October 24, 2007 -
A back-from-Iraq Marine talks about his love of gaming in today's New York Times.Jeffrey Barnett, who was deployed to Fallujah, is also the author of a blog called The Midnight Hour. For the NYT he writes:
In addition to being an engineer, new homeowner, and seasoned curmudgeon, I also moonlight as a gamer. I started gaming almost as soon as I could hold a controller. My father purchased an Atari 2600 in 1981, the year I was born...
Video games get a lot of negative press for supposedly promoting, condoning, and even conditioning violence in gamers...
On one hand, I can see how a player might gradually decrease his human inhibition towards violence and killing through repeating the act in a video game. On the other, I think the vast majority of players understand that what is acceptable in the game world may be unacceptable in the real world...
I think steak knives and swimming pools pose a greater threat to children [than video games], but nobody is trying to restrict adult access to those tools...
GP: The NYT readers provide interesting and lively commentary to Barnett's piece. Worth a read.
Via: Kotaku
Comments
Sorry. I couldn't resist.
Or cookies?
Something? The guy more than deserves something for his trouble. That article was incredibly good.
Trust me, just by Jack signing everything "Hooah" he is insulting every single grunt who wears the uniform. Hell, I was Air Force and it still insults me. Of course, the day he starts saying 'Oorah!" is the day some really angry Marines will start getting on his case.
Is that underwear I see strapped to the front of his helmet?
I would argue that toy knives provide a greater danger to a child's mind than video games, because they stab real people repeatedly with those knives and the crazy ones among them will think that it's all fun and games even if the knife is real...
I thank him for his military service and for defending this nation.
Ok...Im confused on that part but yea ok
*ducks and runs*
Seriously, well said! Desensitization does not lead to actually doing the act. It just means if you are already predisposed to doing the act, you don't feel the apprehension you should have.
So someone who gets 'desensitized' and stabs you, was already going to stab you anyway, and only the niggly queasiness was actually stopping them from going ahead and doing it... So instead of blaming the desensitization, how about trying to figure out why he thought it was ok to stab someone in the first place, queasiness or not?
I think that is underwear on his head????
Dust cover for his goggles I'm guessing...
When comments were posted that pretty much said he was wrong and that he has read one of LTC Grossman's books and part of another. He disagrees with the way to mitigate the effects and the solution. Which as he puts it (in comment #21 of the blog) "is to hold individuals accountable, not regulate an industry"
And again in the same comment...
"I have heard a statistic that on a weekend between midnight and 4 AM that the majority of drivers on the road are legally intoxicated. I don’t know if it’s true, but let’s assume that it is for the sake of my example. Do we prohibit all driving between those hours? It’s very difficult to catch all the intoxicated drivers, and that would certainly cut down on DUI-related accidents, but is it fair to those that want to legally and responsibly drive between midnight an 4 AM on Saturday night? Of course not! Convict drunk drivers. Convict murders. Don’t tell me I can’t drive or that I can’t play games because of the actions of a few idiots."
This guy gets a lot of respect from me, well thought out from someone who has seen both real and simulated violence (and I doubt he was trained on Halo 1 or 2).
Yeah, it's underwear..
My real point is that there really ARE idiots trying to pass legislation restricting driving on (usually local) roads between 12 and 4 AM, so my real real point is that people in general are complete idiots.
Loaded guns are also dangerous for kids but that doesn't prevent parents from locking them in safes, but let's ignore that and attack video games. Very logical.
I like the piece though sadly it will be ignored by the "high-rollers" like JBT. Since he is not even an officer so not important and "obviously brainwashed by the games to think the game not bad". It is odd though that so many cannot see the simple truths such as:
On the other, I think the vast majority of players understand that what is acceptable in the game world may be unacceptable in the real world…
Those that cannot tell the difference should not be playing games.. in fact I highly suggest they are put in a place where they cannot harm themselves (not that important really) or Others (much more important).
More opinion on games=killers by actually military personal, gun trainers, etc. I'm pretty sure most will point out the huge chasm between games and real life, but we only ever hear from the nutjobs.
Recently I've been using the "Waltz" arguement to defend video games. I point out that most parents would be happy if their children went ballroom dancing. Then I point out that, at the introduction of ballroom dancing and the waltz, it was scandalous. Bodies were close together for the first time ever. I tend to close with a quote from the The London Times 1816 editorial about the evil dance, since it seems to be nothing more than an old time version of the exact same articles we fight daily.
as fun as spin can be, i wouldn't sink to such Thompsonesque lows, though.
It would be cruel force-feeding of his methods right back to him.
I support it wholeheartedly.
Seriously though, this guy is right on the money, especially with that last line.
Oh, and that's not underwear on his head.
Its a goggle cover.
@Gryphon.
He pisses me off with his 'Hooah'. If I ever see him in person, I will make this displeasure known.
been reading for about 3 months and thought its about time i posted
on topic now, though, i must applaud this man both for his service to america and for his common sense. it is good to see, every once in a while, an article in the papers that is not against video games. unfortunetly, i dont see those much. usually its just the same old "VIDEO GAMES BRAINWASH KIDS-BAN THEM!!!!111"
I bet those would sell really good.
Last marine who stood up for Video games was told by Jack Thompson to go "Semper Fidelus" himself and told he was a disgrace to the country. I would have expected more of the same from our favourite looney.
everything he says is valid, but i can see it all being dismissed. society sure is going to hell...
Unless of course this is one of those "phoney troops" Rush has warned me about.
Pure gold.
I am wondering if anyone's thought to do the psychological tests of videogame effects on Active Duty soldiers (unlikely to actually happen due to the equipment required). History has proven that sustaining a constant state of "fight or flight"--i.e. always being on guard, ready for battle, with no breaks from that heightened awareness and alertness necessary in war-torn frontlines and many bases or simple towns these days--significantly increases the incidences of mental, emotional, and nervous disorders, on top of decreasing alertness and the healing rate of physical injury, to name a few issues.
I wonder if videogames--by letting soldiers focus on action that isn't life-or-death, completely out of their hands much of the time, or emotionally draining--have the capacity to act as a release valve or simple engaging retreat from such concerns, minimizing the tremendous wear on soldiers and others constantly faced with combat stress.
We already know soldiers require certain amounts of recovery time between battle, but we aren't giving it to them; if videogames have any statistically significant capacity of reducing this fatigue and its negative impact on soldiers, it could really be a useful tool in proactively reducing the tremendous psychological care needed, and not received, by so many soldiers now that it becomes obvious their physiological and mental needs aren't a high enough priority to increase their recuperation time between deployments.
If we can't or won't give them sufficient recovery periods, I would have expected somebody in the Service to suggest finding some way of mitigating the damage to all the troops, by whatever means are available.
@ Austin Lewis
Hey! I know a bunch of intelligent Marines (however small a percentage of the Corp they may be). Probably something to do with being in an area where the cream of the military crops trained, and meeting people who all maxed (or came within maximum 5 points of maxing) the ASVAB, plus scored high on language-learning aptitude tests, SAT's, etc.
Yes, tons of Marines deserve the stereotypes, but there are a lot of brilliant people in the Marine Corps, there because they want more than anything to serve their country in that minimally "elite" environment.
Unfortunately, they tend to work behind the scenes, leaving the rest of us to deal with the ones who honestly don't get it (let alone get that it's a dig at them) when they read things like "never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide_hoax
I just thought it was appropriate, given the lack of scientific method involved in the demonizing of video games.
P.S. - Jeffrey Barnett, thank you for your service to our great country!
i once did a report on DHMO for school. by the end, i had everyone ready to ban this lethal material. that is to say: nobody got it.
The "Novel" approach might be even more effective. When novels started becoming common, people were afraid that all this reading was bad for the youth.
Same, he has no right to use it, just as he would have no right to use "Semper Fi" or "Who Dares Wins" (cookie for whoever knows where the second one comes from).
@ Coravin
The same argument applies to almost everyone else who plays video games, actually. Nearly all casual gamers play to blow off some steam after work, school, whatever or as a form of social interaction. Case in point, my Halo PC racing clan I'm part of. We play the Race game type, CTF, Custom Edition, Slayer, ect, and have a great time without foul or rude language. Must be a fluke I guess.
SAS.
(%) Chocolate chip cookie for you.
Actually, I was hoping to score our troops some free consoles as "preventative maintenance" therapy to keep down the PTSD
;-)