Buttersnap User Info

November 10, 2009 2:21:51 PM

I had a small conversation this morning about the "realism" of war games vs. the realism of war.

I'm not a soldier, never been shot at, never been trained to kill. But I am comfortable firing guns at non-living targets. Because I've done that, I know that shooting in games feels absolutely nothing at all like realism. The same can be said about hitting and stabbing as well. Pushing input on a controller feels nothing at all like the actions actually done.

But this conversation I had, led me to wonder more about the actual presentation in these games. Personally, if a member of my COD squad goes down, I'm likely to be critical and say something sarcastic like "there goes that loser Vasquez". The presentation in COD seems to try to hit you in the gut more then other games though. I wonder though, is even that presentation even really all that real to those that experience it? There are certain aspects that can be simulated (confusion, lack of vision, frustration) but are those realistic things to be concerned about? Do games like this really evoke strong feelings of loss, fear, and whatever feelings come from actual killing? I think that people with actual disorders like PTSD would likely say yes, but to those that have experienced something a game like this portrays and came out ok, is this something real?

I get the impression that a lot of current young veterans and active military people play this game series. It seems odd to me that someone would want to play a simulation of the worst part of their duty. Maybe the simulation really isn't all that effective.

July 2, 2009 2:36:05 PM

I'm no fan of sitting through product logos at the beginning of a game, but I would guess it's not the developers' choice to have the logos at the intro, but the product license states it. Which I find odd. As a player, am I going to go rush out and get Bink? If I was a dev, would I be popping in titles for an idea of where I can get a compact audio package?