[Thoughts] Father.io virtual reality embedded shooter game.

I find this video, and the video game that it advertises, scary:



The people who will play this game will train to fight a partisan war separating "humans" from "evolved" (Google had/has a game with a similar theme, but with less real time action). It feels sometimes as if someone, somewhere, is trying to brain wash people to prepare for a real war... :( Maybe more realistically, probably, game companies are in a competition to whom will offer the best adrenaline rush to its player, and have naturally escalated to those war scenario.

It is not all bad: people playing those games will learn about working in team, collaborating, elaborating strategies. Games are no longer a "child" thing and it's a good thing: I wish people would get as much pleasure from and put as much energy into their daily actions as they put in their games. But games are not "just" for distraction, they never were, they are eminent tools of *education*. Beyond cooperation, people playing those games will train their brain to think in a partisan way, which will affect them when they vote in real life. It will train their brain to be specially aware of people standing at a corner in the street ("Danger!").

Fun is good. Video games can develop many skills, good and bad. We just need to be aware about which skills each game develop. This game is developing war skills in adolescents and adults. It's worrying.