A pair of German researchers claim that violent video games are a creation of the U.S. military.
Writing in the latest issue of Current Concerns, Renate and Rudi Hänsel call for a ban on violent game and echo the military conspiracy theme espoused in the U.S. by followers of fringe political figure Lyndon Larouche:
During the nineties the killing simulators, employed for hand to hand combat in the US army and police, were released by the Pentagon to be sold for private use on the public markets. As a consequence the computer and video game industry that had co-operated with the Pentagon from the very beginning, boomed. Since then the so-called killer games have wreaked havoc among children and youths.
The US army’s electronic training programs for killing people must be taken back to the US barracks, where they came from. They have to disappear from civil society altogether. They may be appropriate for the purpose of national defense or fight against crime; they have no place, however, in children’s rooms or in living rooms.
In addition, the Hänsels relate violent games to school shootings and quote German and Swiss political figures who have called for a ban on such products.
Oddly enough, they also harken back to a post-World War II German ban on war-themed toys.
GP: Thanks to longtime European reader Soldat Louis for the tip!
Comments
Re: German Researchers See Pentagon Link to Violent Games
If I say what I'm thinking I will run afoul of the laws of the Internet, so I won't say it. But I know it, and I know that every single person here is thinking it too.
I would like to say I'm shocked at the sheer stupidity, that I never thought humanity was capable of feats of ignorance like this, but I honestly can't. We've long known where the situation in Germany is headed. It was only a matter of time before someone came out and said these things - whether anyone there listens is something that remains to be seen...
Re: German Researchers See Pentagon Link to Violent Games
Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And this hints of them willing to force society to improve itself. I'm just saying, this has a bad vibe.
Re: German Researchers See Pentagon Link to Violent Games
I'm afraid history repeat itself time over and over again. There's already been:
-Economic Reccession
-World War
-Hypocrites complaining about violence.
-terrorist attack
-VIP Assassination
No matter how hard we try. History always repeat itself. There will be a new Jack Thompson somewhere in the future. Nobody ever learn from history, they use history to train themselves to repeat it.
Re: German Researchers See Pentagon Link to Violent Games
Hitler's legacy lives on. And these fools are following it. The censorship, ban on "harmful" media, burning anything that the government doesn't agree with, and "anyone acting out of hostility to the state..."
HE'S BACK! Hitler was just named as one of the top baddies in games that refuse to die. And they were right.
Re: German Researchers See Pentagon Link to Violent Games
This really needs a "Tin-foil hat" tag.
For a couple of RESEARCHERS, you'd expect them to have some, I dunno, RESEARCH? to back this up.
EDIT: I knew something had been nagging me about this:
"During the nineties the killing simulators, employed for hand to hand combat in the US army and police, were released by the Pentagon to be sold for private use on the public markets. As a consequence the computer and video game industry that had co-operated with the Pentagon from the very beginning, boomed."
Hate to tell researchers how to do their job, but the very beginning of the computer and video game industry was NOT during the nineties.
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
Re: German Researchers See Pentagon Link to Violent Games
Hand to hand??? I really don't think ""Murder Simulators"" use hand to hand. I think they use guns.
Re: German Researchers See Pentagon Link to Violent Games
Or, in the case of Vice City, screwdrivers, golf clubs, hammers....
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
Re: German Researchers See Pentagon Link to Violent Games
these nuts seem to be getting their info from LaRouche and Thompson... their history which avoids pesky things like fact and evidence
Re: German Researchers See Pentagon Link to Violent Games
They must be thinking the whole industry started with wolfenstein 3d, the original murder training bloodbath genocidal simulator!! iD is a scion of the devil and the pentagon was in on it! *puts on tin-foil hat*
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Re: German Researchers See Pentagon Link to Violent Games
Re: German Researchers See Pentagon Link to Violent Games
Yep, they are going to have to be a lot more specific than "During the 90s" if they don't want their paycheck, I mean research, shot down by Wolfie. Which also had almost nothing to do with hand-to-hand combat after the first guard.
And how do games like Operation Wolf (1988) fit into their conspiracy theory?
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
Re: German Researchers See Pentagon Link to Violent Games
Or I wonder how Ralph Baer, the father of video game (and also was born in Germany
) fit in to the conspiracies? Maybe they'll say that Ralph Baer made video game so he can get back at Germany for what they did to the Jews during World War 2 and wants revenge.
This is ridiculous.
During the nineties the killing simulators, employed for hand to hand combat in the US army and police, were released by the Pentagon to be sold for private use on the public markets. As a consequence the computer and video game industry that had co-operated with the Pentagon from the very beginning, boomed. Since then the so-called killer games have wreaked havoc among children and youths.
Yeah, because before video game. Das fatherland was a utopian place and it was all peaceful until these "murder Simulator" and "teh evil Vidya game" came along and destroy peace in Germany. Yeah, Hitler became evil because he played Command & Conquer.
Re: German Researchers See Pentagon Link to Violent Games
You do keep the knife tho and can use it at any time.
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Re: German Researchers See Pentagon Link to Violent Games
Yeah, but it takes one hell of a backseat role for a game supposedly based on CIA hand-to-hand combat software.
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
Re: German Researchers See Pentagon Link to Violent Games
You mean real melee moves require more than pushing a button? damn i've been practicing wrong all these years!
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Re: German Researchers See Pentagon Link to Violent Games
Germany is not my problem, They have and awalys will be @$$holes concerning violent games. end of story
Watching JT on GP is just like watching an episode of Jerry springer only as funny as the fights
America has just became its own version of the Jerry Springer Show after a bizarre moment in Florida involving a carnival worker.
Re: German Researchers See Pentagon Link to Violent Games
Send a letter to the German Government saying:
"Your not my mom, stop trying to be one."
Re: German Researchers See Pentagon Link to Violent Games
Wow. Now they're down to conspiracy theories.
I really don't know what to say to this one.
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I'm not under the affluence of incohol as some thinkle peep I am. I'm not half as thunk as you might drink. I fool so feelish I don't know who is me, and the drunker I stand here, the longer I get.
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I'm not under the affluence of incohol as some thinkle peep I am. I'm not half as thunk as you might drink. I fool so feelish I don't know who is me, and the drunker I stand here, the longer I get.