The idea of an action adventure that put the player into a series of defining humanitarian situations allowing the story to spin-off in the player's moral direction is interesting – but it's hugely unlikely in the action cinema world of the modern shooter.įurthermore, the ICRC statement makes clear that it is not interested in other genres – it is concentrating on combat games that depict and concentrate on contemporary battlefields. Titles like Fable, Heavy Rain, Walking Dead and Dishonored all provide different paths for a player depending on their moral decisions during play – and because the action is combined with a confirming narrative element, the meaning and weight of transgression can come through. We do often see the consequences of player actions being threaded into gameplay, but this tends to be in the adventure genre. Within the action, civilians are are not people who deserve humane treatment, they're walking fail states to be avoided in the pursuit of success.
shoot civilian, fail mission – the player will usually read these instances in ludic terms. But then if the consequences of illegal operations are subsumed into the gameplay mechanics – i.e. The question is, how feasible are the ICRC's aims and will players really take on board the lessons about humanitarian law? It is difficult to imagine a Call of Duty or Battlefield title in which shooting a civilian leads to a mission where the player is detained in a military prison for several months before being tried and sentenced. The ICRC says it is now working directly with the developers of modern military simulations and the BBC report contains an interview with Marek Spanel of Bohemia Interactive, creator of the Arma series, who claims the studio's games will now be implementing the suggestions.Īrma 2: The Red Cross believes that as video games become ever more realistic, they should also adhere to international rules of warfare. We would like to see the law of armed conflict integrated into the games so that players have a realistic experience and deal first-hand with the dilemmas facing real combatants on real battlefields. Our intention is not to spoil player's enjoyment by for example, interrupting the game with pop-up messages listing legal provisions or lecturing gamers on the law of armed conflict. Gamers should be rewarded for respecting the law of armed conflict and there should be virtual penalties for serious violations of the law of armed conflict, in other words war crimes. The ICRC is suggesting that as in real life, these games should include virtual consequences for people's actions and decisions. A Q&A document posted on the organisation's website explains: What the Red Cross wants to see then is the player being penalised for carrying out such actions as willfully killing civilians or torturing enemy combatants, both of which are punishable under international law. "It's difficult to make out the difference between real footage and the footage you get from video games." "Video games that represent contemporary battlefields are very close to reality," he said. In a BBC news report earlier this week, however, Francois Senechaud from the International Committee of the Red Cross told a reporter that, due to the increasing verisimilitude between first-person shooters and real-life combat, games should start to abide by the international laws of armed conflict. What you won't get is a military tribunal and a dishonorable discharge. These days, if you accidentally (or otherwise) shoot a civilian or comrade in a military shooter, you'll probably get a 'mission failed' message and a one-way trip back to the last checkpoint.
Of course, this was really more about mechanics than ethics: players were being tested on their reactions and visual awareness, and failure meant a reduction in game time rather than a few moments' reflection on innocent victims. But what it wouldn't let you do was kill passing civilians: collateral damage of this sort took a big chunk off your health bar. It even let you control the action with an Uzi-style sub-machine gun bolted to the cabinet.
I remember my first go on Taito's explosive arcade title Operation Wolf – it was the late-80s and this frenzied blast-'em-up, with its jungle environment and hostage rescue missions, was clearly gunning for a generation of Rambo II fanatics. This is something military games have been telling us for many years.