Re: Sturtze sucks even in video games


Kenny1111 wrote:
BadgerBC wrote:

Since you had that real-life experience, does it affect your views of
the having war-like/shooting video games out there in general?

I'm really not sure. I've seen some ridiculously violent and gory
first person shooter type games that I don't approve. I don't know if
there's correlation to violent behavior, but in my perhaps naive view,
I don't see the need to inundate kids' minds with violent images at
young age. I guess some keep trying to connect these (and I'm sure

So you are thinking about that more from a child development
perspective, then views you got based on having served in the military?

Actually it's from both what I had to go through and what I saw my
father (who was a Korean War combat veteran) went through after the
war. I mean I'm sure you know others like him, but he had trouble with
it for a long long time. It affects grown men (well they were young as
my old man was 22 at the time) terribly and I don't know what it does
to kids. One of the worst days of my life was when I saw two Korean
kids who had detonated a mine in a nearby field where my company team
was mustering before an exercise (back then there were thousands of
undiscovered mines and ordnance near the DMZ). Some images just never
leave your mind. I have to admit it's a great thrill to be able to
fire the main gun and machine guns out at the ranges (quite a bit of
adrenaline rush), but after some time has passed, the fact remains we
were trained to kill people very efficiently and very quickly. There
is certainly the dehumanization aspect (of the enemy) that I'm not sure
is a healthy thing for a kid. We used to call the enemy infantry (well
sometimes our own as well) "crunchies" which comes from the usual
practice of overrunning them if they're too close to cut them down with
coax or turret top machine guns. Of course as I found out kids do what
they see in how parents behave not according what their parents tell
them (as my ex still blames me for Owen signing up for PLC without
telling anyone but that's another matter altogether).


some music like Rammstein which I happen to like) to tragedies like
Columbine, but I also wouldn't go that far since I don't really know
the story behind those kids.

I hate to attribute incidents like that to video games, movies, tv, etc.
A few years back I did read a study correlating violent TV to violent
behavior in kids, but I don't think it mentioned causation. I think
there could be a huge omitted variable bias with regards to various
aspects of parenting style. Even if there is some causation, IMO it's
still a decision that should be up to the parents. I'm fine with having
some sort of restrictions as far as who can get into rated R movies
(though 17 years old is absurdly high) and would be OK with similar
ideas for some of the more violent video games, but also think that
there should be a way for parents to allow kids to go to the
movies/purchase the games.

Well, I think as long as more information is provided for the parents
(who generally wouldn't know the first thing about the latest games) to
gauge the level, it's fine. Obviously no one can tell anyone how to
raise their kids, but ratings could help IMHO. As for R ratings in
movies and 17 you're absolutely right. It's silly as they'll find
worse things online anyway. I think I'm more concerned with kids
younger than 12 or perhaps 11 who might not easily handle vivid images,
but I think kids today grow up far faster than before.


My ex usually handled the discipline
aspect of the kids and she was firmly against allowing violent video
games or toy guns (with which I agreed but of course both played with
their friends' and cousins' stuff).

I always had a computer in my house, but never any consoles, as my
parents wouldn't allow it. Of course, whenever I went to a friend's
house I played video games endlessly, and they knew that. But when I
came come I couldn't. I also was somewhat limited for toy guns as well,
I think, but I can't remember details since I was never much into that
anyways so it wasn't a big deal.


It's funny you mention this because the kids now (my older son was
commissioned last fall after college) are completely different than my
time in how they go about doing the same type of chores that I had to
do. I got to visit him at 29 Palms earlier this year and after seeing
a bit of the stuff he does (he's also in armor), I'm just amazed at the
level of technical sophistication that seems prevalent today. One of
the absolutely the worst things a small unit leader dreads (in my time)
was the paperwork that would pile up after a long strenuous day out in
the field. Owen must've gotten through it in less than 15 minutes
(filling out requisition and other mundane forms online) when the task
would've had me staying up until 2-3am typing them out in triplicates
(which did give me ample opportunity to watch numerous baseball games
on AFKN broadcasts). I got to see a little of the UAV the unit was
using for reconnaissance and target acquisition and a kid was using
joystick and a laptop videolink which I just don't think people of my
generation could dream of but of course to your generation, it's second
nature.

Don't they use video game-like simulations for combat and flying at this
point?

Absolutely. When I was at Grafenwohr we were among the first group to
try the Army version of laser tag (MILES) and I thought that was
"cool". Nowadays, Owen and his Armor School classmates went through
hundreds of hours on the simulators in addition to field training at
Fort Knox (though he went through the course as part of the Marine
Detachment). From what he explained to me, it's quite realistic (or he
called it high fidelity) as a whole battalion can practice engagements.
In fact he showed me a simulator the infantry (crunchies) uses to
practice killing tanks using a Javelin (portable anti-tank missile)
against targets shown on high resolution screen. It saves a lot of
money obviously (not to mention accidents), but they do spend a lot of
time on the field though as nothing can replace that. I think today's
military is using the devices to help these kids hone their battle
reaction time as repetition is the key obviously.

.

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