America's Army - Development, Impact Analyzed 56
Professor writes "The MOVES Institute's America's Army team has placed a booklet on the game's development and impact (PDF link) onto the web." The MOVES Institute is part of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and their page notes this booklet was "...developed for the America's Army exhibit [part of the Bang The Machine exhibition] at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Art Center... [and] tells you all you wanted to know about the philosophy, history, and implementation of the MOVES Institute's hit game." We've previously covered the reported recruiting success of America's Army.
Re:I don't know about you... (Score:2)
Re:I don't know about you... (Score:2)
Re:I don't know about you... (Score:1)
so we should really dismantle our military, eh?
Be realistic.
Re:I don't know about you... (Score:1)
Maybe in your world. I live in this one.
Everything isn't utopian.
I'll ignore the spin at the end and throughout your comment and ask why you think serving the country isn't an honor and shouldn't be glorified?
I believe in pre-emption. This is where we dissent.
Re:I don't know about you... (Score:1)
Volunteering to defend for next to no pay is indeed honorable as it is inherently selfless.
yea volunteering to work at a soup kitchen is nice, too but that is part time, ie., you don't live at the soup kitchen, its not your life and its a whole lot easier.
The US military role is more than domestic freedom, the US has taken on the role of defending freedom. You can argue my point, but you have to admit that historicall
Re:I don't know about you... (Score:1, Flamebait)
Your army did a great job training Osama bin Laden too! Although I must admit, you didn't train Saddam well enough. Yep, your country is full of saits! GO ARMY!
In all se
Yes, you were protected (Score:1, Offtopic)
Well actually yes. The last 12 years of heavy surveilance and overflight (US and UK) would have helped in that regard. Its better to prevent a weapon from being built in the first place than have to go destroy it. The problem was the US never really knew how successful it had been. Saddam seemed to want to keep that a state secret.
Saddam admitted he had WMD ... (Score:2)
- Iraq used long range missles with chemical weapons against Iran.
- Iraq used chemical weapons against the Kurds.
- Iraq admitted having nerve agent based weapons.
- Iraq admitted having biological weapons.
- Iraq claims they destroyed it all in 1991 and refuses to provide evidence of this.
The Gulf War cease fire required Iraq to get rid of all of this AND it required them to doc
Re:I don't know about you... (Score:3, Insightful)
Politicians are the ones who made the poor decisions you mentioned. The Army just did their job and implemented those bad decisions.
I think this is a good thing too. The army needs to be a tool of the politicians. The army cannot make decisions on its own. Otherwise, it turns into a situation where the army runs the country, and that never works out.
Re:I don't know about you... (Score:2)
But more on topic, I still think it's wrong to lure people into a very serious career by making a game out of it. War is not a game, and actually being in the Army is not like the America's Army game which conveniently leaves out the unpleasentness of the job. If people enter the Army, they should do so knowing full well what it is, what it means, what it does,
Re:I don't know about you... (Score:1)
The training is the same. Who wants to play a game where you pull a 24hour CQ?* The game works well to remind america's youth that the military is an option. I think its great. For awhile choosing army was out of style or whatever.
Hey, i'm in the army and its a blast. Don't tell me its not fun.
I've never met anybody that joined the army to be a 'leet sniper dude', and if they didn't they'd figure out in an instant just how dedicated you'd have to be to get anywhere near that level of expertise.
CQ: Ch
Re:I don't know about you... (Score:2)
The best was when I won a couple competitions to be able to launch Stinger missiles at BATs (REALLY big model rockets). You just can't beat the feeling of shooting missiles off your shoulder.
Now, when you're shooting the missile at an aircraft which is trying to kill you, or you buddies, that's a WHOLE different story. That's not fun no matter how you slice it.
But the truth is..somebody has got to do it.
Oh yeah, the worst part
Re:I don't know about you... (Score:4, Insightful)
Some "pacifists" are just being trendy (Score:3, Interesting)
Keep in mind that some "pacifists" are just kids trying to be trendy, be fashionably rebellious, etc. They tend to over do it.
Warning: RDF in use (Score:1)
Compared to MS Solitaire? Sure.
Re:I don't know about you... (Score:3, Insightful)
There isn't any.
The Army noticed that people liked realistic tactical shooters, such as Rainbow Six. So hey, instead of writing up a fictional story, how about teach them about how the Army works in real life? Maybe they'll sign up!
The Army did nothing wrong, and I congradulate them on this risky attempt at reaching a new generation.
So please, if you're going to
Re:I don't know about you... (Score:1)
Not for profit (Score:3, Insightful)
Well they are a non-profit organization.
Seriously, recruiting is much more subtle than you suggest. T-shirts, hats, bumper stickers, and now video games are effective tools. They do not directly get folks to run down to the local recruiter but they are not meant to. They are meant to simply remind a person about the Army. Lots of young folks are not sure what they want to do, periodic reminders o
Re:I don't know about you... (Score:1)
You know that money was earmarked for recruitment anyhow. They army can reach more people with something liek a videogame than they can with keychains and other doodads.
Re:I don't know about you... (Score:2)
Re:I don't know about you... (Score:1, Informative)
Winner of (Score:5, Funny)
It says it in the pamphlet.
Thats hilarious.
Re:Winner of (Score:2)
*reads*
Bahahahahahahaha!! OMG, its right there on pg 17! Hahahahahaha!
Damn, I can't believe they printed that!
Re:Winner of (Score:4, Insightful)
Absolutely briliant.
Unlike some other posts on this page, I have no problem with AA and actually think it's quite fun. It's free, and it doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is (a recruiting method). So what's the problem?
-Trillian
Re:Winner of (Score:4, Informative)
I never really got into the game (Score:1)
Re:I never really got into the game (Score:1)
makes sense to me. Covert ops has to know that stuff. Wouldn't be much of a challege if you just ran around and shot stuff, would it? Then'd it would just be a generic fps.
And come on, is it really that difficult?
now if you had to identify them by sound, that'd be a real challenge, heh.
I enjoy AA (Score:3, Insightful)
AA not a recruiting tool, its just more realistic (Score:2, Insightful)
i really believe when HL2 and Doom3 is released, there will be a castrophoic drop off in AA players.
Re:AA not a recruiting tool, its just more realist (Score:1)
that and some people want to knwo what army training is like and what you learn. Kinda like getting the training without the commitment, but not really, you know?
Evil... (Score:4, Interesting)
Recently, we were approached by an army recruiter asking us if we had spare computers, network hardware, and space we would be willing to "donate" for free to him. He wanted to attract kids to the army by setting up a free network gaming environment.
While the game might be fun, this is quite frankly evil. The army recruiter was, in fact, under orders "from above" to find a place and acquire free equipment and time in order to use the game to attract otherwise uninterested people to the army.
My viewpoint is simple; if you want to join the military, join it. If you don't want to join, there's probably a reason for that. You don't want to die, you don't like being told to do things you don't agree with, you don't like being yelled at and fed crap... any number of reasons. Using a game to make it look glamorous is just another way of lying to kids in order to get them to join the military under false pretenses. This is nothing new; don't get me wrong. It's just slimy.
Re:Evil... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Evil... (Score:2)
Re:Evil... (Score:1)
Anybody who joins without the right mindset and expects mom to do everything for them is gonna get a crash course in reality without the sugar coating. It was a lot for some people in basic.
Re:Evil... (Score:2, Informative)
I'm in the army, i don't know what you're talking about. All the BRM (basic rifle marksmanship) stuff in the game is _exactly_ how i learned to fire a rifle.
Breath control, trigger squeeze, steady aim, all that stuff.
The army is what you make of it. if you're shitbag, you'll be treated like one and you can't quit.
I've received somewhere near $250k in training for free. I love my job. I work on apache helicopters every day, what do you do?
Re:Evil... (Score:2)
I have nothing against with the Army, violent video games, etc. However, shameless propaganda is fairly tasteless.
Ohh and I'm a user interface designer. I get to use photoshop all day, I get to wear whatever I want to work, I get to drink beer at lunch, and I have lots of free time to snowboard and surf. I'm not complaining anytime soon
Re:Evil... (Score:1)
Wow, that what i was gonna do before i left college for the army. I was going to do interdisciplinary Psychology + computer science concentrating on user interfaces and do research.
As for america's army, i don't see it as propaganda because a lot of the stuff is real and its not politically motivated. I think its the best attempt to remind people that the army is an option.
Maybe you can give me an example as i've not played it much past the very beginning where you qualify and stuff.
Re:Evil... (Score:2)
Nice
I did sociology and graphic design
"As for america's army, i don't see it as propaganda because a lot of the stuff is real and its not politically motivated. I think its the best attempt to remind people that the army is an option."
True.
America's Army is basicall
Re:Evil... (Score:1)
Man it'd be great to have a beer with lunch. MRE's don't come with beer, but they do come with orange beverage powder sometimes
In a time of such controversy, to me at least, it seems anything and everything you do becomes a statement. Ie., if you demoed AA before the conflict, it would just be a game but now its become more than that to a lot of people and I bet if you did demo
Re:Evil... (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes. And a recruiter won't change your mind.
But "want to join the military" isn't a binary state. There are those who want to join the military (and either do, or don't due to circumstances beyond their control [asthma, etc]), and there are those who DON'T want to join the military (pacifits, folk who don't want to die, etc.)...
and then there are folk who just haven't given it serious thought, or who are sitting on the fence about it. Thi