Say, here's something our crusadin' Parliamentarians should be investigating:
Two Swiss humanitarian organizations recently examined 20 shooting-centric video games to determine whether they allowed players to break the wartime guidelines laid out by the Geneva Convention -- rules which prohibit torture, destroying "protected objects" (such as churches or mosques), or, say, shooting a bunch of people who are waiting to catch a plane. The games observed, which include 24: The Game, Call of Duty 4 and 5 (we assume they meant Modern Warfare 2) and Metal Gear Solid, were largely panned for allowing the player to simply ignore the Geneva Convention's statutes.According to a BBC report on the study, the two groups explained that while players of these titles may never become soldiers, these war crime violations could "influence what people believe war is like and how soldiers conduct themselves in the real world."
In short, you should feel bad about your recent airport murder spree in Modern Warfare 2. Not for the moral implications of killing dozens and dozens of innocent people, mind you -- but because it was against the rules.
Well, of course, the rules! I wonder how scrupulous the games are regarding this aspect from the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949):
This provision is based on Article 11, paragraph 3 Database 'IHL - Treaties & Comments', View '1. All treaties \1.2. Articles', of the 1929 Prisoners of War Convention. The obligation which it lays on the Detaining Power is a most important one, particularly in desert areas. On a number of occasions during the Second World War, the International Committee of the Red Cross arranged searches for springs and the laying down of pipes in order to supply internee camps with water (1). Drinking water must be "supplied" by the Detaining Power: but the same is not true of tobacco, which is, however, listed among the articles which must be stocked in canteens (Article 87, para. 1 Database 'IHL - Treaties & Comments', View '1. All treaties \1.2. Articles'). It is mentioned here, although it is not a foodstuff, because experience has shown that for many prisoners tobacco is as necessary as food. Tobacco is not an article of prime necessity; it is even to some extent a poison: many people do completely without it while others may be suddenly deprived of it without suffering physical inconvenience, and even with advantage to their health. But it is a fact that from a psychological point if view tobacco plays a very important part in the life of men in confinement. It calms the nerves of the smokers and helps them to bear their suffering, while it provides non-smokers with a valuable form of currency which enables them to procure other advantages in exchange. Tobacco is not harmful in the way that alcohol is, and the Convention, in placing it among the things like water which are essential for the internees, recognizes the important part played by this harmless narcotic in soothing men's minds and nerves.