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A study carried out by two human rights organisations has criticised virtually-committed crimes in video games.
Swiss groups Trial and Pro Juventute collaborated on the study which aims to persuade developers and publishers to incorporate the principles of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and International Human Rights Law (IHRL) into future titles.
The study saw gamers, advised by IHL and IHRL specialists, take on a number of popular third and first person shooter titles while looking closely for violations. Games examined in the study included Call of Duty: World At War, Army of Two, Battlefield: Bad Company and Far Cry 2.
The groups found that common violations included the use of torture to gain intelligence and disproportionate military responses that led to extensive collateral damage. The study, however, does acknowledge that some games punish the player for unjust behavior.
“This shows us that there are different ways to punish the player, and that this can add an element of strategic thinking to the game, while at the same time incorporating basic rules of IHRL,” concludes the study.
Nevertheless, the main recommendation of the study is that publishers ought to “avoid creating scenarios that easily lead to violations of IHL” and to incorporate more behavioural guidelines.
“The message of the scenes should never be that everything is allowed, or that it is up to the player to decide what is right and what is wrong. In real life, this is not the way it works,” states the study.
“In real life, there are rules and there are sanctions for violations of these rules. It is not up to the soldier or to the law enforcement agent to decide what is right and what is wrong. The events in Abu Ghraib have shown, what such "private justice", even if carried out by well trained and high ranking officers, may lead to.”
What do you make of the study? Is it important for developers to adhere to real-world law when designing games? Let us know in the comments section below.
Last year, MMO pioneer criticised the World of Warcraft expansion, The Wrath of the Lich King, for violating the Geneva Convention. Find out more here.
That individual choice is very much what matters. Considering all the things that have come to light, those chaps in Abu Ghraib were acting on orders to do what they did. And they were told that what they were doing was legal and in accordance with the rules.
It's the individual choice, which subsequently allows a person to say, to hell with it. I don't care if you consider it legal. I don't care that you consider it just. You want that guy tortured? You do it. I want to be able to still stand the face staring back at me from the mirror.
As for projecting this all on video games.. Uhm.. It's fictional folks. Take a long walk off of a short pier, because you're beginning to get annoying. Whether it be your braying at anime or at video games. They aren't real people there. They're nothing more than 1's and 0's stored on a computer. No feelings to hurt, no rights to violate.
To equate the real world and the fictional world is denigrating to those who suffer in the real world.
I read part 1.1 of the "study", about their aims, about how there are certain consequences for not adhering to the rules. There are plenty of games that punish you if you accidentally or purposefully kill/injure a civilian or break the law in some other way. But the fact that they want to enforce some kind requirement into games with real-world laws, I just find ridiculous.
I agree with Paul, "Really, do we need to over analyse this?” hell no, we don't. Groups like this, and other certain individuals must think that all gamers cannot tell the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. They assume that we play these games, lose all grip on reality and then apply what we've done in the games to our day-to-day life. If that were true, I'd be roaming the streets throwing plastic bags over peoples’ heads Manhunt stylee, dressed like Duke Nukem and shouting “BOOM Headshot”.
I think these people should put their time to better use and study something that may actually make a good difference in the world instead of clutching at straws and trying to get a piece of the action.