the Halo Killer

[VikingBoyBilly]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6212082.html

oh how far humanity has evolved.

edit: haha june 16 it's old news but still.

[CryoS]

im still trying to figure out why lost vikings arent on your toplist of games...

[VikingBoyBilly]

Oh, it's somewhere in the top 20 I assure you, just not the top 5.

Why has my opinion of Lost Vikings become such a fascinating issue?

[CryoS]

boredoms i suppose.

[NXF]

Who plays any game for more than 8 hours straight? And are you making fun of Halo, or just the freak the article is about?

[VikingBoyBilly]

Who plays any game for more than 8 hours straight? And are you making fun of Halo, or just the freak the article is about?

The latter. I'm not so much 'making fun of' it, just drawing attention to it.

[NXF]

Yeah, that is an issue in the modern world. My family thinks similar to the lawyers there, where for some reason aparently any strange destructive thoughts I get come from video games (they come from how a lot of stuff needs to be replaced).

[gmanyo]

Who plays any game for more than 8 hours straight?

I have on several occasions. That's pretty much how things used to go: I wouldn't play any videogames during the school week, then on Friday night to Saturday morning, me and my friends would binge game at someone's house overnight for at least 6 hours straight, sometimes getting up to 10 or 12. Then we'd play again for a bit in the morning after we woke up, and then my parents would tell me I'd had enough gaming for the week. In recent days, however, I don't do this as much, except maybe over breaks. Oh, and once recently with Nethack (on a break), where I played a 22 and a half hour game in two days. Then I died, which sucks because in Nethack you have to start over every time you die. I have never beaten it.

[ray]

you need to name your threads better boy because i expected something adorable

like a bridget thread

[Horkeldorf]

I have on several occasions. That's pretty much how things used to go: I wouldn't play any videogames during the school week, then on Friday night to Saturday morning, me and my friends would binge game at someone's house overnight for at least 6 hours straight, sometimes getting up to 10 or 12.

I do that a lot too. Friends and I just have 6 hour murderfests of Starcraft at one of our houses. Maybe throw in some Quake 3 or Urban Terror.

[VikingBoyBilly]

you need to name your threads better boy because i expected something adorable

like a bridget thread

Do you prefer the topic title and the tagline to be switched?

[ray]

much better thanks

[EwoudCP]

Over 8 hours straight? I do that. Not regularly, but sometimes I just schedule a day for pure gaming.

According to various studies, video games also have positive effects. Like improved reflexes, training certain skills* and increased ability to assess situations.

Who knows how many lives that saved?
How many people managed to avoid that slipping car due to gamer reflexes?
But of course that is not part of the news. Not because it is good news about video games, but because you just can't tell.


* I didn't think FPS games would actually help me in real-world situations, but my sheer dominance in paintball can be attributed to gaming.

[ray]

Over 8 hours straight? I do that. Not regularly, but sometimes I just schedule a day for pure gaming.

According to various studies, video games also have positive effects. Like improved reflexes, training certain skills* and increased ability to assess situations.

Who knows how many lives that saved?
How many people managed to avoid that slipping car due to gamer reflexes?
But of course that is not part of the news. Not because it is good news about video games, but because you just can't tell.
* I didn't think FPS games would actually help me in real-world situations, but my sheer dominance in paintball can be attributed to gaming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhrAB8WMsx0

[VikingBoyBilly]

DRAGON TWISTER!

[NXF]

I didn't think FPS games would actually help me in real-world situations, but my sheer dominance in paintball can be attributed to gaming.

There are games (FPS games by the way) developed for militaries to help with training. Search Virtual Battlespace on the internet if you don't believe me.

[Vladtepes]

This is plain bullshit!
There are indeed FPS used by militaries for training BUT they are not used at all for shooting training, they are mainly made to test soldiers ability to adapt and find their way to totally unknown environments. I recall the militaries try to use FPS to help soldiers to feel what it's like to actually kill someone but the result was not good so they stopped and now use silhouettes for shooting training instead.

There are however some virtual shooting ranges with weapons with position captors and blank shots.

Anyway, saying that playing games like Halo gives you some kind of help for shooting on actual people is just stupid. How can playing a game can help you with aiming, with the weight of an actual gun, with ballistics and of course how can playing a game can actually kill all the respect you have for human beings and help you get over your guiltiness and everything when you have to make the shot?

I have two wonderful articles on this topic in Germany and all the stupidity we here about what they call "killerspiele", but they are in french?

[NXF]

I know, I was just saying that not all FPS games are for entertainment. I never said that there are FPS games that are the only thing used for training. HELP does not mean ONLY THING FOR.

[ray]

post the french motherfucker irons and i are hardcore enough

[effigy]

Regardless of a game's intent, or the effect a game has on it's consumer's state of mind, the responsibility for disturbing actions made by an individual is had by that individual's disturbed mind.

[EwoudCP]

Anyway, saying that playing games like Halo gives you some kind of help for shooting on actual people is just stupid. How can playing a game can help you with aiming, with the weight of an actual gun, with ballistics and of course how can playing a game can actually kill all the respect you have for human beings and help you get over your guiltiness and everything when you have to make the shot?

It may seem crazy to (most of) you, but a lot of people just stand there, firing from either the hip or the shoulder (not iron sighting, but holding it close to the head), sit on the top of elevations and constructions, because they just don't know how to play paintball (whether it's through military training, paintball, video games or whatever). Playing video games (and perhaps Halo is not the best example for this) does give you the urge to crouch, aim carefully and stuff like that, even if you haven't done so in real life yet.

But yeah, actually killing a human being is different from getting used to killing video game enemies.

Sure, some people are more likely to become violent through video games, but I think that such problems might be more of a sign that there is something wrong with the person, be it that they are easily influenced (parents shouldn't let kids play violent games), or that they are having problems in their lives already (accepting virtual worlds over reality as a means of escape).

Of course, 18 hours of play a day for months, with nothing else to do can also do the trick. But yeah, you can replace the violent "Video Game" with anything. Months of "Slasher Movies", "Conspiracy Novels" or "Kung-Fu Films" can make almost anyone "Violent", "Paranoid" and "Aggressive".

[gmanyo]

Of course, 18 hours of play a day for months, with nothing else to do can also do the trick. But yeah, you can replace the violent "Video Game" with anything. Months of "Slasher Movies", "Conspiracy Novels" or "Kung-Fu Films" can make almost anyone "Violent", "Paranoid" and "Aggressive".

Replace "video games" with "Gilmore Girls" and anyone will go insane.

[irons]

I've been holding off on posting this.

[brilliant]

I've been holding off on posting this.

Thank you for sharing that, irons. Screw that guy, violent video games are not the problem. However, I don't think parents should allow their kids to play violent video games that are not appropriate for their age. By the way, nice reply!

[irons]

Thanks. That was one of my few appearances on AGM, and I'm glad I made it count.