• vexikron@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      There are not many people that had the kind of life arc I have had:

      Grew up poor in an exurb of a suburb. Only thing it had going for it was a good public school system.

      Was raised on Rush Limbaugh on the radio anytime I was in a car as a kid. Went on a few camping and boating trips, got some decent outdoorsy type experience…

      …But I was the only bright one in my family, who were constantly bickering and screaming, and I eventually just retreated into my room and lived on my computer.

      Eventually went to college, got two degrees, realized basically everything about my fathers heavily imposed worldview was complete horseshit, other than enjoying nature when you can.

      Long story short you end up with me, a bashful autistic dork who generally loves learning anything, who is fascinated by firearms on a mechanical and physics level, and also genuinely enjoys the zen of controlled breathing and body control required to make a precise shot, but is also aware of the serious problems they pose to American society, the perverse incentives of gun manufacturers and their political lobbying, etc.

      On the flip side of that, the vast majority of COD and Halo playing assholes that claim they can do some crazy firearm related thing they can do in a video game… I can actually do some of the more realistic things irl, with more realistic kit.

      A big thing that just totally escapes a lot of FPS players that think their video game experience is directly transferable to real life… is training and practice.

      That and a lot of them are just laughably out of shape, and, unlike in video games, guns have /weight/.

      I have been mulling over for quite a long time how to make a video game that more realistically conveys the culmination of many non obvious factors that play into using firearms, but the problem is that you basically always end up with something that is actually pretty hard to be skilled at, and because realistic gunplay results in more realistic conflicts, you soon realize that tactics and strategy are far, far more important and complex than most gamers or even most shooter games with AI are capable of.

      Basically it wouldnt be fun, because it would be too difficult, and you often end up dying from a small, momentary situational awareness mistake.