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Will games replace real hunting ?

I spoke with a patient this morning who has been an avid hunter and I asked him how his season turned out. He says he never found time to get out. I found this surprising since he’s retired and physically able. He said that he’s been playing a very realistic hunting game instead as have his brothers. It’s called The Hunter: Call Of The Wild. I tried to post a link. The graphics seem realistic and you have to take into account lots of factors to be successful. He said they can’t stop playing it. I was a astounded to say the least. Is this our future ? Will super realistic games eventually be a good enough substitute that society ceases to lace up boots and hunt , fish, hike or explore? Obviously most of us here scoff at the idea but as new generations come along these things might just scratch the itch they have for adventure. I mean , here in my office is a guy that’s 60+ and even he is loving this stuff. He found time to game repeatedly but not actually pursue game animals. It makes sad, to be honest.

I would question how "avid" any hunter is who would rather play a video game than actually get outdoors and do the real thing.

Matt

No, you can't eat computer deer!

GG x2

No, but the games can trigger some of the same feelings that hunting does. I have a 15yo that loves to hunt and plays some xbox and VR. He'll take a morning of real hunting and getting skunked over video games every time.

Pretty amazing compared to playing Pong on the Atari as a kid but a long way from the real experience.

I’d say the future of anything that actually requires physical effort is in doubt. You don’t have to look any further than what our society has become. We’re increasingly becoming a nation of lazy, overweight couch potatoes that would rather sit on the couch stuffing their face as they play video games and watch tv.

That said, I agree 100% with GG’s post. There’s no way on God’s Green Earth any healthy avid outdoorsman would substitute the great outdoors for a freakin’ video game.

Nope. Not with me or my friends.

Though I did have a kid who had never killed a deer or elk try to tell me that he’s a great hunter because he does well in some hunting video game. But that kids crazy.

I think that guy couldn’t have been much of a hunter but I think the point is valid. My adult brother in law has never been a hunter but he spends hours playing call of duty. I think had he had a gun or bow put in his hand instead of a controller he would hunt deer instead. With the lack of access without deep pockets many of the would be hunters will turn to games. No existing hunter that’s worth his salt would quit hunting to play games though.

Maybe once the world gets to a Ready Player One or Ready Player Two level of virtual reality whereby the virtual world becomes nearly indistinguishable from the real world. Big maybe, and that's far far away. So my short answer is "no" and the longer answer is "GG x2"

Probably the only way I'll ever kill a bighorn, or brown bear, or cape buffalo............maybe even an elk.

That's a hard no for me. As long as there is breath in my body, I'm hunting. I don't play games.

I've shot the archery game where you shoot at animals projected on a screen. Nit 'hunting' but at least you have to draw your bow back! (A lot of folks claim the same about 3-D but that's a whole other kettle of fish.)

I tried watching but couldn't isn't finish. That guy obviously was not an avid hunter. Cost was no barrier to me and I didn't come from money. I saved and bought what I needed. I'm lucky to live in a province with decent opportunity if you are willing to go out and get it. Video games are banished in my house and it's easy to tell if you ever set foot in here.

I didn't see any blood in the trailer, and the animal they heart shot dropped where it stood, hence no bloodtrail. Too fake and a turnoff for me.

As a retiree I spend mucho time on my laptop. Lately it is on my second story enclosed porch facing WSW and overlooking the town I live in, nestled between two hillsides running north to south. Traffic on my street and the highway far below display a world in motion. When outdoor conditions are terrible to be out in, I'm content to observe from the comfort of home.

My preference is to live on the other side of the glass, apart from the screen and in the fresh air.

I have to agree with GG and doubt the quantity of avid in the hunter Buskill knows.

It would be better if every time you killed something in the video game, you got a free voucher for some artificial meat.

There’s some hunters roaming around now that I wish would stay home and play video games. Particularly post-Covid.

An "avid" hunter? Really? Much success, with no venison in the freezer. Probably also travels in a rocking chair; busily going nowhere.

Sounds about as enticing as video porn as a substitute for a real relationship.

GG X3

You guys are really missing out if you haven't tasted virtual Osso Bucco, its better than the real stuff and takes fractions of a second to make :)

I had actual Venison Osso Bucco for dinner last night. It was better even if it took a little while in the pressure cooker! But less time than the slow cooker.

Never for those of us who are actual "avid hunters". My wife and I were joking about video games the other day, speculating about what it would be like to own a video game system and spend huge amounts of free time staring at a screen working out our thumbs. It's sad, but I know a handful of people who spend much of their free time melting their brains in the virtual land.

Pat X2

It would be awesome if about 75% of the NM NR elk applicants decided to to just hunt virtually. I bet we could raise a bunch of money to buy them gaming systems if they promise to get out and stay out of the tag game. :)

Somewhat.

Not gonna replace hunting IMO, mostly entertainment for non-hunters...... but has certainly replaced Feudal Lords, sword fights, witches, vampires and monster slaying......

Bill Whittle has an interesting take on video games. In this move to a "woke" and emasculated urban society, young men who have no other outlet or guidance as to masculine behavior have flocked to the more "masculine" games as an outlet. Inside they crave and embrace that role which they are denied at home.

At least a hunting gamer is not likely going to be a howl at the moon anti-hunter......

Replace hunting? This is a joke, right?

Ridiculous, thinking that a computer game has 1% the realism of an in the field hunt.

You guys can say this guy has not been an avid hunter all you want but I’ve known him for 30 years. Until this very conversation I know for a fact he has hunted long and hard yearly for decades. We have discussed various hunting stories every year for a long time. He owns his own farm and has access to land. This game appeared to give him such satisfaction that this year he just never went. Totally bizarre.

How can a video game replace the feeling of a cold breeze or the sound of geese flying over? How about the smells of fall??

As a teacher, I am seeing the greatness of technology really mess up a lot of people.

There is this animated game called "sausage stuffers". It's for people who play animated hunting games, and want to stuff animated sausage from their animated game animals they kill.

He emphasized that the graphics were super realistic and that to be successful you had to take into account lots of real world factors like tracks, wind direction, the noise of the brush around you. You choose whether to use a stand , still hunt, sit n wait, weapons , projectiles, blood trailing. It’s supposedly a massive open universe to explore. I’m not a gamer at all so it baffles me as well but apparently this thing is a really satisfying experience for some people. I can see it winning over a person with no outdoor experience to compare it to but I was blown away that it could lure and gold a seasoned hunter.

Lure and hold, that is…

"It would be awesome if about 75% of the NM NR elk applicants decided to to just hunt virtually"

After hunting in NM in 2020, I kinda wish a lot of Residents would stay home and play video games. Places we had all to ourselves a couple years before, got invaded!

Buskill, after reading your last couple of posts, I’ll admit I rushed to judgment. Instead of just considering your one example, I looked at hunters as a whole.

After reading your explanations, I see where your patient may be coming from. Rather than simply becoming a video game junkie, he may very well have lost that inner drive we all need, especially as we get older. Same thing happened to my best friend and long-time hunting buddy. Although he didn’t start playing video games, over the course of about 3 years I saw his desire to hunt completely vanish. He still loves the outdoors, he just lost his passion for hunting. He said he’d just finally had enough of fighting the increasing amount of downfall, the cold, the increased joint and muscle pain, etc.

I would unfortunately say that our world is heading toward a Wall-E type of life for more and more of us:

Slurpie drink

Overweight

Sedentary lifestyle.

Very sad

I have 11 & 12 year old sons and they play that game…. Its a decent hunting game. However, even at their age they know that is nothing like real hunting and cannot replace the adventure of real thing! They also like to eat what they catch or kill, no replacing that.

Its about as close to real hunting as Madden is to real football! Anyone with two thumbs can win the Super Bowl!

Why not? They're replacing reality for some already.

I welcome guys like him to continue to play a video game. More for guys like us in the real world!!!!

The big question is why would anyone else care what he does.

Said it many times. Some folks will go to great lengths to not have to deal with dead animals...... =D

Don’t sound like what I personally would classify as a “avid Hunter”

TD (and Whittle) are correct about the psychology/sociology. The only thing I will add is, beyond a certain base level, comfort is a compounding corrosive phenomenon.

Each to their own. If that's how they want to play the game, it keeps them out of my way. Some folks really embrace virtual reality. Gaming is just not something I enjoy. I see it mostly as a waste of time.

Some even sit in their hunting blinds and play video games.

I used to play a hunting game with my youngest boy when he was a kid. We enjoyed it because we both liked “going rogue” and departing from the orderly concept that they had laid out. We both got stomped to a bloody mess from elephants and cape buff from time to time and clawed by leopards or lions. It was fun but it didn’t take the placeof getting out to hunt or fish. Unfortunately, that son grew up and away from hunting. I think he only did it to spend time with me, which is fine, because I only played the vido games to spend time with him.

Txhunter, Wall-E was the first thing I thought of also.

What I've found at my age (59) is that a game controller is much more difficult to operate than is shooting a P$Y whitetail. I'll stick to the real thing.

Too many kids would rather play video games than go outside to play. Many young adults are unable to effectively communicate with others unless a keyboard is involved. We have raised a generation of social illiterates. Congrats parents!

I've seen too many people ' go outside to play' who ended up head-down staring at their stupid phone instead of watching the horizon, or observing the natural world around them.

Here's a selfie of me with trees in the background!

It's more realistic than it seems. In Level 2, they ban cell trail cams and allow scoped crossbows in your archery season. Level 3, you get hit with major point creep $8 per gallon gas.

TD pointed out a very real aspect of gaming and that is competition among mostly males. "Everybody gets a ribbon" has definitely suppressed the notion of "survival of the fittest", but it's there just under the conscious surface.

And I think the OP's question was will it replace real hunting for future generations, not you yourself , right now.

Better brush up on your gaming skills, it may soon determine who gets to breed.

Time for everyone to re-read Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

at level 10, a ‘security guard’ from USO tries to kick you out of the game. So realistic!

If the game designers made it so you can legally cross corners I might log on

Until the video game allows you to hit the animal high, the animal walks away with virtually no blood trail, and you can instantly post a "does the void exist?" thread online , it's never going to be like reality.

And on a side note, those kids playing Madden on ESPN are considered "athletes", right?? You should have seen me as Michael Vick in Madden 2004. I'm surprised no NFL team knocked on my door...

Stone-Spear-Longbow-Recurve- Crossbow-Rifle- Virtual Reality. Young people would prefer to text than talk, shop on-line, and watch you tube then go outside. The anti- hunters don't have to do a thing we are doing it to ourselves.

The premise and the follow-up comments are notably all in line. Remember however, that those that hunt have already been shaped and already internalized the demands of actual physical, emotional and phycological activity. There are so many examples of taking the negative elements out and refining the activities to their essence that the list is a mile long. Peloton and every other home based sports activity is a step up from watching competitive sports, but takes out the risk, time, outdoors and climatic demands. Social media gives anyone and everyone the chance to comment and voice their opinion, or even sign a petition instead of going down to Town Hall and participating in person. It can not go without saying that even the explosion of on-line pornography follows the same theme of distilling an activity down to its essence and eliminating the time, effort, and complex physical and psychological demands of tradition. Sadly, this all misses the point that is best exemplified by " take a kid hunting/fishing". First we need to learn that as physical beings, the wonder, beauty, and rewards of these "sporting " activities is in the actual immersion/engagement with that outdoor world and the endless large and small wonders within it. The killing of the animal or the eating of game or fish is just one of the many rewards that one gets from a day in the field. I don't believe that it can be done the other way around. The training of hunting on a "simulation" and then going forth (or not) to shoot a deer completely and tragically misses the whole point. What moral price or weight is moving a Joystick and "whacking" an electronic beast. Sadly, as the country becomes more and more "connected/ on the grid" and the population crowding continues, that time and engagement in the natural world will become less and less desirable for many, who would rather stay inside where it is warm and comfortable and are never asked to be responsible for the moral or ethical decisions involved with the hunt. Sad indeed

The premise and the follow-up comments are notably all in line. Remember however, that those that hunt have already been shaped and already internalized the demands of actual physical, emotional and phycological activity. There are so many examples of taking the negative elements out and refining the activities to their essence that the list is a mile long. Peloton and every other home based sports activity is a step up from watching competitive sports, but takes out the risk, time, outdoors and climatic demands. Social media gives anyone and everyone the chance to comment and voice their opinion, or even sign a petition instead of going down to Town Hall and participating in person. It can not go without saying that even the explosion of on-line pornography follows the same theme of distilling an activity down to its essence and eliminating the time, effort, and complex physical and psychological demands of tradition. Sadly, this all misses the point that is best exemplified by " take a kid hunting/fishing". First we need to learn that as physical beings, the wonder, beauty, and rewards of these "sporting " activities is in the actual immersion/engagement with that outdoor world and the endless large and small wonders within it. The killing of the animal or the eating of game or fish is just one of the many rewards that one gets from a day in the field. I don't believe that it can be done the other way around. The training of hunting on a "simulation" and then going forth (or not) to shoot a deer completely and tragically misses the whole point. What moral price or weight is moving a Joystick and "whacking" an electronic beast. Sadly, as the country becomes more and more "connected/ on the grid" and the population crowding continues, that time and engagement in the natural world will become less and less desirable for many, who would rather stay inside where it is warm and comfortable and are never asked to be responsible for the moral or ethical decisions involved with the hunt. Sad indeed

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