Gaming With An Opponent Who's 'Over There'? 40
Thanks to the New York Times for their article discussing the US military's efforts to connect overseas personnel and their families via Xbox Live. This story, which expands on previous coverage of the scheme, notes: "For family members, playing video games with their relatives in the military stationed abroad brings a sense of familiarity to the interaction", and a spokesperson for Xbox Live is quoted as saying: "We're out there making sure that things are working for them... there's nothing better than having a person who can actually experience connecting to Germany or from Kuwait back with his family member or one of their best friends. It's great because they become wonderful advocates for Xbox."
Cool Idea (Score:4, Interesting)
Seriously though, I've made some good friends through online games (hey, we're coming to xxx, want to get beers?) I noticed that I don't really feel a sense of separation from friends if I have the possibility of using a combination of email, phone, postcards, games, letters, chat, cu-seeme, whatever.
In fact, I enjoy staying in touch with people via short emails more than big massive long letters every odd week--those sort of drive home the point that no, you can't just pop down to the pub with them after work.
That said, something like Xbox live shouldn't replace any means of communication between families, but if they're separated anyway, hey, why not?