Arma 3

Depiction of War in Games: Can You Do Better?

Video games frequently reduce the experience of war to a cycle of hyper-violent, high-intensity combat that fails to capture the intricate reality of military operations.

• Military training simulators like Bohemia Interactive’s VBS series demonstrate that war involves hundreds of non-kinetic tasks—such as using turn signals in convoys—that are essential to operations but rarely represented in commercial first-person shooters.
• Game developers can move beyond narrow, combat-focused narratives by adopting a 'pyramid of conflict' structure, where global, local, and personal feuds overlap to create complex, shifting alliances similar to those found in 'Game of Thrones' or 'The Witcher 3'.
• Modern warfare often involves 'unlawful combatants' who blend into civilian populations, creating scenarios where soldiers must make split-second, high-stakes moral decisions under the rules of engagement rather than simply identifying and shooting enemies.