World peace through the virtual warfare of PS2

[RSphil]

for all you older players who watch scifi ROBOT JOX

all im gona say.

[diLLa]

Imagine the amount of cheats and hacks used in this situation.

[Superbus]

While all the other armies were out playing video games; i'd raise my own army with real guns and just take over

[Salad Snake]

It's a noble idea, and I commend you for posting it. However, people don't typically go to war to satisfy some urge to fight, the soldier go because they feel like they need to protect their family & friends, because they need to pay back to the country that raised them, and last but not least because they need money.

The people who start wars do so on the pretense of appealing to safety, patriotism, and religion, but deep down they start then through a different urge; the need for power and control (and greed, which in itself is a reflection of the urge to control). If you really want to change human nature, don't target the need to compete or engage in violence, target the urge for humans to have more worth than others and dominate/subjugate each other through the use of power & force.

Greed is also part of this, which is why I hope that one day we find a better way of conducting economies than communism & capitalism....

[Mythoclast]

"Damn, we lost the war game thingy, now we have to give them our oil...or just grab our guns and keep the oil anyways."

Generals use the word thingy a lot in my head.

[Toppopia]

I agree with the OP, we should put down our firearms, pick up the keyboards/game controllers and start using remote controlled robots to fight our battles.

Or.... turn real life into a video game like that movie called Gamer or whatever its called

[Brusi]

If gaming were a real threat to military enlistments, i'm sure they would be banned by our respective governements.

I would say, quite the opposite is the case. Now every young man in the first world seems more fully informed and primed for the art of war than any time of relative peace in modern history.

[Kezz]

Originally Posted by RageMasterUK

ALERT. FLAMABLE IDEA INCOMING.

Men like to fight. War is in our blood. We have evolved as a species because of our ability to fight and to survive. But, no-one likes to get hurt and die. People join up to armies for action and adventure, teamwork, comradery and a sense of belonging. Can they get it elsewhere?

Sure. But governments (and their opponents who can't/won't use the ballot box/civil disobedience) will still want control of resources, and will be able to persuade the young that it's worth fighting for what they want. And the last nation with an army gets to take its pick of resources, if it's a mind to.

You can't export conflict to a different arena without the agreement of all parties to the conflict, and if they could agree on that, they'd not be fighting. Boots on the ground is the basic measure of control, and democracy only exists because people with guns will protect it.

[adddemon]

Any benefit a "virtual" war has ends the moment one of the sides starts killing people out of the game, and it would happen I promise it.

So it kinda renders the benefits moot doesn't it?

[IAMDANIEL]

i feel smarter after reading this just knowing that someone thought this was a good idea makes me feel better about myself.

[Ivam Akorahil]

just as you stated it yourself, massive dream, never happening, the idea is interresting but its just not going to happen. ever.

[Piper]

Though I really should know better than to post in this thread of all threads, I'm weak.

My nation, currently, is gripped by Olympic fever (it's hugely depressing, but that's another topic). One can suggest that competitive sporting between rival groups was either an attempt by us to circumvent our need for hostility or just a stage on which to train people (mostly men let's face it) for the rigors of war and demonstrate one groups power to another.

Either which way, this is not a novel idea.