Swiss Find That Gamers Commit War Crimes

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Two Swiss human rights organizations got together and tested a set of 19 war games, with the goal of looking for ‘virtual’ rights violations and the breaking of the Geneva Convention. Not surprisingly, they found that most war games don’t follow the Geneva Convention.

Released on the heals of ‘Modern Warfare 2′ (which featured a segment where players could kill several hundred civilians in a Russian airport), the report from the Swiss claims that games are sending the wrong message to the world’s youth. They claim that games today promote the idea that wars today are waged without limits and that counter-terrorist operations have no legal or moral limitations.

The Swiss found that the following things were currently allowed in popular war video games, killing civilians, torture, unnecessary destruction of buildings, killing of combatants who surrendered, the use of heavy anti-vehicle weapons on on-foot combatants, and finally, the destruction of churches and mosques.

The study scolds game developers, saying that players of these games will often commit several war crimes during the play through, and then are rewarded at the end of the game, where in real life, they would be punished for war crimes. The Swiss don’t want games less violent, they just want war games to more accurately and safely follow the rules of the Geneva Convention.

Sound off, TFTS readers: Do you feel that games should enforce virtual soldiers to follow the Geneva Convention? Should players be punished for not following the Geneva Convention?