It's just a game, some say. I think it promotes war, desensitizes killing [View All]

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America's Army Is Not Too Quiet on the Advergame Front

March 23, 2006
http://www.twitchguru.com/2006/03/23/americas_army_is_not_too_quiet_on_the_advergame_front/

Five years ago, the idea of an official U.S. Army computer game might have seemed impossible. But today, America's Army is the gold standard by which all advergames are often measured. What started out as a small, unlikely project within the federal government is now a bona fide franchise with millions of players. Designed to educate and promote the U.S. Army to gamer-age people, the game was developed via the Army Game Project within the Army's Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis over a two-year period for about $4 million. After being released in 2002 as a free PC game, America's Army quickly became the Army's most effective marketing tool as well as a hit game.

Interview with Chris Chambers, deputy director of the Army Game Project:

RW: Beyond the number of players that the game has pulled in, is America's Army having an impact on their views of the U.S. Army?

CHAMBERS: It's tough to accurately measure. We've handcuffed ourselves to a certain degree because registered players are anonymous; we don't want players to think that by signing up for the game that they'll have a recruiter knocking on their door that afternoon. We think there is an attitudinal change taking place, but we're just the tip of the recruiting spear. The point of America's Army is to communicate with young people.


RW: What's next in terms of development for America's Army?

CHAMBERS: We've got a lot going on. We're transitioning to Unreal Engine 3, which is amazing. That's really going to be great for the next version of the game. Plus, we're also making the game more modular so that players can download different segments of the game. One of the problems we've discovered is that the basic training segment, for example, is probably the worst part of the whole game but it's the first level of the game. We've got versions of the game for the consoles now, and we're also prepping a launch of a wireless version of the game for the end of the summer. But probably the biggest thing going on now is that America's Army is being used pretty extensively as a training tool within the military. For example, the game display is being used for vehicle training simulations. We started the training program about 18 months ago, and it's really ramping up now.



Don't bother using this post to rail against legislating thes games out of existence. It's not going to happen and I personally wouldn't waste time try to make it happen. But, I will speak my mind about our tax dollars used to mindlessly promote war as if it were inevitable and unavoidable. The thing I hate most about the games are the scenarios that the virtual soldiers operate under. To conjure and play with the horrific violence of war is a sad reflection of the state we're in now with these government manufactured wars and the nation's unwillingness or inability to reverse course.