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Group Protests Army Recruitment Tool That Violates International Law
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Friday, August 8, 2008
An anti-war group protested the offices of video game maker Ubisoft in San Francisco yesterday to bring attention to the company’s ongoing work with the U.S. Army on “America’s Army”, a video game that has been developed specifically to increase the number of Army recruits.
In the absence of a military draft the Army has turned to technological propaganda to meet it’s recruitment targets.
The game immerses players in basic training before they can go on to play specialized combat roles. Players travel through Middle East settings using weapons that replicate those used by the US army.
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The United States Army and the Modeling, Virtual Environments and Simulation Institute has stated of the game that “The Department of Defense want[ed] to double the number of Special Forces Soldiers, so essential did they prove in Afghanistan and northern Iraq; consequently, orders … trickled down the chain of command and found application in the current release of ‘America’s Army.’”
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19 Responses to “Group Protests Army Recruitment Tool That Violates International Law”
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August 8th, 2008 at 10:26 am
I’m actually working on a documentary that touches on the proliferation of violence in video games and how our government is using it as a tool to encourage teens to join the armed forces. Teen gamers live on the thrill of the kill (in the virtual world) and our government is reaching out to these kids through various art forms in an effort to pull them into the Armed Forces.
August 8th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Derek, any kid dumb enough to translate a video game into what it is like in the military, particularly combat operations, deserves what they get.
Bill Hicks said it best: Anyone dumb enough to want to join the military should be allowed to. (he was referencing the gays in the military issue)
August 8th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I don’t think it’s a question of stupidity. I think it’s more of an issue of ‘programming’. Bombarding the back of a young persons skull with messages of any type, will strongly influence their thought patterns and likely have an effect on their decision making in their adult life. It’s kind of like TV, but more interactive. Blowing peoples’ heads off in a video game may not have the same effect with each individual. You have to think of the percentage that will become desensitized to such an act.
Military recruitment commercials (back when I was growing up) didn’t cause me to run down town in a full sprint to join up. It was the knowlege that it was an option when I realized there wasn’t enough enthusiasm about 4 more years of school. And the seed was planted through the television set.
August 8th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
I played the game for about 2 years, AFTER I had served in the Army. Let me say that the game gets to be as boring as the real Army after a while (and I had a combat MOS not a staff job). Of all the people I ever played with, which was a lot, none of them ever expressed an interest in joining up. This is a pretty lousy recruitment tool I think. Most kids are probably just using this because its a free video game that has decent updates with new maps to play.
After a while though, most people get bored with this game because you are limited to only a certain few weapons, and vehicles. I understand the point is for them only to use U.S. equipment, but it makes for a boring game.
If the game is so powerful, why are recruitment levels at all time lows? And why are recruiters lying to kids about jail time to force them to join if this game is such a killer recruiter?
August 9th, 2008 at 8:58 am
Its actually a pretty good game…. and its free.
August 9th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
From what I understand, most video games involve a virtual world of violence, criminality and death. This may serve to blunt and numb the mind of the player thus allowing them to engage in this kind of desensitized behavior in real life situations.
August 9th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
I find funny that people target video games. It is true that they most likely cause a person to be desensitized. But any choices anybody makes are their own.
If anybody should fear any tool out there that could be used to desensitize an individual they should fear the movie industry. When I was Iraq, the first murder victim I stummbled upon shocked me not because he was some guy thrown into the middle of the street with blood oozing from multiple wounds, but because of how it looked just a like something I grew up seeing in the movies. I thought the movies had it wrong but that is not the case.
Look I was one the kids that grew up with video games and violent movies. When I was in Iraq I never killed anybody though I had a few times the right to use that level of force. I used my self-discipline to subdue violent or threatening individuals.
When I was a kid growing up some people said that kids who played with G.I. Joes were more likely to join the military. I know at least five guys off the top of my head I grew up with who also played with the figurines and watched the cartoons and I’m the only one out of the group who joined the military and it wasn’t because of G.I. Joe. Maybe you can blame on Ernest Hemingway and other writers who I have read.
Next in the news anti-war group protests outside of New York publishing house for the publication of classics written about wars.
August 9th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Is anybody else puzzled by media numbers? What I mean is the media almost always throws out a large round number to shock the reader and grab their attention. They then rarely, if ever, correct the figures they throw out.
One time while in Baghdad the news media said that a bombing killed 120 people and injured 240. In reality eight people died and I can not recall the number of people injured. I never saw a piece correcting the false numbers.
In the article it states that 30,000 people are recruited daily from the video game. That means that every year 10,950,000 people are recruited for the Army from this video game alone. Fascinating since that would mean the Army would have more than plenty of people to chose from, would surpass all their recruiting goals and no doubt would discontinue intial signing bonuses or at least lower their current level.
When all of us fight for freedom and to get away from a world where lies are easily spread can we at least not stoop to the same level and replace one tyrant with another?
August 9th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Steve,
Check out the ADF – Australian Defence Force. There placing ads in MSN Messenger and ads before MSN games.
August 9th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
It is and always has been a great game. Unfortunately, I stopped playing because of the number of hackers who were playing on the public servers. This game ruled the arena when CS and others were trying to compete for the best game, best graphics, best all around team FPS. It still does, in my opinion.
Watching any amount of movies or television is far worse than this.
IF – this game were used as a recruiting tool, there would be many dead people on the american side because there are no cheat/hacks in real life.
I do however support the game. I am 48 years old, I love gaming and this game, on a private server with with others who just enjoy the game, is a wonderful way to waste a Sunday Evening with friends.
August 10th, 2008 at 4:58 am
The word “Propaganda” comes to mind.Its trying to shove all that “be a real american a patriot a hero youve got a calling from god” crap down peoples throats. Im from the UK and ive had recruitment adverts for MI5 appearing on my ‘mysapce’. Ive got a cousin in the British army and when hes home on leave he refers to those around him as ‘civilians’ as if they were some sort of sub human race. Another product of the ‘call of duty culture’
August 10th, 2008 at 7:13 am
Don’t ever join the military that game is nothing like real war. or the training they put you through. and also let me tell you firsthand I saw them hit recruits. Or challenge recruits to meet them out behind the barracks and teach them a lesson. given not every soldier is unhonorable, but all they care about is not you as a person, but you as a number. war is a business that is all. old men start them, young men fight them, and nothing ever changes. people die for nothing absolutely nothing, their sarcrifice was pointless, no meaning by it at all. yet they are led to believe it would have a meaning. We must anti recruit and let people know the truth. they dont need to join the military to be a hero.
August 10th, 2008 at 7:18 am
Propaganda doesn’t begin till you get to Basic Training! With me, way back in 1967 in Marine Corps Boot Camp; I was taught to hate the Communists NVA, and everything about them and how to stay alive! With the way employment is, some figure going in the Army, or Marines is a way to get an education through the G.I. Bill, and some even stay in the service that can adapt. It is a great way to go during peace time.
August 10th, 2008 at 9:15 am
The key is distinguishing the virtual world from the real world. AA wasn’t that great a game anyway, for free though it was worth the download I guess.
August 11th, 2008 at 2:28 am
Antant it’s the Brits that have most of the responsibility for screwing up the world in thei first place. Even after we won our freedoms from them they still infiltrated us and pressed us into their sick white man’s burden game. It’s your European banks that have caused most of the problems.
If maybe you all had taken the responsibility of giving back some of the money you stole after colonizing most the world and didn’t create pseudo-countries designed to have internal conflict after you left them. Then quite possibly we would not have half of these problems in the first place. You know I saw so many ‘white’ Iraqies in Iraq and it did not take too long to figure out they had Brittish blood in them. It’s strange that the most problematic places in the world once were dominated by countries that invaded them at one time.
August 11th, 2008 at 7:06 am
No game is going to stop them from getting the ass-whipping they are taking in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
February 16th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
for all of the arguments about whether this is “good or bad for training soldiers”, the point is that it violates international law. The military is not allowed to market to kids. But our military turns its nose up at this problem, as it does with so many other international laws. Fight back at CAMMMO.org. Restore America to a country worth admiring.
March 4th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
I bet the game doesn’t have EFP’s or IED’s. Or how you feel after your friends are killed or maimed by one. The game is crap. There are dozens of better first person shooters.
March 24th, 2009 at 10:19 am
j’aimerais intregre la formation militaire