Look out FPS gamers — the Red Cross has you in their sights:
Move aside, Milosevic. Out of the way, al-Bashir. It’s the world’s videogamers who should be hauled up on war crimes charges, some members of the Red Cross seem to think.
During the 31st International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, which took place in Geneva last week, attendees were asked to consider what response the organisations should make to the untold zillions of deaths that can be laid at the feet of videogamers.
[. . .]
There is “an audience of approximately 600 million gamers who may be virtually violating international humanitarian law (IHL),” it noted.
The key word there, folks, is ‘virtually’. Ruthlessly gunning down civilians, fellow combatants and/or extraterrestrial visitors may be a crime if you do it for real, but not if you merely imagine the action, even if helped by the realistic visuals of the likes of Battlefield 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
This is what happens when NGOs have nothing better to do, like save real lives, I guess. Is “morons” too strong an word for these busy bodies?
Comment by Dwayne — December 9, 2011 @ 23:24
It’s not the NGOs themselves we need to worry about: it’s the trained seals in the media who will automatically pass on the latest brain fart from the depths of these conferences. Then the hairspray-heads in politics take up the “cause” from there.
Comment by Nicholas — December 9, 2011 @ 23:52