Are Bad Results Inevitable?

[Maine farmer]

Hahaha. Too true. I for one can say that oddly enough my excessive hours in CS:GO, coming up on around 650 hours of time spent alive in-game(according to http://csgo-stats.com/76561198056376692/), my reflexes have actually improved a great deal, specifically in response to peripheral objects and thrown objects. Didn't do much for eye-hand coordination, but I already play hockey and played lacrosse in the past so it's kind of a non-issue, but I digress. Sometimes when people do certain gestures I make as if to counter them out of habit, even though I only ever controlled my character with my mouse, I don't twitch my wrists or my fingers I actually move my body. Also, my aim with a real rifle has improved a great deal since I started playing tactical shooters, probably because sway in those games is unpredictable and erratic, whereas in real life you can feel the movements of a rifle. I might be going off topic here but it has a point I think. What I am saying is this, if my reactions to people in real life can be so altered without even moving my real body when learning to react that way, how much worse will it be when time spent in game is increased and real body movements and muscle memory are taken into account? Plus, I don't know if the concept of muscle memory is actually a function of the brain or the muscle, if it were the brain, then playing a first person shooter would train you with the weapons you play with, and hand-to-hand combat in games would translate directly to real world capability assuming the person was in decent shape. Even then, sufficient skill can overpower strength at times. Maybe we'll see a generation of hyper-lethal super nerds after this! Bullying would end overnight(at least for nerds. the jocks might get a ****-kicking).

Now this brings to mind what might happen when we get a lot of people desensitized to violence, AND they gain combat skills !

[NotBrad]

Now this brings to mind what might happen when we get a lot of people desensitized to violence, AND they gain combat skills !

Hell, not necessarily, I am proficient with a rifle now and use it quite often to kill pests. There are many others like me out there who also do this, isn't actually killing something more desensitizing than playing a video game today? I mean looking at VR and seeing that possibility is one thing but I already kill stuff on a monthly basis(legally of course, I have all necessary licenses to do so) and I turned out fine!(arguably of course... I also had an extremely violent nature as a child that can be drawn out under certain circumstances...) But I digress, I fully believe I would be able to kill another human being if I had to, and if I had either of my rifles or my sidearm I wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger if it was to protect myself or my family, I might regret that action but I would do it. Does that define me as being desensitized? Maybe, but that's the exact type of thing the game would train anyway, those players might become extremely violent if provoked but the circumstances necessary to provoke would still be similar to the game; that being an armed attacker. So no I don't think it would be any different from soldiers who come home and very rarely express their formerly violent natures on the people around them.

Edited April 26, 2016 by NotBrad