Videogames Used to Train Terrorists?

kalpatin writes "Reuters reports that videogames are being used to train terrorists. The title Counter-Strike is apparently being used as a tool to prepare individuals for a mission: blowing up an oil tanker. The ultimate goal is to 'make the strait of Hormuz impassable, the Jomhouri-ye Eslami daily reported. About two-fifths of globally traded oil passes through the channel. The game illustrates a warning by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said in June that oil exports in the Gulf region could be seriously endangered if the United States made a wrong move on Iran.'"

Comments

Guns used to train terrorist too....

[RingDev]

And yet we focus on video games?

-Rick

Is this just a counterstrike map?

[nweaver]

ITs unclear, but it sounds like its just a cool CounterStrike map.

If so, where can we get it, it sounds like fun!

Why, YES!

[ludomancer]

They are. It goes both ways I think: http://www.americasarmy.com/

Re:Why, YES!

[Anonymous Coward]

The military uses a VR environment with a real rifle with "real" blanks so you actually feel the pull of the trigger, the weight of the gun, and the kick of each shot as you fire.

Claiming that America's Army trains you to be a soldier by pushing a mouse around is like claiming Counterstrike teaches you to be a terrorist by cussing at spawn campers, spraying pornographic tags, leaping around like a bunny on crack, and being teabagged by a 13 year old after he kills you.

Real Terror

[Doc Ruby]

Videogames might or might not be used to train "terrorists". Until there's actual evidence of an Iranian training videogame, rather than just scary announcements by a controlled Iranian news organization, all we're sure of is that Iran is threatening to block the straits one way or another.

Of course, the US has sent a nuclear aircraft carrier, the Enterprise, to the region, possibly to confront Iran directly - the Enterprise as instrumental in "Operation Praying Mantis", the largest surface naval battle since WWII, between the US and Iran in the Persian Gulf in 1988. So the threats are flying thick and heavy in both directions.

But this is no videogame. The people who will die and get maimed will be real. Everyone has to look away from the screens and at the reality to see that this story is part of the propaganda war between the US and Iran, and recognize our own roles perpetuating and even escalating it.

So what?

[Pig Hogger]

So what?

The US have plenty of "antiterrorist" video games.

The US have plenty of nukular weapons.

Why are the yankees allowed to have video games and not the iranians?

Why are the yankees allowed to have nukular weapons and not the iranians?

Re:Not Surprising, and it's already being done

[Aim Here]

For the record, Under Siege (and Under Ash, the other game by the same people) don't condone terrorist actions, focusing instead on attacks on the Israeli IDF, which is illegally occupying several other countries. (Attacking on-duty soldiers is warfare, not terrorism, by most definitions of the word).

In fact, killing civilians ends the game instantly; the game is far MORE sensitive to charges of terrorism than many pro-American so-called anti-terrorist tactical FPSes.

"America's Army" videogame is the same thing

[billstewart]

So Iran's government likes a video game about blowing up its enemies' stuff. "America's Army" is a piece of American propaganda about killing its enemies and blowing stuff up. Different enemies, but it's still militarist propaganda. And just because it's from your political opponents doesn't make it terrorism - blowing up civilians to cause fear is terrorism, but blowing up oil tankers to stop your enemies from having access to oil is just war. Back during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, Iraq couldn't ship oil through the Gulf because of Iranian attacks on ships - most of it went by truck down through Jordan.

..

In contrast, Doom is about blowing up monsters while remembering not to use the rocket launcher in enclosed spaces, and you get to use cool weapons like a BFG-9000.

I hope they are training with CS

[brennz]

CS is nothing like real life.

First of all, lets talk about weapons.
M249 SAW, IRL this is the best weapon at the squad level. High cylic rate, accuracy like an M240 but light enough to easily run with, has a bipod. Great for 3-5 round bursts. You could say that an M4/M16 with an M203 attached might be overall more versatile, but still not so great at killing people. In CS, an M249 is the worst weapon you can choose, IRL the best. Don't argue with me on this, I've shot in excess of 10,000 rounds using an M60, and several thousands using both the m16, m4, m249 and M240G (was a machine gunner while active duty).

CS teaches people nothing about trigger pulling, breathing, good shooting form, proper ways to rush, pegging a target, etc. There is no concept of rolling in CS, no idea of the prone position, and the list goes on and on.

CS teaches nothing about operating at the true squad tactics in urban/MOUT operations.

Night vision in CS? lol. The US is so experienced at night ops, we actually want to do operations then.

Tactics? jump in, bunny hop, squat shoot strafe, squat shoot. I'd love to see some fundies try that against the US marines/army. They'll get those 40 virgins alot sooner lol.

Iran should keep in mind, their core competentcy is in terrorism and spouting anti-semetic hogwash, not confronting enemies in a real state vs. state conflict on the battlefield. It isn't like Israel is ready to drop the bomb on them already.

Flight Simulator

[metamatic]

In all seriousness, I used to spend a lot of time on Flight Simulator trying to fly my plane between the two towers of the World Trade Center. It's a lot harder than you might think. Hitting the corner of one of the towers head on must be even harder.

Re:"Counter Strike?"

[julesh]

Congratulations. You've just read the most exemplary case of "fact-checking required" published by an international news agency since... well... probably a few hours previously, actually.

Basically, it looks as though Reuters have simply translated an article from another language, tried to understand what the hell it was going on about, and printed the results. They've missed that the game isn't a new Iranian game called Counterstrike, but (presumably) a mod for the existing game of that name.

But it's the third to last paragraph that really shines for me...

A popular U.S. game, called "U.S. attacks Iran" or "Assault on Iran" and made by Kuma Reality games, revolved around a special forces mission to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities.

Err... couldn't decide how to tranlate the name back to English, so decided to use both possible translations, eh?

Anyway. Kuma games. I've only ever heard of them once before, and thought the review was rather fun.

Next task: Blow up the centrifuge. So back you go, and weirdly you can't blow up the centrifuge by pumping 40mm grenades into it. You expend all the 40mm grenades on hand. Did anyone think to bring along any C4? No, I thought you packed it! You knew we were going to have to blow up a centrifuge and no one brought any C4? What kind of chickenshit outfit is this? No C4. Oh well. But! Happy thing, just a few rifle rounds makes the centrifuge blow up. Task complete!

Re:Not Surprising, and it's already being done

[jafac]

terrorism is force against civilians for political purposes

What is fearmongering using terrorists for political purposes?