Video Games vs. Real Life

This week’s reading actually surprised me. I was especially drawn to it because I am embarrassingly uninformed on the subject, and found it extremely interesting how they related it to such a big part of growing up and of our society. Video games have become part of a male’s lifestyle for what seems like his whole life, but they are not just limited to men. These video games, regardless of how real they may seem, are not a real indication of how these situations would play out in real life. Personally, I had always wondered about the similarities and differences between video games and actual combat and so this article was pretty cool to read. Gregory mentions, “immersion in video games is discontinuous—levels are re-started, situations re-set, games paused—and… immersion in the live video feeds is intrinsically continuous” (Gregory 198). Video games are a fun way to pretend like you are in the armed forces, but still have full control over everything, whereas in real life (and similarly the live video feed used to train them) nothing is guaranteed to be under your control and you need to be ready for anything. Another interesting point he made was the fact that a trained soldier has to face the emotional and mental distress that comes with causing and seeing death. The video feeds are claimed to help them in training by providing real images that can replicate possible situations, and therefore when they are in combat they experience everything. Shooting missiles is a real act and seeing death is a real sensation; it still affects them. I found this to be pretty impressive that the military uses such high-tech material to ensure the soldiers are the best prepared for real-life action and its consequences.