[Ramare]

*snip*

Well, to be fair, if you're playing a certain FPS game, like ARMA, for example, being serious about it, and playing with squadmates/friends, it can teach you tactics. And although it can teach you which end is the loud one, certainly; it can also potentially teach you how to operate, not fire, but operate the weapon. Reloading, how to properly hold, where the fire selector switch is, where the bolt release is, depending on game, of course. Like someone else said, alone, games of any kind aren't training for anything, but a supplement, that they can be. Again, it depends on the game in question.

True. Though tactics in MW2 and shooters are nothing more than "Go behind cover, shoot bad guy, move up to better cover, repeat" Tactical strategy and squad cohesion can be learned in any game and could possibly be learned faster through actual training. I know i did not lean to be a true team player, pick my role, and operate in shooters with a higher degree of clarity until i had been playing for 3 years.

On the matter of showing how to operate a firearm(reload and such) The same thing could be learned anywhere online in less time. To test this past common sense name any two guns and i will find a manual on operation online in about 10 minuets.

I feel like going further into squad & teamwork and strategy in games like MW2. With a game like MW2 the single player is pretty straight forward. You adapt to the situation based on what the game tells you, you kill, you progress. You learn little tactical treasure from this that the human mind can not figure out with common sense "Hmm i must stay out of sight and i have bushes here.... I KNOW I WILL HIDE BEHIND THIS BUSH!!". Yes to succeed in Multiplayer some strategy must be used but not enough to train someone for physical combat.


In the end nothing the games teach cannot be learned faster & better through drills that actually train for cobat, books that teach strategy, weapons training, and manuals on how to hold and operate a firearm.

PP-19.

B. Model 38A.

And although I'll admit, yes, a training manual is likely better; games can be used, which is the point, though might not be that effective. But then again, supplementing an operation manual with watching the reload animation on a gun, if a game got it right, would get the point across better than either alone. Some people aren't made for quick grasping of concepts and operations; and some people are just plain daft.

And playing with close friends in tactical video games can help you to be more comfortable working with them, as far as the mind goes.

And although with the combination of simpletons and cock-jockeys that play MW2, the tactics may not seem that deep; but any game where I play with me best and only bud have great tactics.

Hypothetical MW2 situation: (Me) Spectre 2-4 "I'm in position, are you?" (Him) Spectre 3-8 "Yeah. I've got a scattergun ready." S 2-4 "Alright, I'm going to shoot the plane's cockpit. Either the bastard will try to kill me, and get mowed down, he'll try to run, and you blast him, or you rush him while he's dazed." *volleyfire* *enemy tries to throw a grenade at me* *I run* *S 3-8 shoots him in the back* S 3-8 "I got him!" S 2-4 "Crazy bastard threw an explosive at me..." End transmission

And if we're playing Bad Company, we'll both be snipers, and he'll be the shooter, since he has better eyes, while I sit around on my arse with a magnum, watching the area, and trying to spot for him, because I have better patience. 'Course that real combat training does not make; but that doesn't make them completely inviable. Besides, they're fun. If you were in some "deserted" desert hellhole, being able to play a little New Vegas once the day is up will help you unwind a bit. So even if training anyone in anything isn't at all possible; keeping our/their/anyone's troops sane and entertained whilst "out" of combat, is still a very big help.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Pressing a button on a game = training people to plant explosives.

Of corse!

And the USA is actually pouring funds into using games to train their troops. True story.

 

[reciprocal]

Summary of this article:

In Soviet Russia, games play you!

I know it's a sensitive issue... but this is probably the best summary ever!

 

[fulano]

Russia today, or RT, is an odd mixture between CNN, Fox News, and actual progressive content (crazy, I know). This particular lazy piece of "journalism" belonged to the Fox News side, where they merrily walk the line of journatainment, not giving a fuck about the truth.