America's Army

“what is happening now is that a lot of people who are coming into the military service are thrilled by the idea of war” (Linnett, 2004)

I want to start off talking about one of my good friends who went to the US military largely due to Halo2. He was a Halo2 obsessed kid when I first met him at school. All he does is playing Halo2 and talks about it all day long. I asked him what made him become obsessed with Halo2, then he replied, he likes it how it is very similar to an actual war. Like most of you guys know, Halo2 is set up in the future setting and fight against aliens. He loved the war-like concept of this game. After his graduation from high school, he went straight to the army without any hesitation. His only hope was to hold an actual game and shoot on his targets, just like Halo2. Therefore, I agree with what Linnet that a lot of people who are coming into the military service are thrilled by the idea of war.

Today the use of video games by the military-industry complex has long been a reality. Since the 1930s, the military was working on simulators to help train newcomers. Many of American military have adopted first-person shooter games like Doom, Operation Flashpoint, etc. According to the reading, the army began employing online gaming machines to bases overseas in 2006 as a mean of boosting troop morale. These game machines are said to have cost over $7,000 a piece. Therefore, military simulators industry is a very big money making industry with annual earnings of $4 billion, just for the simulation equipments, games, and events. Military’s use of video games is very helpful to video game industry to them in two ways. First, they use serious games, and second, these games function as a new form of elaborate advertisement. Today the America’s Army franchise has produced its fourth console title, America’s Army: True Soldiers (2007) for the Xbox 360. The U.S. military is a very important part of video game industry because the military needs the simulators to train their warriors. Therefore video game companies are competing one another to sell their product to the U.S. military. America’s Army is the first of the franchise produced for current seventh-generation game system and was developed by the Army in conjunction with North Carolina software developer, Red Storm Entertainment.  According to the reading, America’s Army is consists of two parts that are essential for military simulators. The first part is a role-playing military training module focused on communicating values for military service, while the second part is a first-person shooter. Although, America’s Army was made for simulation purpose for the US military service, but later it was sold to the public for PC games. According to the reading, for the army such an expense is sassily justified. Recruiting individual soldiers cost approximately $15,000 each; if 400 new recruits sign up as a result of the game, it will have paid for the game’s production though not it’s marketing. This is really good way of strategy to recruit new soldiers. People want to join the military service because they are thrilled by the idea of war. Since those people who thrilled by the idea of war are easier to recruit, advertising the US Army by a video game is a very efficient. Video game is a very useful in recruiting people. Since the US military knows that game is a very useful and cheap way to recruit new people, they attempt to gather a wider by promoting with a series of action figures of America’s Army at Toys “R” Us. Video game is a serious business today.

Have you ever played a military-base game that thrilled you with an idea of war and made you want to enter the military service? Or do you know anyone like that?