[www.saveourguns.org]

thanks for posting.

In the spirit of exchange, and not argument, I submit these thoughts from my own life for your consideration.

I have had very similar experiences.

Once with Mario Brothers. After hours of playing I had great difficulty reading because my eyes kept seeing the letters blow up.

And I've relived many a game in my sleep.

I feel very compfortable shooting life like graphic targets by the bazillion.

More important is my values.

The games have not changed my values one bit. I would turn the any weapon upon myself before using it on anyone in my family. I would not hesitate to drop an intruder. I felt this way long before Pac-Man came along.

I also maintain that such games do not provide anything approaching realistic combat training. Weilding a mouse is not a good substitute for holding a firearm, sword, club or even a bare fist. Even the games that attempt to be ultra realistic utterly fail to reproduce the physical and mental stresses of real combat.

[JamesP81]

I also maintain that such games do not provide anything approaching realistic combat training. Weilding a mouse is not a good substitute for holding a firearm, sword, club or even a bare fist. Even the games that attempt to be ultra realistic utterly fail to reproduce the physical and mental stresses of real combat.

Very true. The only thing you could learn from that is use of terrain and some basic strategy, but it doesn't give an accurate representation of the visceral nature of it. The closest I've ever come is sparring in my martial arts classes and playing paintball. Paintball especially is an intense experience (one that I thoroughly enjoyed) that will give you great appreciation for the folks who do it for real.