Do video games have any tactical training value whatsoever?

[King Ralph]

Tactical Football training sure.....never was too much of a football fan as a kid, but once I got into college, and Madden became hugely popular, I've learned everything I know from playing madden for the last 15 years. Never played the sport, But I feel I have a good knowledge of the sport now from that video game, which then has fed my huge interest in the sport.

Go Raiders!

oh tactical war training?.....not really

[MrPlutonium]

wait...you mean real soldiers don't fire wildly while jumping around corners?

my world is turned upside down!

[thevic]

Battlefield 2 is fun

Crashing a jet into a tank. loading up your jeep with c4 and ghost riding it into a base aaaand BOOM!

[dieselpower]

video games teach you to pull the trigger.

[tyrist]

If FPS were in real life most teams would kill more than half of their personnel and get frustrated when they can't hit a target 25 yds away during a full sprint.

[AJAX22]

It helps to break down the mental barriers and allow you to kill...

beyond that... not much.

[Mr. Burns]

It depends.

Can you learn weapon manipulation? No

Can it help develop better hand/eye coordination, target identification, communication and situational awareness? Yes

Will it replace real world training? Never

[AC89]

I would say that some do. Games like the early Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, TC:Rainbow Six, Operation Flashpoint, ARMA, essentially tactical/Mil Sim shooters in general, can and to some degree do teach a person certain things.

Now I'm not saying it going to teach you how to kill, use a weapon, or be an expert marksman, or any of that non-sense, but it can teach you to think tactically. Also keep in mind some game developers actually worked with police and military to make the game, and make it as accurate to IRL tactics as they could.

Whats the best way to enter this room with 2 doors. How can I use the flanking maneuver, ware are the choke points and high ground, how do I have to plan the mission out? Things of this nature at times can carry over to real world practices. Not saying all do or will, but the general idea is there.

Think of it like watching a documentary on lets say... military tactics and training, and it shows them doing a room clearing and stacking up on a door. A person could easily learn from watching that documentary and copy it. Now in some games, stacking up on a door is done the same way as in the documentary. Like before a person could learn from the game.

That's just my 2 cents.

[Maddog5150]

I went to a training simulator that sounds kind of like this.
BUT....

It was in a huge room, with about 6 to 8 M4's hooked up to compressed air shooting at a Big White wall that acted as a projector screen.
Really loud surround sound and computers counting rounds fired and hits and misses.
The m4 with the 203 was basically a paper weight.

But you got to handle a real weapon and had to actually take out and re instert the magazine to reload and could hear and feel recoil...
So it was actually pretty sweet, I want that game in my house hahaha


OPERATION FLASHPOINT series of games are the best.

Targets out to 600 meters, almost the size of an ant on your screen, And you DO ACTUALLY have to comp for bullet drop.
And some times you might even have to shoot that far with basic iron sights.
I've had weapon malfunctions as well obviously can't problem solve that over the game with a controller but it does happen, like what might in real combat

Youre talking about the EST2000. I think that thing is lame too. Nothing of any sort of tacticle training as you are standing there shooting air and not exactly moving or shooting. the FATS simulator for law enforcement is way better but even then, all it provides is shoot/dont shoot.
The only the EST is really used for is "Alternate Quals" when they dont have ranges or means to qualify Guardsman like the 50 cal simulator, mk19 or night ranges.

[msand951]

It could help but more like the flight simulator games. Kids are growing up with technology now so who knows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unv9C2t7f5c

Heard they were able to control one with a playstation type control.

[Marine oifvet]

Just to jackasses that think they do.

[pacifico23]

Absolutely. But not extensive training. Put it this way. Who would you bet on winning a gun fight. A 17 year old with NO shooting experiience, book worm type of guy, not allowed to watch any violent tv or play video games. Or a 17 year old CoD junky who has been playing it for almost 10 years? My money would go for that kid.

I used to do airsoft wars ALL the time as kids. And yes video games do teach you basic stuff as good angles in cover, possible good "camp locations", and basic flanking maneuvers. The kids who played Counterstrike (the CoD in my day) Always seemed to do better on the airsoft and paintball fields. But that being said, I do not think video algames are no way sugfiient enough training. But it does give you ideas.