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Torture in Games
Recent comments from Richard Bartle, one of the developers for the first Multi-User Dungeon (MUD), stirred up discussion about whether virtual torture is acceptable as part of modern games. Bartle was referring to a quest in the latest World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, in which players are instructed to extract information from an NPC. He drew criticism for his view from a variety of sources, but Wired is now running a piece provocatively titled, "Why We Need More Torture in Games." The author makes the case that the failure of most media to properly portray how horrible torture actually is (for example, on the TV show 24), and the increased focus on real-world topics like Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and waterboarding, could make games the perfect venue for demonstrating the "devastating repercussions" of torture.
The best tool is Celine Dion.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
god. people like you refuse to read a comment and just feel like making emotionally driven responses that are completely unrelated.
My question was if there is proof of torture yielding less reliable, actionable evidence. if the vast majority of the names your grandfather and his brother gave were accurate to their knowledge, then the methods were very effective.
that you seem to think this point (a fact, not opinion) means I condone what is being done, then you are just looking for a mount to give your sermon.
my question is not about the emotional scars of your family or the physical scars they may have lived with. it's also not about whether you feel democracy is good or evil or if I feel torture is morally acceptable. It's not even a question that could possibly hint at me being republican/ bush supporter/ evangelical/ torture supporter. in fact, making any of those connections makes you about as good at analyzing evidence as the bush administration was.
I will take the small bit of your response that was germane to say "I know of two cases in which torture, after an extended period of time, gave highly accurate, actionable evidence but some details could have been incorrect due to the extreme conditions questioning took place in".
so far I have received a grand total of 3, 1 of which is a personal story that I cannot independently verify.
These would be Al-Libi and Nguyen(sp?). I am not ignoring, I am pointing out that there is very very little data about it in EITHER direction. 2 examples is not repeated and I have addressed why the witch trials are not relevant and why Al-Libi is similar due to the mindset of the Bush Administration(the CIA did not believe a word he said, it was a judgment by Cheney that had the adm using his evidence).
What ever your feelings about torture, my question was not about whether it was ok to do or not. I merely wanted to know if it produced reliable results or not (and preferably, the results compared to non-violent methods).
I do not believe I am correct. As I said, I doubt these methods are as ineffective as many people try to portray them as and am simply wondering if there is some study/body of evidence consisting of more than disparate examples that prove things one way or the other.