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Speculation over whether computer games can have a transfer effect onto real life has been debated for years. With computer simulations becoming more sophisticated and advanced, the possibilities of learning behaviours from games are real.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), in association with the US Army, began developing simulators for tanks and vehicles in the 1980s. This was followed by the creation of “Synthetic Theater of War�? (STOW) by Simnet in the early 1990s. STOW was designed as computer generated forces integrated with military exercises (Penny, 2003: 75).
Over the years, these technologies have improved to create immersive simulated environments which are effective training tools. The mid 90s saw the US Marines licence Doom from ID Software, who modified Doom into ‘Marine Doom ’ which was used as a tactical training tool. The US Army employed Nintendo to create MARKS training device, not unsimilar to Nintendo’s Duck Hunt.
More recent productions has seen the US Navy employ the use of The Sims as a mock-up of terrorist cells. BBN Technologies has been working on the ‘’DARWARS Project’’ which is a simulation of the landscape and scenarios that could occur in Iraq. The goal of DARWARS was to “train in the back of the head of every soldier to be aware of what might happen, of when an ambush might occur’’ (Bray, 2004). The aspect of instilling notions into the minds of people brings greater concerns among society, especially in regards to children and computer games.
Dave Grossman (2000) indicates that the military employs tactics such as conditioning, role modeling and brutilisation to desensitise soldiers, with the end result of violence and discipline seen as normal and essential. As soldiers are effectively using computer games for training, there is concern that children playing first person shooter games will also emulate behaviours conditioned from the games.
The conditioning learned through computer games is similar to soldiers’ learning to fire at realistic human shaped silhouettes, where the response is to shoot at the target. Thus, desensitizing the shooter, and normalizing reflexive behaviours. This behaviour was witnessed in the 1998 Jonesboro school shooting and 1999 Columbine school shooting, where the shooters had all prior experience with first person shooter games. David Grossman (1998) asserts that killing is a learned skill, which can be persuasively learned through television, movies and interactive videogames. Every time a child plays an interactive video game, he/she is learning the same conditioned skills as a soldier.
Bray, H. (2004). Combat Computer Games Train Troops Bound for Iraq. Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, 1.
Cho, I. (2004). Computer Games - Columbine and Violent Computer Games. Retrieved October 26, 2005, from http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/Computer_Games_-_Columbine_and_Violent_Computer_Games
Grossman, D. (1998). Trained to Kill. Christianity Today, 42(9), 30-40.
Grossman, D. (2000). Teaching Kids to Kill. National Forum, 80(4), 10-15.
Penny, S. (2004). Representation, Enaction, and the Ethics of Simulation. In N. Wadrip-Fruin & P. Harrigan (Eds.), First Person: New Media as Story, Performance and Game. Massachusetts. ISBN 0-262-23232-4
Tainsh, E. (2004). Computer Games - The Sims. Retrieved October 26, 2005, from http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/The_Sims
Wikipedia. (2005a). Doom. Retrieved October 27, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom
Wikipedia. (2005b). Duck Hunt. Retrieved October 27, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_hunt
Wikipedia. (2005c). First Person Shooter. Retrieved October 26, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_person_shooter
Wikipedia. (2005d). Jonesboro Massacre. Retrieved October 26, 2005, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonesboro_massacre
