A soldier is up on real-life charges for killing comrades in a video game

For the first time, a soldier is being brought up on real-world charges for battlefield offenses committed during a video game. A UK troop stationed in Edinburgh, frustrated at the lack of real training took that frustration out in the combat simulator in which he and his squad were training.

He wasn't charged with murder, according to the Telegraph, he was charged with disobeying a direct order and reprimanded. The infantry rifleman told members of his unit he just wanted to be training outside and was fed up with being on a laptop. He will spend the coming weekend on guard duty as part of his punishment.

"Guys, take this seriously, okay??"

Members of his unit told the Telegraph they had been training on the laptop computers for at least three weeks and were anxious to go outside and do real-world training. They also challenged anyone else to do the same thing for that long without needing to vent some kind of frustration.

"All this was taking place in an office at our headquarters, when we'd rather be doing real-life soldiering outside in the fresh air. But there's less of that sort of exercise these days because the Army has committed to Unit-based Virtual Training."

Like training for, say, World War III.

The unit was training on what to do in an armored convoy in a hostile environment, filled with enemy forces. That's when the soldier in question "lost his rag" and went on a Grand Theft Auto-level virtual spree, which started with killing the soldier next to him. He then stole one of the armored vehicles and drove it down the street to deliberately smash into local nationals' cars.

His comrades thought the behavior was extremely funny, his superior officers did not.

Pictured: British Army convoy training.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence defended the reprimand, saying "We take the training of our service personnel very seriously and anyone who is disruptive to this training will receive disciplinary action..