NZGamer.com - MW2 on NCIS

It seems the videogame world and the prime time drama world have finally melded for good. Check out this clip from NCIS which will be instantly recognisable to anyone who's started playing Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2.

Too bad the child's recommendations at the end are also wrong. Every tactical gamer knows that a commander would never send Humvee's through a narrow urban area. Pointed criticisms of poor TV writing aside - there have been some interesting studies done recently about the narratives that video games are portraying.

While the response of polemics like Michael Laws add little to the debate, there has been an interesting study conducted by two Swiss human rights organisations - Trial and Pro Juventute - about the depiction of international law in war games.

Human rights lawyers observed staff playing a selection of computer games and then analysed them according to the Geneva Protocols and Human Rights norms.

Perhaps unsuprisingly, the study found that most computer games disregard any recognition of human rights norms and wartime conventions:

"The practically complete absence of rules or sanctions is... astonishing... the line between the virtual and real experience becomes blurred and the game becomes a simulation of real-life situations on the battlefield."

Gamers are mature enough to know that what they are experiencing is fictional - however the study does interestingly point out how gaming titles, like movies and television do have an impact on how we view conflict and violence.

Or, is it just dusty academics looking for links that might not be there? What to do you think?

Keep it locked to NZGamer.com