What do the veterans think of ww2 computer games?

Discussion in 'The Lounge Bar' started by marcus69x, Feb 9, 2007.

  1. marcus69x

    marcus69x I love WW2 meah!!!

    Just wondering if any veterans on this site play any ww2 computer games and if so what do you think of them? Do you think they're realistic (as realistic as a game could be) and do they remind you of your time in service? Or do you think they're a load of rubbish?
    I was thinking about it last night and just wondering what your thoughths are....

    many thanx
     
  2. T. A. Gardner

    T. A. Gardner Senior Member

    While my own military experiance has been limited to the US Navy (27 years), I would say from what I do know of land warfare and more extensive knowledge of naval warfare, there is no game that even comes close to reality. I virtually all there are far too many targets and far too much destruction going on. Reality would make for a relatively boring game of alot of nothing happening (or just boring stuff) punctuated by moments of sheer terror and horrific violence. Military reality makes for a boring game.
     
  3. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Just wondering if any veterans on this site play any ww2 computer games and if so what do you think of them? Do you think they're realistic (as realistic as a game could be) and do they remind you of your time in service? Or do you think they're a load of rubbish?


    As no other "vets" seem to be around at this time in the morning I thought I'd throw in my two pennyworth.
    I spend an inordinate amount of time on the computer but never bother with games...not quite true, as sometimes I will play a hand of bridge or a spot of Patience. On the odd occasion my wife & I will play a game of scrabble but never war games as you may know them.
    When my grandson visits he will sometimes gravitate to the PC and demonstrate what his generation can do with the computer and I feel quite sick at the speed at which he manipulates the characters in the games that he plays.
    Despite the fact that I am not a war-game man I manage to derive much joy from the internet, including managing five Blogs, and I have yet to reach a stage when I can't fill my time constructively.
    I'm sure we will talk more on this subject :)
    Cheers
    Ron
     
  4. sapper

    sapper WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    War Games of any type can never give the atmosphere of war, The only way to do that is to get out of your slit when the mortars are raining down, and your pals are falling terrible mutilated.
    Games cannot show you that, or make you feel what war is like.
    I bet there are not many 82 year olds that use computers anyway, and a damn sight less that play games!
    Sapper
     
  5. BulgarianSoldier

    BulgarianSoldier Senior Member

    We are out of luck, there arn't any wars right now.For now we could only play ww2 or outher war games.Games arn't created to make you feel your in war, they can make you learn more about the weapons and about the history, im not sure that the young generation is going to sit down and read books about ww2,but im sure they will prefer to play a pc game about ww2 and maybe they will understand what the hell happend 60-70 years befor they were borned.
     
  6. Kyt

    Kyt Very Senior Member

    We are out of luck, there arn't any wars right now.

    Oh, I don't know about that Dani - how about dusting off that old AK47 and having a holiday in one of these places ;)

    The World at War

    Don't forget to send a postcard :D
     
  7. marcus69x

    marcus69x I love WW2 meah!!!

    I'm quite surprised none of you veterans have played any ww2 games, I was quite looking forward to your comparison to real war. The thing is, game makers are continously trying to re-create the 'feeling of war', and although the "sheer terror and horrific violence" cannot be felt through a computer game, I feel a sense of what it may have been like that appeals to me when I play ww2 games. (god I love 'em).
    In Call of Duty 3 for example, (PS3 and Xbox 360) When you have a hand to hand fight with a german, at first their expression is full of anger and determination, then turns to panic as he realises he's losing, then absolute panick as he realises you've got the better of him. It actualy makes you feel sorry for killing him.

    Give it 20 years and you will actually be there.
     
  8. Kyt

    Kyt Very Senior Member

    It may be worthwhile finding out what research has been carried out on the effectiveness of America's Army
     
  9. marcus69x

    marcus69x I love WW2 meah!!!

    It may be worthwhile finding out what research has been carried out on the effectiveness of America's Army
    What do you mean by that Kyt?
     
  10. marcus69x

    marcus69x I love WW2 meah!!!

    What do you mean by that Kyt?


    Oh I see. Didn't see the link.
     
  11. southern geordie

    southern geordie Junior Member

    Playing at War..
    You cannot PLAY at war. Lesson one in basic training is "to learn how best to kill the enemy".That is not a game. Afterwards in games, the players stand up again, have a few laughs and walk about a bit. In the real thing, the losers (and often the victors also) scream in agony and cry for their mothers, that is, if they are still able to do so. War is a serious matter with no (sensible) 'playing' about it. Like smoking cigarettes, smoking guns in war, can seriously damage your health. Governments should issue public warnings to all of their citizens, not to indulge themselves it it. However, often the time arrives (too often) when war becomes inevitable and then war does become a tradgic reality, for many, many people (God forbid). Once begun the players are not allowed to stop and to go home (and to switch off the P.C.) and go to bed. Amuse yourself if you must but don't deceive yourself that you can 'play' in the reality of war nor to experience, vicariously the true reality of warfare. It is a true saying, worthy of constant remembrance, that "war is hell" and there is no substitute for it. Well that is what I think.
    Southern Geordie.
     
  12. BulgarianSoldier

    BulgarianSoldier Senior Member

    Everybody knows and no one clams that the games can make you experiance the real atmosphere of the war.We already agree on that.
    But tell me people if it wasn't Medal of Honor,Call of Duty how much kids whould know about ww2.The games made the war to look interesting in the growing generation, they play the games, and maybe then they start to learn to be interested in it.Game industries know that they cant make the atmosphere of the real war in the game.
    PC games about ww2 are made to make you familiar with what happand in the past, even if you watch movies and read books you cant feal the reality of the war.Nobody who wasn't fighting during ww2 cant get the feeling of the real war.
    Look at the game that the Kyt mantion before Americas army, the game dont make you feel the war the game shows you the trainings,the responsability of joining US army.
    Theres nothing bad in the ww2 games.
     
  13. Hawkeye90

    Hawkeye90 Senior Member

    Georgie basically summed what I was going to say. As said before there is no video game that can depict what war really is, mentally and physically. I think its best veterans are not exposed to some modern war games, as they are an insult to these men who have fought in the past. The way some games depict history is simply ridiculous. The enemy in games such as Medal of Honor or Call of Duty are nothing but mindless figures running at you that you have to kill, the single handed slaughter of Axis soldiers presented in these games is pure bull s***. Some games make it seem as though allied casualties were rare and all the killing was done by the allies.

    Anyway, there are a few games that seem valid enough, I play Battlefield 1942 often. The sad thing is that some people believe that what they see in a video game is an accurate depiction of a war.
     
  14. BulgarianSoldier

    BulgarianSoldier Senior Member

    Yes Hawkeye90 i was going to say that in games like Call of Duty your goal is to kill the whole german army by yourself.You kill almost 50 germans by yourself, in reallity isn't that easy.The axis lose soldiers and the allies just lose a few, and you begin to ask yourself 'lol why they didn't beat them at the begining'.And there are games that you could change the history like Battlefield 1942 in Market garden you could win.
    There are a few games that you could feel how hard it was to kill someone like the game Red Orchestra it is harder.But anyway games cant make you experians what the veterans did, but many of the games including Call of Duty are based on information given by Veterans.
     
  15. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    For added realism, play the games on a laptop on a rainy night, in a self dug slit trench, in the roughest area of town whilst the local yobs throw bricks at you whilst trying to steal your lap top.

    If you are then tired, cold and scared that will be somewhere to "feeling" what it was like. By about 1 %.
     
  16. marcus69x

    marcus69x I love WW2 meah!!!

    For added realism, play the games on a laptop on a rainy night, in a self dug slit trench, in the roughest area of town whilst the local yobs throw bricks at you whilst trying to steal your lap top.

    If you are then tired, cold and scared that will be somewhere to "feeling" what it was like. By about 1 %.


    Hahahahahahaha. I might try that over whinney banks.
     
  17. BulgarianSoldier

    BulgarianSoldier Senior Member

    Drink some Jack Daniels, and something stronger maybe Russian 80 C Vodka and you will feel 2% of what it was like in the Russian army during the summers.
     
  18. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    An earlier mention of Scrabble led me back to this thread.

    Last night I was playing Scrabble on my iPad with the computer as my opponent.

    In the opening play I found an opportunity to use the word Nazi with it's high scoring letter Z.

    To my amazement it was refused by the computer with the error box saying "Not in the dictionary"

    With bad grace I substituted another word and then went online to find out why it didn't accept it.

    I was surprised to find that Nazi was a banned word according to Scrabble although to be fair I saw that that the word Jew is also banned, although they will allow Jewish !

    What I find particularly bemusing is that the Scrabble Dictionary seems to find thousands of words I have never heard whilst disallowing Nazi & Jew !

    It's a queer world :(

    Ron
     
  19. geoff501

    geoff501 Achtung Feind hört mit

    .......
    It's a queer world :(
    Ron

    That's probably banned :huh:
     
  20. Alan Allport

    Alan Allport Senior Member

    An earlier mention of Scrabble led me back to this thread.

    Nazi and Jew in their noun form are capitalized and therefore not allowed in SCRABBLE.

    There is an uncapitalized verb form of jew which is allowed in tournament play, but because it's regarded as a racially pejorative form it's omitted from the online game.

    Best, Alan
     

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