Most Atrocious War Crimes
In the last year keen attention has been placed on the moral and political standpoints of games, from their links to the arms industry to their depiction of war. But are they really so bad? The answer is, blatantly, yes. Over two years after the Red Cross asked videogames to better reflect international humanitarian law, here’s our list of the Top 10 War Crimes in Videogames – or is that the bottom 10?
A few provisos. Firstly, war crimes on the part of enemy NPCs are used promiscuously to convince the player that they are completely evil and therefore worth fighting. This would be too easy, so we have restricted our list to war crimes that the player can actually commit or be an accessory to. Secondly, we have generally omitted games which take place in a fantasy universe, including only examples where real-world international law might be applied. Finally, we have tried as much as possible to be scrupulous in the application of the various codes and conventions which govern international conduct in wartime.
Without further ado, here is a list of horrible things that you can do in video games.