America's Army

1. One noticeable piece of rhetoric on the America’s Army home page is the photo of the American Soldier who is being saluted as the newest “Real Hero.” By providing a section dedicated to real life soldiers accompanied by quotes such as “I will never accept defeat” and “I will never leave a fallen comrade” they attempt to instill in visitors the values of the U.S Military. They are telling potential soldiers that they too can be one of these distinguished heroes. In addition, the “About” Section cites the Army’s superior knowledge and understanding of military simulations as evidence that this particular game is as realistic as any. One of the sites notifies visitors that “gold-level members” can earn free hats, shirts, and other merchandise at their online store, giving people a clear incentive to join the community.

2. The intended audience for these websites is clearly teenagers and young adults who are considering a career in the military. In the Trailer for America’s Army, Deputy Director Chris Chambers describes the America’s Army Game as “a great venue to draw a lot of young people into the game center” and judging by the turnout, it appears to be working quite well. Ed Tomasi also comments that the game has “exposed us to a whole new community that we can tap into and generate revenue through traffic.”

3. I do think that Boyle raises a valid point in arguing that this game promotes war. While there are plenty of games that involve fighting, shooting, and killing others, the fact that this one is specifically designed by the Army strongly suggests that this was in fact their goal in designing this game. I’m inclined to believe that military recruiters and the makers of America’s Army know that playing this game is not the same as fighting a war, and that it cannot prepare someone for what it’s truly like to fight in a place like Iraq or Afghanistan, I worry that some young people might be a little quick to jump into the military after playing a game like this, thinking that they know what to expect. While it is important for any soldier to have necessary training and understanding of war before stepping onto the battlefield, but I have strong doubts that a video game could sufficiently do this. I’m further bothered by the fact that these websites seem to be encouraging the idea that this is a realistic simulation of war and that players who excel at it have what it takes to fight in the U.S Army.

I wouldn’t draw much connection between this game and the way that the media portrays the Iraq War today, though I do think there was a time at the onset of the war when they took a more laid back approach to describing what it was really like there. The same case could easily be made when the U.S invaded Afghanistan following September 11th. Both these wars were strongly supported by Americans at the time, and as such, the media made it sound like the missions were going to be much easier than they actually were. Likewise, I believe this game does not fully capture the hardships of fighting in a war, and the incredible physical and mental stamina that it takes to get through it.

4. Though I have already stated some problems that I have with this game, I do not believe that violent games cause or influence teens to be more violent from what I have seen. We need to be very careful in distinguishing correlation from causation. Does it surprise me that the Columbine shooters played violent video games? Not at all. People with as much built up anger and hostility towards the world that those young men had are likely to channel some of that rage through video games before they could find a way to show the world how they felt. But to say that the games they played were the cause of their actions that day is a stretch. Violence is all around us in pop culture; how many of us can say that we don’t play any violent video games, watch any violent movies or television shows, listen to any “angry” or “heavy” music? If all of these things inspire us to be cruel, aggressive people, then it is a wonder we haven’t all killed each other yet.

I personally do not own or play many violent video games, though I have many friends who do. They are all extremely kind, peaceful people who know that there is a difference between what is acceptable in a game and what is acceptable in real life. None of them show any tendencies towards violence or aggression that I have seen. They are just normal young people. It is easy to make a scapegoat out of something like a video game when a tragedy like Columbine or Virginia Tech occurs game, but the truth is that each case is different, and the explanation is never as simple as a game. The longer we pretend that that is the root of the problem, the less likely we are to stop these events from happening.