Inaccuracies about guns in video games are getting some pushback

[Mazryonh]

Nice to see more content creators on youtube educating the public about how guns in video games are inaccurately portrayed, such as this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNHIrA84dlg

Covered are Valve games featuring cocking guns too often, firing two shots at once out of the single-barrelled SPAS-12, improvised silencers in Day-Z, etc.

[Spartan198]

General preference has been moving more and more toward accurate representation of firearms in media in recent years, with movies and games moving from OTT Rambo stuff to more accurate depictions. I'd like to think IMFDb helped play a part in it.

[Mazryonh]

Originally Posted by Spartan198

General preference has been moving more and more toward accurate representation of firearms in media in recent years, with movies and games moving from OTT Rambo stuff to more accurate depictions. I'd like to think IMFDb helped play a part in it.

How would we know that IMFDb played a part in it, though? Do we have people actually saying they looked up the database in order to ensure accurate representations of firearms in media they're producing?

I would like to think that movie and TV show directors in media with firearms are moving away from silliness like the infamous never-ending ammo belt you can see on Arnold Schwarzenegger's arm in Commando. Even so, how much of the general American movie-going and TV-watching public actually knows enough of this stuff to complain? Or are they still mostly people who think of certain parts on guns as "the shoulder thing that goes up"?

[MT2008]

Originally Posted by Mazryonh

How would we know that IMFDb played a part in it, though? Do we have people actually saying they looked up the database in order to ensure accurate representations of firearms in media they're producing?

I don't think that there's any straightforward way to assess IMFDB's impact on improving accuracy of firearms in Hollywood (unless somebody wants to start a SurveyMonkey questionnaire, or create a poll on the site). However, I can definitely tell you that at this point, most of Hollywood's armorers are quite familiar with IMFDB and are reading us on a regular basis, and some even use our Wiki to do research. If they're doing that, they're at least going to see that we pick up on inaccuracies in how firearms are portrayed and handled. That will in turn influence the recommendations that they make to the propmasters and directors.

Side note: I can recall at least two instances of armorers I know telling me that they worked on a production where a director requested a specific weapon because they saw it in another movie, and then looked up the movie on IMFDB to find out what type of firearm it was. One of those wasn't even recently (I think it was around 2015 or so).

[Mazryonh]

Originally Posted by MT2008

I don't think that there's any straightforward way to assess IMFDB's impact on improving accuracy of firearms in Hollywood (unless somebody wants to start a SurveyMonkey questionnaire, or create a poll on the site). However, I can definitely tell you that at this point, most of Hollywood's armorers are quite familiar with IMFDB and are reading us on a regular basis, and some even use our Wiki to do research. If they're doing that, they're at least going to see that we pick up on inaccuracies in how firearms are portrayed and handled. That will in turn influence the recommendations that they make to the propmasters and directors.

Side note: I can recall at least two instances of armorers I know telling me that they worked on a production where a director requested a specific weapon because they saw it in another movie, and then looked up the movie on IMFDB to find out what type of firearm it was. One of those wasn't even recently (I think it was around 2015 or so).

Good to see that the professionals are taking note, then. Are they also making sure that actors who don't necessarily know their way around guns get the proper training and know-how should the production call for it?

[MT2008]

Originally Posted by Mazryonh

Good to see that the professionals are taking note, then. Are they also making sure that actors who don't necessarily know their way around guns get the proper training and know-how should the production call for it?

I would think so, though of course, armorers are essentially service-providers with little creative control on the shows they do, so ultimately, people above them make decisions about what guns are used, how actors get trained in handling them, etc. But I believe they'll will tell you that on most productions, they at least have opportunities to make recommendations, even though the director gets the final say.

I'd have to defer to any of the armorers on here to weigh in, as I haven't really discussed this topic with them. (Though I have asked them about IMFDB's visibility amongst their colleagues.)

[Spartan198]

This thread reminds me of a story related by MPM some years back.

[Mazryonh]

Originally Posted by MT2008

I would think so, though of course, armorers are essentially service-providers with little creative control on the shows they do, so ultimately, people above them make decisions about what guns are used, how actors get trained in handling them, etc. But I believe they'll will tell you that on most productions, they at least have opportunities to make recommendations, even though the director gets the final say.

So essentially they can fill in for a military advisor's role if the production doesn't already have one? Then again, not all productions are lucky to have veterans on hand to provide advice and training (like The Way of the Gun had a Navy SEAL advising on the production since he was the director's brother).

Originally Posted by Spartan198

This thread reminds me of a story related by MPM some years back.

Would that videogames have that kind of expertise on hand more often. They don't need armourers or real-life guns on hand to make the ingame guns (though of course such authentic expertise can certainly help), after all.

Back to the original topic, here's another video along that train of thought.

[MT2008]

Originally Posted by Mazryonh

So essentially they can fill in for a military advisor's role if the production doesn't already have one? Then again, not all productions are lucky to have veterans on hand to provide advice and training (like The Way of the Gun had a Navy SEAL advising on the production since he was the director's brother).

That's really going to depend on the production, and how much the director and/or the actors care about proper firearms training. On most big-budget productions nowadays, though, the armorers just provide/maintain the weapons on set; the actors' training is usually conducted by someone else. Certainly, this has been the case with Michael Mann's movies, for example. However, there are also certainly some armorers who are also gun coaches/trainers and have served both roles on some shows (Thell Reed is the first example who comes to mind).