Just having an interesting experience and wanted to share this because I think this is important.
I have this Vietnam vet guy, not really a close friend but someone I kinda got to know because he spends a lot of time
in the coffee shop where I am building my game project in Unreal 4.
I asked him a few questions because my game has a war subject and to my surprise he doesn’t like it at all.
I expected that he would be proud and gladly answer questions.
But today he even shoved a finger in my face and was showing signs of getting little aggressive … kinda close to
stepping over the line.
His words were “Not a God **** video game” while pointing at my computer.
I was just wondering if anyone have had similar experiences and if they know ho to deal with this.
Its not a really serious issue, he hasn’t stepped over the line yet but he has a pretty outspoken resentment for anything
game and VR.
He has fired off the words that he got shot multiple times and therefore he can say anything he wants … well … he just agreed,
afraid to disagree actually …
Just starting this thread to see what you guys think …
There are many service members who don’t agree with how war is glorified in video games. War is ugly, and the Vietnam war was one of the worst. I have family members who were there and the things they saw changed them. You don’t have to agree with his stance, but you should respect it. Given it is a very touchy subject, I wouldn’t bring it up again - especially in relation to a video game. A lot of what people see and hear of modern wars is sanitized by Media outlets. It’s not pretty stuff. =/
Agreed. Yes I can tell just by talking to him and how UNWILLING he is to talk about what he went through that it was certainly rough and the worst evil ever.
I agree with just avoiding the subject.
Probably the most responsible action to take.
And yes I do respect it of course.
… must point something out though … he was an electronics specialist in the navy.
… and I sense he doesn’t like the digital revolution too much because it makes him looks a little less shiny.
He was the hero in the battle field fixing everyone’s equipment and now its the digital guys who are getting
the attention.
Without being disrespectful … I do sense a little of that.
So the whole glorification thing in video games … well it sort of becomes the perfect excuse for him to
trash gamers. I think its a combination of factors that works itself into a tsunami here to be honest.
Not to dive too deep into this but as a thinker … I also learned that he grew up as an only child way up in the
mountains. He is always walking around and trying to get attention. He bothers people a lot and tries to impress them.
So that factor of needing that attention and being a “wowser” definitely runs through his veins.
So … if the digital guys are now getting more wows than the old electronic guys coupled with the fact that he
gets little respect as vet … well that is the tsunami I mentioned above. I think I have that figured out close to the
mark.
I am a Persian Gulf Veteran, was in an M1A1 Tank and I went through some rough times in the 90’s dealing with it.
World Of Tanks offends me, personally. As a whole I do not play first person shooters except in Story mode for similar reasons to what your coffee shop dezian says, but, I’m not going to go aggro on someone for making them. The entire idea of health being a resource that builds back up shortly after being shot is actually insane, energetic shields sure, but not health.
But, that doesn’t matter, the more real that it is, the more not fun it would be to play. Depending on how well a random veteran slept the previous night your just asking for some grief. I was the coffee shop Veteran for a while in the late 90’s while I was getting my s#!t together.
Games are meant to be fun, and realistic is not fun. The place for asking advice from Veterans is on details such as uniforms, equipment, slang they may have used ect., maybe what songs they listened to at the time If the guy has unresolved issues who knows what he’s thinking, or how much of what he says is true.
If it’s a place you will see him a lot it’s probably best to get him on your side. One idea is to ask him if you could give him an interview, and take notes of what he says answering your questions. Try to keep the conversation about him and away from your game. He may become someone who will watch your back at the coffee shop.
Thanks for all that advice.
Actually he tells me straight up that he doesn’t like to talk about “what he and his buddies did over there”
So asking him for notes is throwing fuel on fire.
Not a good idea.
I found what works actually is that I drill into him that its FENCING and not gaming.
If you think about it its the movements you make, speed, skill, etc. that matters on the “map” (or mat).
And if you look at the game of fencing it looks really silly with face masks, white padded suits and cords hanging and tailing behind players.
So I draw a parallel between that and the “gear” you see in gaming and the bunny ears you “score”, etc.
Its FENCING. Not gaming. Not gore.
Yeah Blacklight: Retribution I play you can actually spectate games.
You don’t have to play along.
Its also a good way to bust players when they are hacking.
