Red Cross is investigating if gamers are war criminals

[bob]

http://www.news.com.au/technology/gaming/six-hundred-million-gamers-could-be-war-criminals-red-cross-says/story-e6frfrt9-1226216184190

[dean]

Why am I not surprised that Australia is involved.  God help us, we're a great country but there are some absolute morons out there who for some reason just don't understand gaming and common sense.  We don't even have an R rating for video games and it consistently seems like we're treated like children rather than mature adults.

[ulthar]

 seems like we're treated like children rather than mature adults.

Quiet now, and go to your room.  The adults are talking about grown-up stuff.

[Trevor]

http://www.news.com.au/technology/gaming/six-hundred-million-gamers-could-be-war-criminals-red-cross-says/story-e6frfrt9-1226216184190

All I can say to that is Oy. 

BTW, I'm also an animal killer as I've played Duck Hunt a number of times. 

[Jack]

[InformationGeek]

All I can say to that is Oy. 

BTW, I'm also an animal killer as I've played Duck Hunt a number of times. 

Considering the amounts of turtles, fish, and other animals I stepped on in the past in Mario games; I suppose I'm an animal killer as well.

I could also be considered bad for the enivornment considering all of those helpless plants I stepped on in Mario games as well.



Poor little guys.

[Flick James]

I haven't looked at the article yet, but I was intrigued by the title of the thread. The RED CROSS is investigating? Did I miss something? Did the Red Cross become a law-enforcement agency at some point or something?

[The Gravekeeper]

The gist I got from this thing was that they wanted to try and get developers to implement the Geneva Convention in war games. It does make some sense with a lot of war games that boast about being realistic since some of the actions the players do/are made to do may be considered war games if they were committed in real life. Enacting some sort of punishment in games lends a bit of extra realism, and could make for some interesting plot twists (your character could take the fall for their country, then break out somehow and have to find evidence that proves that they were innocent or just following orders).

There's no way to get developers to actually do anything short of shutting down the company, but it could make games a little more interesting, especially if they bring up the controversy over some countries accusing others of war crimes while committing some themselves. No gamers would be arrested for war crimes, unless they committed some in real life. Otherwise, how many of us are serial killers and mass murderers for killing video game enemies?

The Red Cross probably shouldn't be the ones investigating this, though. People donate to them so that they can go and help people in need.

[ulthar]

I haven't looked at the article yet, but I was intrigued by the title of the thread. The RED CROSS is investigating? Did I miss something? Did the Red Cross become a law-enforcement agency at some point or something?

Very good point that it's odd for a relief/care organization to 'investigate.'

But, you don't have to be law enforcement to investigate.  Classic counter example is "investigative journalism," which at one point in time (not sure about now, though) was a pretty hard core field.

Also, private investigators are not law enforcement...

So, according to Gravekeeper's post above, this is mostly just another sensationalist headline that bears little, if any, resemblance to reality?

[Mofo Rising]

All I can say to that is Oy. 

BTW, I'm also an animal killer as I've played Duck Hunt a number of times. 

Considering the amounts of turtles, fish, and other animals I stepped on in the past in Mario games; I suppose I'm an animal killer as well.

I could also be considered bad for the enivornment considering all of those helpless plants I stepped on in Mario games as well.



Poor little guys.

I'm pretty sure that's an invasive species, introduced by Bowser, so it's okay to kill them. Weeds, at best.