COD - an "ultraviolent" "sniper game" ?

p4radox

p4radox

p4radox

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Four times a week, 13-year-old Evan Spencer and his buddies rush to their Xboxes to play Call of Duty, the violent, popular sniper game set in the Second World War.

While some of his friends shoot enemies long after they're down, or spray bullets indiscriminately, Evan does not. He can't - or he'll violate the Geneva Conventions his parents insist he follow, and be cut off from the game he so dearly loves.

"To remember it, it's basically common sense," says Evan, explaining the conventions while slurping a chocolate milkshake at a restaurant near the family home in Etobicoke, Ont.

"Someone surrenders and you don't just go and kill them anyways."
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/serv...03.wlvideogame03/EmailBNStory/lifeFamily/home


I found this article completely hilarious. Not only are the parents of this kid obviously completely crazy, but the journalist obviously didn't bother playing the game before she formed her bizarre views on it.
 
Oh noes, I gone killed some pixels on a screen!

Why does every article about violence in video games sound so stupid? I've seen way worse things happen in movies than I have in games. WAAAAY WORSE!
 
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The parents are trying to teach the kid a lesson, and it's really not that crazy, more parents should at least show an interest in what their kids are up to. If only someone had sat GW Bush down with his GI joes and applied the same logic...

The only trouble here is, I don't think it's possible to violate the geneva conventions in COD. The enemy doesn't wave white flags or anything. There are only hostiles. Me-thinks the reporter hasn't a clue.

It might be worth trying in an RTS or civ type game where razing cities or slaughtering peasants is a way to cut off enemy resources. OTH, slaughtering peasants is the fum part...:D
 
CrowK said:
It might be worth trying in an RTS or civ type game where razing cities or slaughtering peasants is a way to cut off enemy resources. OTH, slaughtering peasants is the fum part...:D
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I like the squelching noise that happens when you crucify the populace on RTW, lol.
 
Reading articles like this raises far more murderous impulses than playing CoD. Also that family are comedy gold.
 
neon.uk said:
Oh dear :( - it's a video game not real life.
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Agree 100%.

People need to understand that the people who turn deranged psychopath after playing [insert FPS shooter here] were, in fact, deranged psychopaths in the first place.

I would be more worried about the blinkered way the kids parents are reacting to "this is bad, because I said it is" approach.

No wonder why so many kiddies are all ****** up. :(
 
It is a violent, popular game that involves sniping in the second world war. I actually can't find any bizzare views on the game from the journalist. It's just the matter its reporting about (kid forced to play game following geneva conventions :D) that makes it seem wierd.
 
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"Part of it was that I wanted to discourage him from getting the game. I just thought, 'Hey, he'll never read the Geneva Conventions.' "
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What the heck have the Geneva Conventions got to do with this game apart from nothing? Maybe he should have noticed the 'Mature' rating on the front of the box?....Anyway let the kid live a little. Jeez.
 
I'd be more concerned about:

a) He doesn't meet the age rating

b) The single player campaign (plot lifted straight from "24", the AC-130 scene, etc)
 
Beating this guy on live would be unbelieveably easy.

"I Surrender Don't shoot me"
"Ok"
Boom:p.

He would have to follow it and we don't necessarily have to. Win Win situation.
 
Evan agrees. If he shoots one of his captured soldiers, he tends to feel bad about it. Often his friends don't.
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His friends are normal, they are pixels.

Can someone explain to me under what circumstances the Geneva conventions would apply in a game of what I assume is COD5?
 
Will Lucky said:
He would have to follow it and we don't necessarily have to. Win Win situation.
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Isn't that what's happening in Afghanistan ? .. .sorry, yeah, video game... ;)

anyway, I think it's certainly something that you could use to spice up a game of CoD sometimes... put down rules for yourself... for istance, yesterday I was getting knifed by the same guy so frequently it was unreal, so I decided i wasn't going to quit until he did, or I managed to knife him... took me quite some time !
 
bit strange. at least his parents are trying to teach him something, if it works - great.

Journo is clueless. Then again so many are and never check past the PR briefs they receive - look at Desert Storm/Iraqi Freedom, all they did was copy and paste job.
 
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