How do Videogames influence Military skills, responses, attitudes, etc.?

[omega minimo]

And the question is How or How Much-- not IF!

That point is moot since Bush 1 Gulf War 1, when the military leaders came out crowing about how great it was for them to have a generation of recruits raised on videogames!!!!!! :patriot:

[Solo_in_MD]

1. Somewhat

You have soliders coming in who are keyboard savvy and are used to taking in "real world" information and developing situational awareness from a monitor. Useful skills to build on.

Also a leading realistic FPS game is greated for and supported by the Army, called Americas Army, based IIRC on the Unreal Tournament engine. Pretty good game.

[Crowskie]

2. Unmanned aircraft pilots are generally people who developed their skills

on flight sims and FPS games.

[Solo_in_MD]

3. Same with armor. Its done via a display as well

Also note that the USAF vision for UCAVs is based on using rated pilots at the consoles. The Navy and the Army know better, but don't have nearly as many pilots lying around.

[omega minimo]

4. What about Grand Theft Auto?

Testimony reported on the mayhem, gangrape, murder spree of some bored, psychotic soldiers who wanted to "go out and kill some Iraqis" makes one wonder about the influence of violent mayhem, gangrape, murder spree fantasy games.

One concern is that "situational awareness from a monitor" engenders a dangerous detachment from reality..........

[Solo_in_MD]

5. I read a story somewhere this weekend about concerns

that GTA and such lead to more violence in society. I am not sure I agree, but there are clearly some who transfer from games to RL. Still calling all game players sociopaths is wrong. Then again that did not stop educrats from doing that post Columbine.

John Kratz did some good writing over at Slashdot on some of this:

Why Kids Kill - http://slashdot.org/articles/99/04/22/2136230.shtml
Voices From The Hellmouth - http://www.onlineconfessional.com/html/hellmouth1.html
More Stories From The Hellmouth - http://slashdot.org/features/99/04/27/0310247.shtml
Hope In The Hellmouth: Looking Ahead - http://slashdot.org/features/99/05/03/0518209.shtml
The Price Of Being Different - http://slashdot.org/features/99/04/29/0124247.shtml
New School Shooting This Morning - http://slashdot.org/features/99/05/17/0213236.shtml

My support of the bullied against the jock mindset, as well as my support for firearms and other non-PC thinking on campus caused concern/allowed me to antagonize some of the educrats I worked with. Eventually their closed minded thinking convinced me to leave education, a decision with mixed blessing for me. My wife still teaches.

[omega minimo]

6. Thanks for links. What is an "educrat"? Did you coin that?

"I read a story somewhere this weekend about concerns that GTA and such lead to more violence in society. I am not sure I agree, but there are clearly some who transfer from games to RL. Still calling all game players sociopaths is wrong. Then again that did not stop educrats from doing that post Columbine."


LIke I said, it may be the detachment from reality --and from consequences-- that is influential, as much as the subject matter. The overgeneralizations needn't stop us from looking at what effects there are.

If you're an educator, you must have seen the TV stare infect young people, the glazed "Being There" expression of needing to change the channel, not comprehending this is reality. Now, they give us "Click."

[Solo_in_MD]

7. Heard it years ago...like bureaucrat or technocrat...and there are scads

of them infesting our schools. Focus on process, stats, budgets, appearances, anything except teaching the students in the classrooms. They drive me bloody nuts.

We used to have school wide staff meetings, fairly free form. Lots of BS flowing from lots of sources. If you've taught in a public school you know what I mean. After a particularly long and meaningless sermon on a topic where common sense showed what was being pushed was inane,they asked for feedback. I piped up with "That sounds great if you are an educrat, but what should those of us who are teachers do?". I got a fair amount of laughter and a couple of nasty looks. I was not asked to amplify or explain my comments. Needless to say I had tenure.

As for the 1000 yard stare, BTST too. I usually tried to keep some motion in my classes. Made it so students had to move or interact. Wasn't successful every day, but most. Seemed to keep them more engaged. I also taught electives, which helps a great deal.

[omega minimo]

10. Friend told me about teacher/admin meetings in the

Teach To The Test Make Teachers Do The Work Of All The Administrative Staff You Let Go era. Sitting around a table with reports and charts and graphs....

Looking at the indecypherable pie chart and having to ask/point out "what does it actually SHOW?"


Too bad you had to leave. System will keep going down the toilet if teachers bail and programmers fill in as "educators."


(on edit: hearing right now an AAR commercial of a kid presenting his "report" to class. All of which he describes as charts, graphs, scans, photos, etc. from his __ Brand Printer!!! to applause!!!!!! :applause: :puke: )

[Solo_in_MD]

11. Here is a hit piece on educrats from a few years ago

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1998/01/04/ED16249.DTL

Don't agree with all of it, but it makes some good points.

Depending where you teach, many kids come from sitatuion where sucess in education is not valued or supported. When you add the edcurats on top of it, its a wonder as many kids come out of school doing as well as they do.

Right now I am busy being a money grubbing pig, building up the college funds for my daughters. Im living away from my family to do it. When this contract is over (another 9 months) I will go back to CA and most likely return to teaching, most likely at CC or CSU level this time.

[omega minimo]

13. Ironically (?) this teacher is in a wealthy SoCal jr.high where parents

pressure the kids competitively a la "teach to the test," buy the latest hi-tech gizmos, spend school money on parties and perks and load up her high quality art class (one of the last) with severely developmentally disabled kids who need care and supervision the school won't provide. "Severe" as in outbursts, stripping naked, complete lack of communication........... not right for ANY of the kids to do this to them.

And that's a school that has $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

Oh-- and the rich kids are always on the cell phone, focused on their outfits and parties.

Friend had a good gig while it lasted-- this has gotten monstrous in the past decade or so.

Thanks again for this link. I'll check it out. Best to you and your family. :hi:

[everythingsxen]

8. It helps a fair amount

First-Person Shooters (FPS) help to raise situational awareness, as well as learning important tactical lessons (checking your corners, watching your six, watching your ammo supply, etc.) it also helps to nominally improve accuracy with weapons, you learn in most realistic shooters to anticipate recoil and to control your firing. (clicking mouse button = generally done with same finger as pulling a trigger) I'm sure it makes an average recruit a little better off than the same boots in training with him. Still plenty more training has to be done, but that recruit will make fewer mistakes, having already countlessly made in game already.

[BrotherBuzz]

9. They might be grand until the damn things break ...

Give me a couple of farm/cowboy mechanics to go along with them because they can fix anything, especially if they are told it can't be fixed in the field, and they are just mad, scared and stubborn enough to do it. I want to surround myself with motivated people that can solve problems in real time because war doesn't have a reset button.

[Solo_in_MD]

12. Sounds like the Marines