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18.
REAL-WORLD MILITARY SIMULATION
Kline
et al outline the link between the games industry and the military
best:
in
the flexible, numerically downsized, partially privatized, but
very high-tech organization of the post-Fordist military, Pentagon
simulation makers constantly transfer technologies to commercial
game making, while the military frequently contract services
from, adapt the products of, or enter into commercial codevelopment
partnerships with civilian industry - making interactive gaming
the most persuasive instance of what has been dubbed the 'military-entertainment-complex17.
They
suggest that through partnerships and hypothetical partnerships,
the military benefits from the innovations of the game industry
which are fuelled by the buying power of gamers. Equally, participation
in military-based games perpetuates an acceptance of violent action.
I struggle to find a rational explanation of how some people -
myself occasionally included - who are morally adverse to war
can take pleasure in playing at it. These titles do not mask what
they; they wear on their sleeves a likeness to real military operations
(and sometimes
an affiliation with the Army). Possibly, these simulations
have a cathartic effect for the pacifist player. Bombarded with
mediated images of war, gamers may take up a role in such simulated
violence as a means of coming to an understanding about the implications
of the unthinkable. To cope with an assault on humanity, maybe
players feel that some amount of involvement in the acts can lead
to a realization about what must be done to end atrocities. But,
surely this position would prove fruitless. War games position
the player as the white, male, Western warrior who will inevitably
defeat "the enemy". The proliferation of these types
of entertainments primarily asserts the relegation of the video
game to an unimportant status. If it is "only a game",
then the actions therein are after all, acceptable. Without recognition
of the gamer's role in a simulation - an interactive recreation
of a reality - one cannot realize the inferred consequences of
their actions.
SLIDESHOW
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