01-18-2005, 06:44 PM
A rule that can not be inforced - is a suggestion.
Im wary of making comparisions between a game and real war because what happens in a war actually matters.
I suppose its ok to apply aspects of real war to a game, but it makes me uncormfortable to think of people developing a perspective on war from a game and these sort of conversations often lead to that.
But a couple of points. The "written rules of war" are just suggestion in reality. We(the US) dont actually live by them.
In most cases we actually use a higher standard then the Geneva Convention requires for 2 reasons - national values and world opinion.
Also in some cases we utterly disregard the rules(some of the rules are abitrary to the point of absurdety). The most popularly noted instance of this is using 50. HMG rounds in an antipersonal role. Theres nothing more cruel about being wounded with a 50. than with grenade or smaller rifle, but some dude 80 or so years ago decided it was "bad" - most all nations ignore thiss rule beacuse its pointless.
Im wary of making comparisions between a game and real war because what happens in a war actually matters.
I suppose its ok to apply aspects of real war to a game, but it makes me uncormfortable to think of people developing a perspective on war from a game and these sort of conversations often lead to that.
But a couple of points. The "written rules of war" are just suggestion in reality. We(the US) dont actually live by them.
In most cases we actually use a higher standard then the Geneva Convention requires for 2 reasons - national values and world opinion.
Also in some cases we utterly disregard the rules(some of the rules are abitrary to the point of absurdety). The most popularly noted instance of this is using 50. HMG rounds in an antipersonal role. Theres nothing more cruel about being wounded with a 50. than with grenade or smaller rifle, but some dude 80 or so years ago decided it was "bad" - most all nations ignore thiss rule beacuse its pointless.