War realism in games

This post will also generally cover what most aspects of first person shooters tend to use. War set games, one of the most commonly set is WWII- they generally keep quite faithful, historically speaking. With 'Medal of honor- Rising Sun' One of the games mentioned in a previous lecture, the team who worked on the game asked WWII veterans what it was like back then; first hand information on war experiences would be invaluable, aiding them to make the game as realistic as possible along with being historically accurate. There is a difference in making historically accurate games and actually asking what soldiers who actually witnessed these events and applying this to a game. After watching the 1 minute video of 'Rising Sun', it shows the calm before the storm- a torpedo quickly closing in on one of the ships in Pearl Harbour; the crew under the decks sound asleep, enjoying their day, then harshly interrupted by a hit to the ship. By showing the sequence of the main character running out from the barracks to the deck in first person it puts the viewer into the soldiers shoes, letting them picture how they would feel in this situation.

I have watched my boyfriend play plenty of first person shooters, while I can't deny, realistically it is very impressive, accuracy with events, weaponry and so forth is a key factor to these genre; I couldn't help but feel that it wasn't as horrifying as it should be. In my opinion this genre of gaming is a perfect representation of social realism, it's somewhat glorified so the audience will happily play through and shoot down the opposition; and the fact that these games are in first person emphasises this- its putting the player into the situation.