Single Shooters Training as Gaming in Violent Video Games?
I was undertaking research into arms traffickers given a documentary I found by chance. I felt intuitively a connection with the US shooting and military weapons. I felt intuitively for the arms industry and profit making out of violence which encourages its existence. Then by chance I find a violent video game and explore the language of demonization of the enemy and the validation of killing as fun. It is a review of the game. I note there is no comment on how the game impacts the psychology of children. It focuses on images, storyline, quality but not the real impact. There are very few if any games training in conflict prevention, resolution, transformation or peace building. These games have come from the military and they will become the recruiters of the next generation of soldiers and the validation that war is necessary in a range of forms. So no wonder children think the world is a violent place. The adults keep reinforcing it as that is their belief. Is it true or is it you? This is my question. The sad part of this is that it only sets up more conflict and misery in the future. It is the opposite of safety, security and honour. Real honour respects all people and lives in integrity leading by example. What example is set for children?
The commentary in the US in the aftermath of the Las Vegas shootings is around gun laws but not the psychology of fear, denial and conditioned violent mind patterns that facilitate violent acts and create a culture of violence. Do you recall Michael Moore’s documentary Bowling for Columbine? Do you remember the message? The media not only ignores the cultural influences but creates it, gaming industries do the same and promotion of the military as unquestioned is mandatory in the US. I noted the endorsing of violence as a right to bare arms or a necessary evil given the ‘bad guys’ out there. There is no commensurate or balanced understanding of how violence is taught, incited and justified through its unconscious acceptance as the ends justifying the means. Gandhi spoke of the means justifying the ends, that is the intent behind action. If the intent is nonviolent the outcome will become this as the mirror is held up, if it is violent then you live by the sword you die by it. You cannot ask for peace but plan for war. It doesn’t work. All defence is an act of war. What we put out comes back. Life is circular. It is energy response. It is a natural law. Violence remains unconsciously believed to work and keep us safe. Yes we can feel that but the real work is dealing with the fear of not being safe. Most fear is imagined or psychological. The psyche doesn’t know the difference between imagined and actual. It feels real. The belief in violence as safety or security is the underlying unquestioned belief that requires focus. Violence is justified by a conditioned mind pattern of a good guy vs bad guy view of the world promulgated through games and stories. The Wild West comes to mind when we were children whereby the gun toting sheriff or posse fights the criminals, bandits or Indians. It drives to the heart of male identity of defending women and children and their sense of masculinity and superiority. It is essentially a psychological structure of control through force and fear. It is the culture of violence that is normalised as necessary for safety. The truth is it is the cause of insecurity. In peace studies we looked at the gun as a threat. The question was asked is the gun the threat or the person holding it? US citizens have been told they can have guns in their houses to defend themselves, a commentator on ABC’s Lateline stated it caused more deaths. Moreover, escalation occurs when people believe others are arming up. They view the massacres and feel more unsafe rather than learning methods to build community, to look at inclusivity in society, to remove weapons from not only society but as a means of dealing with disputes internationally. There has to be a shift away from a culture of violence to a peaceful culture that takes responsibility and transcends fear.
Games are an effective means of training the military using simulations to practice strategy in warfare. What is concerning in violent video games is the salient training of young impressionable minds in scripting a narrative and images that it is right and fun to kill the bad guy. This is rewarded (operant conditioning) by points and challenges. Emotionally the fun of winning coupled with adrenalin deepens the positive response to the game evoking joy in killing as normalised. Language changes to words like kill, take out, cleaning out, cleansing, mowing down people akin to the sanitised language of the military which doesn’t talk about murder, mutilation, civilian deaths, rape, starvation and terrorising. Real words are not used as the narrative of violence sets the scene as it is only a game. Some will argue that it is not real and kids know this but what if I was to say to you that the universal mind does not know the difference between imagination and real life nor the psyche as discussed above. I use this term universal mind as we are creators of our reality and our thoughts create and manifest our life so what we believe often enough coupled with emotions creates. This happens collectively, if all believe the world is a dangerous place you have just escalated the potential for violence. These violent scenarios become part of childhood memory and children will not be able to understand the programming and the intention of more sales by those who profit from this type of software. The inventors of the games have no training in child development, psychology, trauma, operant conditioning, wiring of the brain etc. They have no idea how the violent images embed in the psyche producing nightmares and the belief that the world is a dangerous place. I know children who are terrified at night believing the bad guys are out there. The fear is intense. The companies in this industry see no responsibility for producing such violent entertainments and how they actually affect the lives of thousands of young children and impact violence in the community. As fear increases, projection onto others increases and behaviour is affected as psychologically the emotional reactions embed fear and normalise killing thoughts and actions. How we think repeatedly becomes thought patterns generating neural networks which embed patterns over and over and the way you literally see the world. It is like the cup half empty or half full. Do you see a evil world or a good world. For me I see goodness in this world and I have experienced the negative, but my mind is positive as I know human nature in my experience. My life is peaceful. I have no fear around the events in the US I am observing them. I see these experiences as wake up calls to question the world they want to co-create. I observe the President speaking of unity yet supporting repression in another country in the name of unity. I can see he doesn’t see the big picture. He speaks of hate and love in the same sentence. He doesn’t get the emotional intelligence aspect of looking into the psychology and working out how to de-escalate fear. He supports weapons in society given his speech to the National Rifle Association (NRA). They were mentioned in Bowling for Columbine.
The repetitive gaming in my view is a form of mind control and it creates a psychological foundation of violence as acceptable defence and attack in the human psyche. It detaches the game player from the consequence of actions as they live in a cyber reality yet it impacts their lived reality through programming. This mirrors in warfare where soldiers become console operators pressing buttons to release missiles but having not connection with the people on the ground, their families, the great pain and terror caused. It is sanitised in so many ways. Those on the ground would see it directly and they return traumatised. I went to a forum at the War Memorial in Melbourne, Australia. Soldiers were talking about PTSD and how they felt so alone on returning, they suffered greatly from the exposure to violence. We as humans are very fragile. In the games there is no such reality it is just a game. Consequences and critical thinking are extremely important for children to learn if they are to understand the reality of violence. It doesn’t feel good and people suffer enormously in war zones. It is not all about winners and losers, it is about a consciousness that sees an enemy not a human in a context of diversity. It is a consciousness that does not know the geopolitical reality around decisions made by leaders, the profit intentions of those in the industries supporting it and the centuries of beliefs that have fed the image of men as warriors. Thus murdering through military has been celebrated as heroic and brave yet the person who kills in a civilian setting is a criminal and they go to jail. Yet they too see an enemy out there. In schools that teach ethics they will encourage questioning and consequences developing in young people deeper contemplation about truth and perspectives. They will consider more critically the sides and this will affect attitudes and change behaviour. So the right to bare arms could be critically appraised re: the civilian protecting their family killing an intruder as they come in, let’s say they were innocent but it was dark or they were drunk etc. By contrast peace education and peacemaking has not been promoted at all. I did write a proposal for neighbourhood conflict resolution and getting involved so people get to know their neighbours and take turns to mediate local conflict. I sent it to lawyers who had ads in the paper saying they wanted to reduce violence. I gained no response. Peace education has little to no funding or support, it is barely mentioned as an alternative. The few choice cuts we hear in the media about Gandhi or those advocating for peace and nonviolence is minor compared to the drama and airtime given to violence. I recall teaching peace to discover that children thought violence was fun and peace was boring. I was a peace clown so tried to convey the fun of juggling, the fun of problem solving, mediation, anti-bullying, the fun of being silly and goofing around with humour to build a loving classroom. I saw the conditioning particularly in the boys. This is a huge issue that is barely discussed. The men are leaving their families, they are not role modelling like they used to and violent games is replacing families that are present. Most are working long hours, separated or divorced and the kids have no real idea of what is normal. It is a deep social problem that is left unaddressed as capitalism as profit over people takes the reins rather than social policy that ensures fairness, balance, equity and true unity.
The reality of war in facing death would be terrifying and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a reality for those who go to war for real or are raised in violent homes. I’ve met soldiers and I recall one Vietnam Vet telling me he sees the little girl he killed in his nightmares. It was Scott Ritter (a solider, former weapons inspector) in his speech at the University of Melbourne whereby he said that war was disgusting, he did state he thought it necessary. I disagree with that. I see Byron Katie’s point of putting all war on paper as the way to dispel the myth of violence to recognise it is our projection. There is so much baggage that hangs off violence in respect of heroism, nationalism, control, the game of war, strategy, dominance, balance of power etc. It is very seductive to those who crave power and feel secured by it. It is like a drug to sooth our disease or dis ease. In truth it is unintegrated emotions (fear based) that we have not sat with and dealt with. Michael Brown (Presence Process) speaks about these unintegrated childhood emotions of fear, guilt, anger etc. that reside within each person that they project out when angry. We are not trained to actually go inside and feel what is happening emotionally, instead we seek to suppress with distractions to sedate our discomfort. This is how drugs, alcohol, escapism and projection become an unquestioned aspect of our suppressed violence. So I can see why they want violence they think peace is a boring scenario. What they don’t understand is that life becomes incredibly exciting when you work on peace to realise and unlock the true freedom and infinite possibilities that life is waiting to give you. We keep attracting the same conflicts rather than healing the past and opening to creativity which is where the real life and self expression emerges. This is the heartland literally of happiness. It is incredibly exciting. there is real magic in it. However, the world barely knows the missing peace it just sees it as anti-war and cookies by arm chair critics who have no idea of the real world. Conflict that transforms into peace is the beginning of a higher consciousness as it takes us beyond our stories that will eventually destroy us if we are not careful or indeed mindful.
Therefore, in the psychology of killing as entertainment playing is fun and violence is normalised as a challenge. In a natural world the violence training is illogical if people seek a safe world where we learn to relate to diversity, we problem solve and find nonviolent pathways. The problem we still see in the culture of violence is that all sides think the other side is the ‘bad guy’. Negativity is the bad guy in the room, nothing else. They all have their reasons or stories. They are promoted as heroes on one side and murders, rebels or terrorists on the other side. There is no investigation into the psychology of what develops insecurity, fear, weaponisation, justified as a projection of a harmful enemy rather than turning the focus inward at the inner unquestioned fears of a person looking fearfully out at a world that is perceived as dangerous. The real work is reflective self inquiry and problem solving if we are serious about stopping the violence, massacres and endless wars. Can we be honest about the drivers of violence or do we remain in the same paradigm which is becoming impossible to control with the ability to destroy the world 4 times over? What do we choose? This is the real world game and we are all players. Buckminster Fuller speaks about the World Peace Game refer https://www.bfi.org/about-fuller/big-ideas/world-game. The masculinity that will survive in the future will role model gentleness as strength, critical thinking, inductive thinking, unity consciousness and remembering the feminine as nurturing and caring for others. The feminine is not female it is integration for wholeness. The same applies to women to integrate the masculine. This develops empathy and depth rather than superficial platitudes which become attitudes justifying violence.
I am mindful when watching the television as I am housesitting. I don’t like to put into my consciousness violence or abuse. However, documentaries I will look at in order to understand why people traffic arms, why wars are perceived as solutions to internal conflict and outcomes overtime. When I speak of internal conflict what I mean is the emotional discomfort (unintegrated emotions from childhood wounding), anger, fear and grief – all negativity comes from within us, it is generated by emotional wounding and beliefs that we are unsafe. In my work in peace I have realised that the real security comes from within, that it is generated by understanding others, understanding cultures, motivations and finding ways to empower empathy, dialogue, conflict resolution and questioning unquestioned thoughts. This is the real work or training in conflict transformation. I came to realise The Work of Byron Katie as one of the ways to transform conflict by seeking truth over winning or might as right. Deeply embedded into the psyche is the idea of winning and losing. Winners feel approval, admiration and love whilst losers a designated failures, rejected, isolated and outside the main game. It takes great courage to decide to lose in the eyes of society but win in terms of inner power. Empowerment is about freedom from fear and infinite possibility. The traditional paradigm of disempowerment uses arms to scare off potential or imagined threats rather than deeply determining the root cause of the threat or fear. We have not evolved to a point of really problem solving and de-escalating the violence through solving grievances, investigating the drivers in conflict effectively, developing peace building and ensuring clarity around dialogue and mutual understanding. Developing friendship, diplomacy, empathy and learning to work together moves us closer towards a world that can begin to look at establishing peace as a foundation. When we see others as ourselves the whole paradigm shifts and you can never go back to what you knew. It is a shift that is happening today around the world and it does not happen through movements but is natural when we start to question.
The US may want to deeply explore the violence within that is arising from deep fear and media that reinforces the danger and threats without educational based analysis. Consider peace journalism and solutions oriented media to reveal all perspectives and drivers and that we have the power to de-escalate violence and shift towards a Culture of Peace as advocated by UNESCO. The real game for children is one of problem solving, mediation, preventing bullying through developing empathy, involvement and conflict transformation to generate positive relations with other children rather than competing for attention to compensate for absent parents and then playing games to fill in time or escape the world outside. They may well be living for The End game rather than infinite choices in the game of life. The latter is a possibility that will evoke a world fit for children.
Below is the narrative of violent games endorsing violence through exciting gaming and embedding the demonization of others through the word ‘enemy’ or as a ‘war on terror’. In truth you cannot have a war on terror, war is terror and only expands it, this is the endless war that is not a theory. Always there is depicted the bad guy or evil doer to fight in the defence of freedoms or the ‘good’. This is how egoic consciousness reinforces identity subconsciously. Visit The New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (war is a mindset) refer http://selfhelprobot.com/a-new-earth-by-eckhart-tolle-chapter-by-chapter-summary-chapter-3-the-core-of-ego. This will help you explore the game of real violence and fighting and how it is justified. The resistance only embeds the problem you want to vanish. What you resist persists is the reality. The Law of Attraction is a universal law that espouses that what you focus on expands. So if you don’t want terrorism then don’t focus on it and teach the young to fear it. You must start up dialogue, investigate the driver behind the violence, the culture of violence that supports violence as a solution (get rid of the irritant) rather than looking within as I have stated above. We have to become honest enough to look into our own violence and unconscious behaviour which leads to the growth of violence. Violent video games ensure this mentality is the only thing left standing after all is destroyed. However, experience of violence then turns the table as we see in the US on the reflection of Las Vegas and the determination to stop violence. A conversation needs to start but it must be a deeper conversation than control but more about role modelling, gaming of violence as training and the fear that is the mask of the tough guy who is terrified inside. This is a simplistic worldview that prepares a younger generation for the narrative of violence. It is an expanding industry that profits from violent intent.
This is a review not the analysis has no comment on peace or nonviolence. The last sentence validates my point. Why are shooters happening? They are home grown.
Note: Apologies if I repeated myself I had a flow of ideas and just went with it. I send love to the games creators, the military, governments and all those who believe in violence, I am not your enemy, those who cause discomfort are messengers. A wise one said – don’t shoot the messenger but look at the message what is it teaching you. My message is We are One, what we do to others we do to ourselves).
http://au.ign.com/articles/2003/11/11/fugitive-hunter-war-on-terror
Fugitive Hunter: War on Terror
Low-budget blockhead goes off in search of evildoers.
A game that’s four years in the making, but looks like one-tenth of that time was spent, Fugitive Hunter almost gives the phrase “quick and dirty” a bad name. As CIFR (Criminal Interdiction and Fugitive Recovery Task Force) Agent Seaver, the goal here is to capture terrorists around the world, leading up to Osama bin Laden himself. It’s a first-person shooter of the most third-rate variety and releasing this title must have been a matter of getting it out so the people involved with making it could move on with their lives.
Gameplay
Fugitive Hunter is all about getting a collection of big guns and blasting at loads of baddies. Machine guns? Check. Grenade launchers? Check. Rocket launchers? Check. Enemies that pile on in hordes and respawn to liven up the action? Check. Wait a minute, go back one there.
Let’s get started with this most bizarre feature in a first-person shooter: the never-ending thug. Some moments of Fugitive Hunter bring drug dealers and Al Qaeda members back from the dead. Clear out a level and all of a sudden someone will start shooting you in the back because they just appeared there. The usual task of mopping up a level to find all the hidden treats suddenly got livelier.
How do I know that they re-spawn and aren’t just coming in from another room? Well, one fellow appeared inside of a crate. This gave him the ability to shoot me while I couldn’t shoot him. Other people appeared half in walls, stuck there until I shot their arms and legs to death.
In the later levels in Afghanistan, the act of leaving a room or hallway and coming back will fill it back up with guys shooting at you. When I was trying to find all the final objectives to capture the big guy himself and did a lot of backtracking in caves, I had to repeatedly mow down the same group of guys. Since the health power-ups have a limit per level, this meant that taking too long led to more enemies which led to death which led to using up more continues.
Cats have nine lives and in Fugitive Hunter you’ll get eight to start with. Starting out with seven continues, more can be earned by finding hidden medallions throughout the game. Instead of forcing a level to be replayed, a continue can be used to keep going from the same spot with 100% health and armor. Apparently, since the enemies can come back to life, so can you. It’s a band-aid fix for a gushing wound of a game. If players run into an excessive firefight that’s severely unbalanced it’s all right because they can plow through with continues.
The only person that can’t be killed is the fugitive that is being hunted. Taking the action down a few more notches, engaging the boss leads to a fighting game. Complete with health bars on top of the screen and combos that involve hitting just two buttons at once, this is one of the dumbest and goofiest fighting simulations I’ve ever seen. Get the health bar low enough and the grappling mode starts where fast tapping on the X button beats them into submission. Just mashing my thumb all over the buttons saved the day.
The actual plot of the game is almost too bad to go into. In infiltrating a cocaine cartel’s house, a woman on the beach, Carmina, provides the key to the front gate. Later on, inside the house, an objective is given to rescue her and when you do she gives you the code to ride the elevator to the basement. There’s no explanation for how she was captured or why she has this info because there’s never any more back story than bounty being offered to nab the terrorist leaders.
Graphics
No graphics could really save this game, but it would have been nice if they even tried. Characters don’t move their mouths when they speak and have less movement in their bodies than my old G.I. Joe action figures.
The walls and all of the objects on the levels have maybe a dozen polygons between them, leaving right angles all over the place. Some caverns are so simple I would believe it if an intern had been allowed to do the whole thing.
The menus and intro screens are incredibly low-budget affairs. Video from the news, Al Qaeda training videos, and footage of flags get put into a collage to express the need for a terrorist task force. Maybe a fifth of the footage is actually made just for this game.
Sound
The music and audio will make you either cringe or groan, sometimes both at once. The voices collect some of the worst one-liners from all the action movies and put them here. Every time I used the scope on the sniper rifle I heard, “time to get close and personal,” or “it’s time to get close,” or something similar. Killing an enemy often causes some other statements like “gotcha,” or “he won’t be coming back.” Even during the grappling scenes with the fugitives, both of them are making comments the whole time. While being strangled, one fugitive kept going off about how I’d never find all his bank accounts to which Seaver responded, “I’m closing your account.”
The soundtrack is a group of some hip-hop throwaway tracks. Kicking in during the action, a few tracks favor twangy Middle Eastern melodies that are backed by bouncy, bassy rhythms. Meant to amp up the action, its high-pitched melody serves more as an incentive to kill everyone to get it to stop. A mellower hip-hop track on the soundtrack features a lazy MC who keeps repeating the phrase, “Fugitive Hunter. PS2. Comin’ for me and comin’ for you,” as if I had completely forgotten just what game I was playing on what system.
Fugitive Hunter is not the worst first-person shooter out there by a long shot, but it dives pretty low. With low-budget quality in every different aspect of the game, it’s only the appeal of going after Osama bin Laden that drives this title. With bin Laden out of the news ever since the Iraqi war started, even this distinction has faded a bit. I could only recommend it if someone were to have a deep down urge to kill a lot of people wearing turbans.