More from therawfeed.com:
“US Marines have shared their personal videos, photos and diaries with the Japanese game giant Konami to help that company make its Six Days In Fallujah game more realistic. But some Iraq War veterans in the UK oppose the game, saying it’s “crass” and “insensitive” to make a game about a war that’s still going on. One former SAS man who is now an author says that the difference is culture. Americans have a lot more exposure both to the Iraq War in the media, and also to gaming culture, than Brits do, he said.”
This game actually ended up being canceled due to an uproar within the United States:
“After seeing the reaction to the videogame in the United States and hearing opinions sent through phone calls and e-mail, we decided several days ago not to sell it.” (via shacknews.com)
So I guess one question is: how soon is too soon? World War Two shooters are released by the dozen. The cultural perspective from which those battles are viewed is pretty one sided. Does the war have to be over? Does there need to be a clear victor before the “good guys” can be discerned from the “bad guys” in historical simulations.
Maybe they should have let players take the role of Iraqis as well?
Check out local news footage here. Seven people were arrested at a war protest in Northeast Philadelphia this early May at a $12 million military gaming center at a mall which uses simulators (a-la America’s Army) to lure in potential soldiers at age 13 and up.
So far the center has recruited twice as efficiently as rival, non-digital centers.
“War is not a game!” “You can’t simulate the heat. You can’t you know the cries of people who are getting killed. You can’t simulate the noise when things are exploding around you,” said Jesse Hamilton, an Iraq War Veteran who served in the Army.
The Army Experience Center presents the teenagers with video games in hopes that they might learn about life in the military. At least the Army believes games to be be educational!
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via: The Jerusalem Post
War games
By SAM SER
Kassam rockets are coming in way too fast, raining terror across the western Negev. IAF fighter-bombers are responding with ferocious bombardments of Gaza City, and tanks are rolling in behind them. The whole chilling scene unfolds on the computer screen… until I hit the “escape” button.
As if the constant stream of television coverage of Operation Cast Lead weren’t enough, several video games depicting the fighting have been posted to popular on-line gaming sites in the past two weeks. So now the fate of Israelis and Palestinians are in the hands of computer geeks from Nebraska to New Zealand.
Look closely at the kongregate.com or newgrounds.com Web sites, for example, and you’ll find current events reflected in the list of free games. In Gaza Defender, a Hamas gunman must fire his AK-47 into the sky, shooting at IAF jets as they drop bombs that tear away at the Gaza skyline. Save Israel is a race against the clock as rockets bombard the South; the goal is to click on the cities being targeted (to sound the Color Red alarm) and then click on the incoming rockets to destroy them before they hit.
Two take-offs on the popular “tower defense” game are used to highlight the disparate forces involved in this (real) war. In Raid Gaza, Israel’s high-powered military faces off against woefully inaccurate homemade rockets, in a clear mismatch that leads to an inordinate number of casualties on the Palestinian side. Likewise, Gaza Defense Force pits a handful of rock throwers against tanks and planes in an utterly hopeless battle.
These games were put together quickly, using simple Flash programming and a lack of any real plot development. This is old-school electronic warfare, the kind that is controlled with arrow keys, the space bar and a few well-timed left-clicks on the mouse. At the same time, though, these games are becoming a new front in the Israeli-Arab conflict – a battle for hearts and minds that is anything but fun and games.
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I’m sure readers here are pretty familiar with what America’s Army is so I’ll skip most of the article, but there are some salient details that were new to me.
via: Truthout
…
What the game’s “realism” is attempting to do is to mask the violent reality of combat, and military experience in general, for very specific purposes. At a minimum, the Army hopes “America’s Army” will act as “strategic communication” to expose “kids who are college bound and technologically savvy” to positive messaging about the Army. Phase one of the propaganda effort is to expose children to “Army values” and make service look as attractive as possible. The next phase is direct recruiting. According to Colonel Wardynski, who originally thought up selling the Army to children through video games, “a well executed game would put the Army within the immediate decision-making environment of young Americans. It would thereby increase the likelihood that these Americans would include Soldiering in their set of career alternatives.” To make the connection between the game and recruitment explicit, the “America’s Army” web site links directly to the Army’s recruitment page. And gamers can explore a virtual recruitment center through the “America’s Army Real Heroes” program. Local recruiters also use the game to draw in high school children for recruitment opportunities. Recruiters stage area tournaments with free pizza and sodas; winners receive Xbox game consoles, free copies of “America’s Army” and iPods. Game centers are also set up at state fairs and public festivals with replica Humvees and .50 caliber machine guns, where children as young as 13 can test out the life-sized equipment.
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Does anyone remember that movie War Games? No wait, this is more like Last Starfighter. Yep, the merger of military training, video games, and actual combat is upon up. The military is learning to help gamers transition as easily as possible from virtual war to actual war. This is like Toys At least there’ll be no more gender bias designed into jet cockpits.
via: Busines Week
by Mark Scott
Sitting back in a leather chair, with both hands on the controls, I’m scanning three flat-screen monitors in front of me, on the lookout for my next target. Sounds like a sneak peek of the latest shoot-’em-up video game, right?
Think again. This is the next generation of ground controls for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), sometimes also known as drones, used by the U.S. Air Force and its overseas counterparts. As remote-controlled planes take on larger military roles in both Iraq and Afghanistan, defense companies are borrowing techniques from the video-game industry to make it easier for pilots on the ground to fly these unmanned aircraft from afar.
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This article is kind of confusing, and I haven’t found any others that offer a clearer explanation. I’m imagining that the Thai government is just being reactionary here and there is no clear justification for banning the game. They say the boy murdered the taxi driver because he wanted to see if it was as easy in real life as in the game. Then they say he needed money so he could play the game more. So first the danger is that the game is a bad influence on kids, then the danger is that it’s addictive and we could see gamers like crack addicts robbing bodegas to buy the latest first person shooter. Finally, in an AFP article, a police officer claims the game is being banned because of obscene content. Obscene content? The country with one of the biggest sex tourism economies in the world is fretting over naughty language, guns, and digital strip clubs? No, GTA is no worse than an Ong Bak movie. Games are just convenient scapegoats.
via: BBC
The 18-year-old high school student is accused of stabbing the cab driver to death by trying to copy a scene from the game. The biggest video game publisher in the south-east Asian country, New Era Interactive Media, has told retailers to stop selling GTA IV. It is due to be replaced by another video game title.
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