Who is playing America's Army?

(Quick sidenote: it's interesting to see your last name as the author of an article.)

America's Army is an Army recruitment/training tool. The game is downloadable and free to play. It tries to teach some core values of the Army: "loyalty, duty, respect, selflessness, service, and honor" (Nichols 41). How it does this is through a game which is primarily a first-person shooter.

We could easily understand how a FPS could be a good representation of fighting in the army. You gain tactical experience, by hiding, shooting, and working with your team, without any danger to yourself. But who else are learning these things and what else may they be learning?

Some people argue that children may be playing the game and receiving a false representation of war and the consequences of death. The game got a rating of 'Teen' from the ESRB, because it refrained from using violent deaths in the gameplay. But are the younger children playing the game taking away the wrong lesson? Is killing ok? Will my child be more violent or be brainwashed into joining the military? These were the questions raised. And a valid question would be, do we want to be training our 12-year-olds in the way of war?

Another potential group of players we may prefer not to play the game would be that of our enemies. They could get a hold of the software and use it to improve their tactics as well as gain an insight into the possible protocols in place that the US Army may follow. By understanding tactics and morals, they may gain an informational advantage against our soldiers.

For discussion: Should the distribution of these games be monitored more closely?