Shine light on humanities darkest moments/actions?

[Melbosa]

So the big question and discussion I hope to see is around this:

Humanities Darkest Moments (Holocaust, Crusades, Religious Warefair, etc); should the immortalized through Movies (Mel Gibson's latest ones, Band of Brothers, etc) or Video Games (Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Assassin's Creed, etc)?  Or should it be left to Documentaries, School Class Rooms and Historical Literature?

And a second to this:  When is being too true to realistic events too much in a video game?  Think Grand Theft Auto, Manhunt, Hitman, etc.  Does adding in Historic Events and protraying them as realistic as possible only promote things like the Holocaust from happening again or does it impact the gamer into a feeling of never wanting to live through that themselves?

[Melbosa]

To answer the second one myself; I know from playing through the Medal of Honor games and Call of Duty, I distinctly remember a feeling of dread during those intense moments in battle, and a sense of "holy $h!t" when playing through those real hazardest parts of history (pebble beach, pearl harbor, etc.).  I definately got a good taste for what it was like during those times, and have no desire to live through it myself - based partially on what I learned through school or literature, and partially from these games being so well done as putting you in the situations that soldiers faced every day, and making it feel like you were there.

That is just me, and maybe I'm either de-sensitized too much or mature enough to handle the truth of those historic events.  I can't say which it is, just that I myself think there isn't anything wrong with games like that, or GTA/Manhunt for that matter as long as the target audience is controlled through parenting and sales.

[Thorin]

This is hard to answer, I'm gonna have to mull it over for a while.

[Shayne]

You cite Mel Gibson as a portrayer of historic events but each of his movies draws hug criticisms as its nothing like it was (perhaps the exception of that Jesus one).  If these films and games portrayed the events as they were and less about an interpretation of how they were then sure.

When is it too realistic?  Never.

[Melbosa]

To tell you the truth, I never seen the Mel movies, just heard about the criticisms, so the reason I cited them.  But again because some of them may not have been realistic, is that a bigger issue than being too realistic?

[Shayne]

Lets substitute realism for accurateness.  Apocolyto sure looked real but it wasn't the least bit accurate.  I do think that is the bigger issue.  Teachers have taken to showing movies in lieu of actual teaching, field trips, discussions, etc.  Believe it or not, watching Saving Private Ryan doesn't teach you a whole heck of a lot about WW2.

[Mr. Analog]

There are really two questions being asked here:
1. Do we glorify Historical Evil.
2. Should video games glorify Evil.

I'll answer the first:

The trouble with history is that how we look back on things that happened is often coloured by our own judgement and morals, let alone the inaccuracies of historical events as perceived and handed down to us in various forms. So our heroes today might be someone else's villains and vice versa. Are the "barbarian hordes" that sacked Rome the bad guys? Or were they the mighty kings and warriors of our (Western European descendants) past?

Let's take a fairly cut and dry example of this. Was Robin Hood a real person? Probably not. Yet even still, how do most North American people look back at King John (who is the villain in the tales of Robin Hood, but also a real person), he did some pretty dumb things as far as being a King goes and earned himself the disgust of a nation; he lost territory in France (Normandy), he made England a papal fief to make nice with the Catholic Church, he was forced to sign Magna Carta (well, this was a good thing for us, but dumb for a King) and his reign ended with a Civil War. But no, we know him as some guy who tells a sheriff to lay smackdown on a forest dwelling klepto.

Heck, even today in Asia there are NAZI themed restaurants (ref). To them, Hitler is just a character out of history who did some bad stuff, like Genghis Khan or Napoleon.

So yes, history will be perverted and distorted no matter how many facts or details circulate usually as a means for profit. However that doesn't give us any excuse to be ignorant, particularly when we can easily look up so many different sources for facts these days. So enjoy Indiana Jones and Medal of Honor and Age of Empires. It doesn't soften reality, it's merely an escape from it.

That being said, do video games glorify Evil? I would say "no", even if the character is doing "evil" things. Remember what I said before about outlook? When I'm playing Vice City and I need to get from A to B, given the situation my character is in, he will steal a car. For that character it's something they have to do to survive, for the player it's something they have to do to tell the story. It's pure fantasy and has nothing to do with real life.

I'm not going to go out in a Hawaiian shirt and wrestle somebody out of their car and drive down the wrong side of the road until the Helicopter with a gatling gun makes the car explode because I played GTA. I'm not going to stick a grappling hook in a guy during an organized death match fighting tournament because I played Mortal Kombat. I'm not going to systematically kill thousands of people because they have a different religion or ethnic background from myself because I played Panzer Commander. I might do those things if something was very very wrong with me already.

To sum up. I know the difference between right and wrong as defined by my society because of how my parents raised me, what school and church taught me and because the laws around me are enforced by society at large. Video games and movies aren't going to change that.