72% of Xbox 360 Gamers Approve of "More Military Drone Strikes" [Slashdot]

[DP ServBot]

An anonymous reader writes "During the latest presidential debate, Xbox 360 owners were being polled live, as the debate was progressing, on a number of different questions, and asked to answer 'Yes,' 'No,' or 'Don't Know' using their gamepad. Out of these questions, one particular question produced a surprising result: Xbox 360 owners were asked 'Do you support more use of drone aircraft to attack suspected terrorists?' 20% answered this question with 'No'. 8% answered 'Don't know.' And a whopping 72% answered the question 'Yes.' This raises an interesting question in and of itself: Is the average Xbox 360 player at all aware that drone strikes in countries like Pakistan cause a serious number of civilian deaths on a regular basis? Or do Xbox 360 gamers live in a parallel, game-inspired universe, where a real world 'Drone Strike' is something seriously cool, just like it is cool to use it in popular games like Call of Duty? In other words, does playing simulated war games like COD on a game console on a daily basis, and enjoying these games, cause gamers to become blinkered to the at times seriously dire real world consequences of using military tactics like drone strikes for real?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

[JSoup]

Is the average Xbox 360 player at all aware that drone strikes in countries like Pakistan cause a serious number of civilian deaths on a regular basis?

This seems like the obvious answer. Although the mass of 12 year olds that use XBox Live might be another contributing factor.

But, hey, who am I to say that Slashdot shouldn't toss up more speculation about the supposed link between video games and violence?

[YoshiM]

This seems like the obvious answer. Although the mass of 12 year olds that use XBox Live might be another contributing factor.

This. How accurate/informed would an answer to that question be when one of the participants is one Johnny "D0uch3N0ZZL" Smith, who one day aspires to make it to the 7th grade?

[xelement5x]

Inversely, how many 12 year olds do you think were watching the debates on their 360 instead of actually playing games on it?

[The 1 2 P]

Inversely, how many 12 year olds do you think were watching the debates on their 360 instead of actually playing games on it?

Somewhere between 0-12%.