Letters to the Editor

Virtually dead in Iraq To protest the war in Iraq, a media artist infiltrates the U.S. Army's popular online video game and gets himself shot. While angry gamers, soldiers and even some peace activists call him a nuisance, others say his message hits home. By Rebecca Clarren [2006-09-16]

• It's counter productive

  I know, I game. Most of these games involve killing another player in some way or another, Battlefield2, Red Orchestra, World of Warcarft, etc. The reason gamers fight and kill each other online has nothing to do with wanting to actually kill a person or even fight a war, it's because the limits of artificial intelligence means the only really skilled opponents are other gamers.

  Gamer is much like a sport is the sense of community, and those that upset this sense of community really piss off the players.

  It's a game, against competitive people, if you die, you simply respawn again. It's not real.

  Typing in names of those who actually died will not convince gamers about the War, and if anything will have the opposite affect. This protester is seen as nothing more than an idiot and gamers won't want to be associated with anything having to do with said idiot.

  Also, far too many of those who don't game make assumption about us that do. We understand it's a game, and because gaming means you met a very large group of people, even if it's only online, we all know people who we only know online that have died in real life. Listing deaths will not be taken as a form of protest but an attack on gaming itself, and that won't lead to any sympathy to the person's agenda.

  -- Xanthro
  [Read Xanthro's other letters]
  Permalink Flag Friday, September 15, 2006 09:19 PM
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