You CAN learn VERY MUCH things playing "Grand Theft Auto".... but will you use the skills?
I'm sorry to say it, but real life car jackers don't walk up to cars with a PS2 controller and hit the "X" button. I bet if you gave SMGs to 50 gamers who had never fired a real gun, and to 50 non-gamers who had never one either, and pitted them against each other, the gamers would have a significant advantage.
I'll take that bet. I was thinking more about cover mechanics.
What "cover mechanics"? You think a non-gamer isn't going to be able to figure out that a brick wall might stop a bullet? Besides, the gamers are going to be sitting ducks when they leave said cover to corpse hump their kill. The army teach in a similar way and it works, the cocky idiots are always the ones that are the source of any trouble.
Indeed. The way I see it the gamers are likely to lose. They're more likely to shoot from the hip, using fully automatic fire, which means that if they actually hit anything it's pure dumb luck. Also they're probably going to be a lot more prone to friendly fire, as (with the exception of Americas Army) no game penalizes you for killing your own team mates, and "shooting through" a friend to get "his" kill is considered fair game.