Monday, November 23, 2009

"War Crimes" in Video Games

Apparently there are not enough actual human rights problems in the real world, because a Swiss human rights organization found the time to do a study on supposed war crimes in video games. Seriously.

Lawyers trained in international humanitarian, criminal and human rights law cast their legal eyes over twenty shooters
In reality of course, such laws have little effect on warfare, except when practiced by countries that actually respect and abide by at least some of these rules -- a small minority. But naturally lawyers take such things very seriously, even in game form. The whole article is pretty funny. Take this for example,
Criticism of Modern Warfare continues with the assessment that the violent interrogation and execution of villain Al-Asad by the player's moustachioed chum and superior officer Captain Price is torture--"prohibited in any context, under any circumstances" in reality.
Far from being "prohibited in any context," torture and summary execution are quite common during conflicts. It's pretty amusing that these lawyers are unable to recognize that even video games are more realistic than their own naive notions.

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