Why do I feel bad killing a beaver in Assassin's Creed 3 yet I have no problem mowing down hordes of human guards? Are games and other media desensitizing us subconciously? Think about how society was 20 years ago. People were easier to scare with horror movies and they would be in shock if their children were playing any FPS of today. I just think it's a dangerous road we're heading down... Sure real life is seperate but maybe what we experience in electronic media is important to the mind and is further conditioning each generation without them knowing it?

i got to say, most war movies and war games are actually trying to show you how ugly war is and how lucky you are you can be a part of it without the ability of getting hurt. as a military personal, unlike the fictional situations you get in video games even though they are "based on real life events" are fabricated riffraff, when someone is down they might simply call him as "Down" and leave him which is not what happening in reality, you dont rush guns blazing and you dont go to a person in order to "melee" him, that is usually a last resort act of being surprised in close encounters  that you cant maneuver your gun in time. the main concept in military shooter is being in your team, outnumbered and out gunned  with no back up or the usual arguing with command about the availability of back up which happens more often then you think. but the authentication of the game in such conditions just turns you into a bullet chewing juggernaut that has a fixed reload rate and style of each gun, knowing exactly how many rounds he has in a freshly picked up weapon and how to operate it , no panic mechanics and no pressure...the ultimate cool bloke, basically Kristen Stewart in an action movie although some characters take it to an all new level with the idea of not talking. i will be real with you, it is fun pretending to be the character and the idea of not talking gives you a more free feeling, in real life ops their isn't a quiet guy, everyone must confirm each order, if not by radio then by hand signals, noise of some sort like  Morse code or light signals which are also Morse code. although some games tend to over do voice acting of "your" character but that doesn't belittle the need of words in combat situations.

personally i don't  need a video game to teach me whats right from from and that war is in humane and has live long consequences, Any mature gamer who has been to school and had basic education would know that a video game war game is far from realistic and would know that a real life experience like that would leave them shell shocked. the public these days relys to much on the media these days to guide them through life and take music, movies and video games way to seriously.

Good article, it is something that more developers need to look into. However, games are still entertainment for the most part. Games can be entertainment, art, documentaries, basically anything you want, but it is still an entrainment business that is in its formative years.

You will simply never get every game looking to show the emotional impact of the deaths contained in it. There will be some games that do something different and show that, but consumers want to feel like a bad ass action movie star and, as unfortunate as it is, that is where the money is. That is not to say that developers shouldn't push the envelope.  

I see it from a slightly different perspective in that it's OK to enjoy violence on the screen (game or film). Unless it's handled very carefully then an attempt at trying to get us to care about the deaths comes across as pointless or melodramatic (Dom in Gears 2 for example). Austin Powers had it right with their 'nobody thinks about the henchman' joke.

I am not saying that the effect of war shouldn't be considered but it needs to sensitive and appropriate.

"To a lot of the gaming community, the levels in Medal of Honor: Warfighter were simply a list of levels. Many claimed these levels to be boring and uninspired. Yet these were based on real situations that have happened in the past decade."

This statement is false and ridiculous. To say that war is a linear, action-fuelled, straight-and-narrow experience is degrading and base. War is not full of explosions, bullet-sponges and QTEs. War is a very real and scary place. It is also lonely, quiet, disturbing and sometimes boring. If games like Medal of Honor want to show the "authentic" side of war, they would have to show boring sequences of guarding tanks with absolutely no action. They would have to show long and tiring sniper sequences with them waiting hours for any signs of targets. But the industry doesn't want that. They want explosions, bullets and faceless enemies.

Am I calling for the death of MMSs? Hell No! They are fun and provide some decent killing action in the comfort of your living room as an escape from real life. That is what entertainment games are for. But when a game advertises itself as an "authentic" experience and delivers a CoD style campaing with even less realism (if that's even possible)? This crosses the line and dives into disrespect and unprofessionalism.

/Yawn

This topic is subjective to every person and how they see their game. To some is just another game, and other it represents sentimental value. If you get too involve in the story, you might care about the choices of the main character and how affects the world that surrounds them. For example, one game that really got to me was LA Noire, *Spoilers* the main character goes through a rough time in the last part of the game, at this moment you know that something is terrible wrong with him, but it did not feel right. He made a mistake but you realize that he was not able to move on from what he did. It made me anxious to know if he was going to redeem himself, somehow he did but no the way i expected. It really affect me because through the whole game he is seeing as a hero, and then you find out that he is not so heroic after all. 

What you are mentioning depends on a person perspective, some gamers just play games, others get involved with the game.

Games are just a medium. You can find tons of books that deal with life-loss like nothing happened. The point that you can interact with the game doesn't work, because you can interact with your toys also. You can play cowboys and indians with your friends and disregard the true tragic nature of the events that gave us the game.

Whenever you pick up a stick, make noises like you're shooting someone and he falls down with a theatrical scream, you know that IT'S NOT REAL. And it's not supposed to be. And you're not supposed to even think about it, because shooting a stick or a paintball rifle or an airsoft one is NOTHING like shooting a real gun in a real gunfight.

And it will never be.

Accept games as something they are, not as something you imagine them to be. Games are entertainment. Just like books. Just like airsoft battles. Just like Cowboys and Idians.

I don,t know if it is that much important to have an "experiance" and be realistic and have real consequences of our actions ... I mean it is a game ... when I was young, a game was just that a game ... you didn't experience it, you play it ... quite different from what it is nowaday in the shooter scene.

I play a game to have fun and escape reality for a few min/hours not to feel bad for someone that I shoot in the head because now his wife is alone with 3 kids that miss their dad.

I did a genocide once in Fallout3, I killed every human in the game to have the trophy for the number of human killed ... of course the game didn,t allow me to murder the kids ( which would have helped me to get the trophy ). I didn't feel bad. It is only a game. In real life it is another story.

If they don't put any sensitive to somewhat give the feeling what you do is right and also to make a story not just go out in a world and shoot everything that as the misfortune to move. I mean ... if the princess wasn,t kidnapped in every Super Mario Game ... why botter going through all of it ?

If in Heavy Rain Sean wasn't kidnapped ... Ethan wouldn't do all those very extrem challenge for fun ... a game with Ethan just depressing because he lost on of his child ... would have been boring and not a captivating story.

So in all ... a game is a game and it shouldn't be exacly like real life and it is ok , of course some game is inspired by real life event but still, it is more of a fantasy and should stay one.