Imagine a video game on a battlefield with soldiers of proportionate size with gear that looks too good to be true. This is what video game makers are putting out on the shelves nowadays to satisfy the hunger for real life situation. Night Vision Goggles with realistic features are being sold as well as virtual Flight Helmets and cordless weapons. Could this be a scary epidemic, or could it be the very beginning of a more sophisticated society? Children of young ages to adults with demanding lives are purchasing these video games because they are fun, but how do they portray the real military world and how does that affect your child’s mind?
The military is a scary world and the shooting and killing and tough situations that they go through every day are not false. Video games seem to put off the assumption that everything will be okay and that there is always a restart button. In real life, there is no start over button and once the game is finished, it is officially over. The military has even started to use video games as a method to grab younger people and get them to think about the joining the military. The lifelike virtual games are great until people start to trust that they are real and the deception of a never ending military is set.
People need to understand the military is a serious place, and it’s not a game. Therefore the video games should be expressed as realistic but completely virtual. Video games can be addicting, and there are addicts in real life. The video game companies are taking a serious thing and turning it into an illusion that people may think is the real thing. The video game provides an unrealistic view of a certain way of life, just like the movies. People take it seriously and then they experience the actual thing and they are unhappy and let down.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with playing a virtual video game with cool, lifelike gear; look at games like Guitar Hero or Rock Band for instance. Those games are harmless but one realizes that they cannot play the real guitar. The problem is when one begins experimenting with the tactics of war. Once it turns into something different from a game, it can be hard to alter a person’s point of view. War is a serious subject, and to portray it as a joke, can be very harmful.
Video games are made to be games and the serious take on certain subjects has, frankly, gone overboard. The best thing a person can do is to keep in mind that it is a game and that even though you may use real gear and cool looking weapons, that it is not a real life circumstance. The virtual aspect of a game is meant to immerse you in the situation, but when it is over realize that it is over, no one is invincible in actual life and bad things can still happen to you.
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