IT'S - A - GAME - FOR - CRYING - OUT - LOUD!!!!!!

Did you know that if you play a war scenario video game today you can be prosecuted under the Geneva Convention? Sounds ridiculous doesn't it! Just as ridiculous as two conciencious Swiss Human Rights groups sitting at a computer and playing 20 modern video games to see if the action in them broke the Geneva Convention.

The 'testers' looked at three specific areas of combat, namely, disproportionate destruction of property, how surrendering combatants were treated, and what happened to civilians caught in the war zone. 

They issued a press release complaining that games such as Army of Two, Call of Duty 5, Far Cry and Conflict Desert Storm among others permit virtual war crimes. The report condemned games for "allowing the wanton destruction of homes and buildings, killing civilians, and torturing captives". A-tishooo!

Each of the twenty games were tested to see "whether certain scenes and acts committed by players would constitute violations of international law if they were real, rather than virtual". IT'S - A - GAME - FOR - CRYING - OUT - LOUD!!!!!!

Each of the groups players had a lawyer present beside them to decide when human rights abuses were committed. The report concluded that "The practically complete absence of rules or sanctions is... astonishing,"

The report went further saying; "the line between the virtual and real experience becomes blurred and the game becomes a simulation of real-life situations on the battlefield." Becomes blurred?????? A-tishooo!

They complained that 'protected objects' like churches and mosques were attacked, and prisoners were subjected to degradation! A-tishooo!

I know that gamers do not get reality mixed with virtuality. How could anyone sitting at a computer playing a game even begin to think they are actually ON a real battlefield????? It's just too bizaar for words. 

The groups did at least admit that it was not clear from the games the scale of the conflict being depicted. This did make it difficult to decide which humanitarian laws should be enforced. 

They went on to state that even though players would not become real world combatants, the games could influence peoples perception of what real war was like, and how soldiers conduct themselves in a real conflict. A-tishooo!

A further complaint was that most games did not inform the player that those who "violate international humanitarian law end up as war criminals, not as winners". A-tishooo! Sorry, I'm allergic to bulls**t!

It is a fact that many serving soldiers do play these games during their off-duty periods, but I have yet to hear of one committing offences against the Geneva Convention because of it.

A writer for a well known blog made the following comment on the findings; "there was plenty of evidence that gaming violence is 'fully processed' as fantasy by gamers. Studies of soldiers on the front line in Iraq showed that being a gamer did not desensitise them to what they witnessed".

He added: "Perhaps what this research demonstrates is that the researchers misunderstand what games are, and how they are treated, intellectually, by the people who play them." Well said Sir! At least someone has all thier i's dotted! These people should realise that gamers are not stupid.

I find it incredible that a once well respected organization should belittle itself with this sort of stupidity. In the past these people did valuable work across the world, but for the last ten years it seems to be in the hands of stupid fanatics who think they have the right to meddle where they please.

They trumpet their support for terrorism by shouting their heads off when a convicted terrorist is to be deported back to his own country and cries "If you send me back I will be tortured"! Before you know it they are on the doorstep of the government with placards, "You are denying this man his human rights!". 

Where will they strike next, the film industry, books???

Will all the films we watch be vetted by Amnesty International for human rights transgressions? Will all book writers have to comply with the Geneva Convention?

This whole scenario has to be one from the looney bin, and I for one am going to consign it to the trash.

Fight on game warrior. Don't let the bas***** grind you down!

Roy.