Can shooters prepare you for the SAS?

JsonHenry - 506 days 2 hours ago

Other than hand eye coordination improvements I cant imagine what it is a video game would teach me to be a better soldier.

Although I am very keen to pick up movements, even slight movements compared to my mates. But I have a hard time finding things sitting still. My keys could be right in front of me and I will not see them when I am looking for them. But I can catch the movement of an earth worm in the grass... all thanks to FPS video games!

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matchgrade - 504 days 13 hours ago

"Games like Battlefield:Modern Combat and Call of Duty 4 are teaching the Middle East to be suicide bombers so just be careful going in."

Not only is that woefully false, but that may be the most stereotypically racist comment i've seen on this site.

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Domenikos - 506 days 13 hours ago

3 secs respwn... yes maybe

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KnaveX - 506 days 13 hours ago

you beat me to it.

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Hellangelzx - 505 days 22 hours ago

Bubbless!

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bosels11 - 505 days 15 hours ago

well in the early nineties I was in marine corps fast company - urban war swat team like unit, and I can tell you that video games wont do sh!t for you in real life. I think its stupid to even suggest it. For one, geeky video game makers have no idea what its like to actually be there FOR REAL. I went to Panama in 89 w/SEALS and Desert Storm. I would have hated it if it was the same, because I have died many times in video games, and obviously not once in real life LOL. To say its even remotely close is flat out stupid!

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socomnick - 506 days 13 hours ago

Yes and no. Cod 4 does have some pretty realistic iron sights. It however does not teach you proper shooting technique and breathing practices. It also does not realistically show how it is to aim with iron sights . When aiming down the sights almost all of your surroundings are kinda blurred.

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Hagaf22 - 506 days 12 hours ago

EXACTLY SOCOM... fps games dont take in to account the difficulty of proper breathing techniques, or sight usages... video games are just games, not learning aids, though the military does have simulators and aides very similar to video games. theres alot more to shooting than holding the aim button and shooting in the area of the enemy.

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matchgrade - 506 days 1 hour ago

See you in Iraq then.

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jon1234 - 505 days 19 hours ago

no no no! its not the same! u think playing a game is the same to shooting in real life??! i bet u havent even shot a gun, its not the same, playing a video game isnt gonna teach u how to shoot a gun, let alone hit a target, this article is BS!

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Omegasyde - 505 days 18 hours ago

Nope the only thing videogames do is help desensitize the horrible realty that combat is.

Unfortunately so does TV and Movies, as I have seen some other fellow Marines in Iraq do some stupid f***** up sh** and then not think twice about the possible consequences.

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bosels11 - 505 days 15 hours ago

it doesnt matter how realistic the sights are in a game - I spent 10 years in Marine Infantry and can tell you that COD4 doesnt even come close to shooting at something in real life. Like Socom said you concentrate on the sight and it makes surroundings blur, AND a rifle ways a lot more than a PS3 or 360 controller, plus your breathing and how steady your hands are too. Whoever disagrees, I am speaking from years of personal experience out of and in war.

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bosels11 - 505 days 15 hours ago

exactly - comparing games to real life situations is ludicrous.

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matchgrade - 506 days 12 hours ago

It improves anything BUT your instincts. FPS games train you on how to point and shoot. In the real military, point and shoot isn't enough. Staying alive is an instinct you need, and so is manuevering tactically through combat situations. Neither of those are learned through reflexed-based FPS gaming.

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matchgrade - 506 days 2 hours ago

Don't even TRY to argue that playing FPS games prepares you for getting shot at in real life.

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Hellangelzx - 505 days 22 hours ago

Yeah, I too was at a simulation thing. My rifle jammed and I didn't have a single clue what to do.

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bishop-br - 505 days 19 hours ago

Don't even need it jammed. Give the weapon locked to the noob and don't tell him a word. He'll aim and pull the trigger (the only thing you know as a gamer), when the noise don't come he'll just get desperate and do something dumb.

In Brazil we have an obligatory presentation to military services for males in the age of 18. There is a selection, after all most people is dispensate, but that depends on the demand, your physical conditions, the conditions you are installed in the city you are presenting (if you live there, this is the closest city with an HQ) and for last if you have dependents on you (if for exemple you live only with your mother and you have to work, any special case should be presented in this). If you don't present you'll have a series of problems trying to get other documents.

I was choosed, so I got my one year of basic training with the Army (later, if you want, you can directly expend your studies to Navy or Air Force, since the basic first year is the same to all forces, just happen that my city has an Army unity). This is not like some special army training, this is actually much more basic level, you just got some classes, a routine in the army arriving 5 a.m and go running to exercise (i hated this), some weekends guarding the base (don't sucked that much) and things like discipline, responsability and other of those lessons. Still, we have to learn how to use weapons.

We have to get real familiar with some weapons like the IMBEL M962 (licensed FN FAL copy), IMBEL MD (all the MD models were presented as a kind of history lesson since Brazil having been using FALs variants since 1962, the most used in our army is the MD-2, a 5.56x45mm ammo and M16/AR-15 magazine compaible version) and Taurus M975 (milatary version of the Taurus 92PT, a Beretta 92 licensed).

We also got presented to more mainstream weapons used in advanced forces inside the Army, like M4, AT4, PSG1, M82 and FN MAG.

I'm happy that, aside from PSG1 and PT92 (which I can run into in my carreer with the IBAMA - kind of ambiental police - or with Forensic Police - don't really have decided to which one direct my biology studies), I don't have to see any of those weapons anymore. Nobody told you that a 'little' FAL can weight 5 times more after 6 miles running. LOL

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skagrerrrr - 505 days 19 hours ago

Well put, how then do you clear a "Stovepipe jam?"

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silverchode - 506 days 13 hours ago

dont tell siligon that or he wont join.

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