Call of Duty
Posted January 9th, 2008 @ 09:06pm by Erik J. Barzeski
Every time I pick up Call of Duty 4 I thank the stars I've never had to go to war. This game, largely due to its realistic guns, scares the crap out of me. Though I know that training, the survival instinct, and all manner of other things come into play, sometimes I wonder how everyone in real-life gunfights manages not to crap themselves and curl into the fetal position. It's scary shit.
That's not to say I don't love sniping someone in the face - I do. It's just that in those times when I ask myself "what if this was not a game" I get very, very scared. I mean, can you imagine? And yet people do this every day. Wow.
P.S. This isn't an anti-war post or anything of the sort.
Donate Life
Posted 13 Jan 2008 at 11:50pm #
Most people do. In WWII, no more than 25% of troops committed an offensive act (i.e. fired their gun in the direction of the enemy). In WWII the army send historians to interview troops right after combat (obviously not everyone, but everyone in a unit, to try and get as complete a picture as possible).
The US Army spend a lot of effort to change that stat, which only resulted in getting the troops to throw a lot of lead to little effect (10,000 rounds per enemy casualty in Viet Nam).
There have been some efforts to figure out who those who will try to kill the enemy are and make sure they are on the heavy weapons (for instance, I saw an article by an officer on how to spot the sociopaths in your unit for just that purpose).