When War Meets Video Games

Journal #3

War games are really becoming popular currently for many reasons. The dominant reason I can think of is because of its realism. War games like Call of Duty let you play the game as various war heroes and they let you play in some key battles that they fought in. This also adds to the war game’s popularity because of the feeling of destroying/dominating your enemy. I know this because I myself enjoy playing Call of Duty and other various war games and shooter games. I also think that these games have become popular is because of the rush you get while you play; the feeling of victory. War games also attract many history buffs to them because they are, again, so realistic like the actual war.

“If it’s not realistic, it’s not worth playing.”

Many people will debate that the realistic war games desensitize people to the horrors of war or if it’s just plain fun. The answer to this question doesn’t have a right or wrong answer because many people will have different views as to how war games affect us all. I for one think that war games do desensitize us from war just a little bit. This is because people that play war games a lot will tend to forget that war has catastrophic after effects that aren’t shown in the game. Although I haven’t played every war game out there, Call of Duty is an exception to this. The Call of Duty series not only is an enjoyable game to play and have fun with, it is also informative. In between missions the game shows footage of World War II and doesn’t make it look like nothing happened and it’s just for fun. They make the game realistic and actually intimidate what the war was actually like. For example, watch the video I got for the intro to one of the Call of Duty games; (Please turn off my music video at the bottom of the page before viewing the video, thanks.) Please watch all of it because it really does show how horrible the war was and that in this game you’re not in the unrealistic scenario of one man vs. an army, but in the scenario of an army vs. an army.



I personally can’t get enough of the realistic war games. Not the war games that have unrealistic battle but the war games that actually are accurate with history. These games don’t desensitize me from war; they make me more aware of what it might have actually been like to be there. I for one have loved these games for that reason because it makes you actually come as close as you can to trying to realize what it must’ve been like for those soldiers who fought in the war.

Basically, it depends on how you use the game and to what extent. If you take the game too seriously and think that war is exactly like that, it’s not. The games are just based on some of the events in the war and the game creators just tried to make it as realistic as possible and tried to make it fun for the gamer while informing them about war.

In real life, no one has extra lives.