Video Games as tools of Recruitment?

Was the Army's decision to invest in military related Video Games such as "America's Army"


  • Total voters
    7
Wow in Germany this will never happen- just recently a schoolboy visiting a training simulator for shoting on a military camp in Germany said "It's even better than in the video games." The result was a MASSIVE uprising and a lot of people were upset.
I personally don't think games should be a recruitment tool because we already have enough idiots that want to play hero and think they would respawn- for them it's just a game, me as Platoon Leader I can't take risks because I have to give such an idiot important orders- I will never know what he'll do.

In Germany there is no real working recruitment tool (as far as I know), but since public opinion is and will be a long time against the military, changes will be very hard- but after blaming every amok on violent video games they will never be allowed to be a recruitment tool... at least not in Germany.
 
All you need is someone to invade you and start blowing things up. They'll start believing in a military real quick.
I just think video games are the way people kinda communicate now.

Story telling, working out (Wii fit, screen golf etc.), education (learning chinese characters via a nintendo DS game) etc.
So why not a recruiting tool?
 
I think military video games can be quite informative if they're done right - with an impartial presentation. America's Army is a bit odd in my opinion, I'd expect it to be the most realistic shooter considering its origin but it really isn't. I'd much rather play something like the Virtual Battlefield System designed to teach people what works than a game like America's Army, which is more or less designed as an advertisement. But then no one wants to get shot without warning from a treeline so far away they can't make out the smoke like in a true simulator... Only the hardcore would play that sort of game more than a few times.

Personally, the more I play games like Red Orchestra or ArmA the farther away from any actual fighting I want to be in reality, because they put you directly into the role of the guy on the ground without any sugarcoating or glamorization. I believe such games illustrate better than any other medium just how terrible it really is. In addition I think it's disrespectful to the dead to make a totally unrealistic arcade-style game about modern wars that are still being fought. If you're going to make a game in that setting make it authentic or don't make it at all.

The recent recruitment ads have been a bit odd as well, you know the ones with the "It's not science fiction" slogan. Well the CG they use in those ads sure does look like sci-fi (USMC on Mars :D), and some of the gear depicted really doesn't exist yet. The one thing I think to myself when I see those fancy commercials is "Looks like a video game," and I really hope that is not their intent. I'll tell you one thing; there is no better way to desensitize someone to extreme violence than with video games, especially at an early age.

But, if these types of recruitment campaigns are effective, you gotta do what you gotta do. I bet honor and self-sacrifice don't sell as well these days.
 
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Video games are altering the way the current generation thinks.
They're just riding along with the trend.
Now, everything is a friggin' video game.
 
First time I tried to play it online my Spybot S&D rang.
When I downloaded it my AV went nuts.

I ain't gonna do that again.
 
I remember this game on the old Xbox. It wasnt bad, I guess. It is more realistic than COD4 and similar games, but its just not nearly as fun.
 
First time I tried to play it online my Spybot S&D rang.
When I downloaded it my AV went nuts.

I ain't gonna do that again.

To Hmmm

That shouldn't have happened. Send me a PM if you want, I can try and work out the problem. (I have some experience in this sort of thing).


To all...

My opinion from a civilian lifelong gamer.

I have no problem with the practice as long as the Army doesn't try and over-glorify what happens in the game. I think that the Army should make it clear that while Army Life can be a fulfilling vocation there are in fact some very serious realities and risks involved as well.

I would have a problem with it if the Army tried to make a game that played like a John Wayne Movie. I played an old version of AA, which lacked the new features of the latest game. I did read that the new features do include things like how to apply a tourniquet to a wounded and bleeding comrade. As long it does things like this (rather than focusing on the FPS/killing aspect like a ordinary video game) I have no issue with it.
 
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