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Recent Posts by Rich Gardner
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Update to "Activists seek balance at Army Experience Center"
by
Rich Gardner | 03.13.2009
In our February 23rd feature story, we at PhillyIMC took a look at the new hi-tech way the Army was using to recruit new soldiers. Bill Perry has submitted an update to that. 
WAR IS NOT A GAME Kucinich insists that funds be pulled from
the "Virtual Army Experience," noting that
the "army simulation" cost taxpayers $9.8
million in 2007. Today Kucinich's staff
released a memo calling on the committee
to "eliminate deceptive Army recruitment.
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Hi Team!
*? 2 ALL:
KUCINICH: 'VIRTUAL ARMY
EXPERIENCE' IS 'DECEPTIVE' -
Ohio Rep Dennis Kucinich says:
That's essentially the message carried by Congressman Dennis Kucinich in a letter to the leaders of the House Committee on Armed Services, urging them to pull funding for the Army's "deceptive recruitment" through video games. The popular, liberal representative' When it released in 2002, the game drew praise from reviewers, many of them ranking it among the best first-person shooters of its day, such as Unreal Tournament and Counterstrike. It was released initially over the Internet free of charge. "America's Army: Operations clearly has a lot going for it, not the least of which is a level of realism that's constantly palpable and brought to life with very high production values," He must have been using the word "realistic" in relative terms. Today, the game is even more "realistic," thanks to the elaborate technology involved in the " Sporting prop Humvees in a massive VR combat scenario, a LAN (Local Area Network) room for multiplayer gaming and a team-based mission simulation encompassing a number of the various jobs inherent to soldiering, the VAE represents the latest generation of how America's military appeals to the 13-and-up demographic. The Army even pulls scenarios from "real missions." "I had fun during the intense but short experience," America's Army is not the only virtual recruiting tool used by the military. During a launch party for the popular Xbox 360 game Halo 3, underage kids were turned away from a GameStop location in New Hampshire because the game is rated "M" (Mature) and recommended for players ages 17 and up. That's a bit much for Kucinich.. In 2008, an activist group staged a protest outside of the game developer's headquarters. In San Francisco, Ubisoft was picketed by protesters who carried a banner that read "War is not a game." http://DelValVets4America.org/ http://www.Arlington-Libertybell.net/ This then came in from Elaine: ALL: This is great news for us. Please participate in the conference call that is being set up for next week. We need to seize on the opportunity to use this publicity against the AEC. We should contact press and get back there on March 28th. Let's do this! And this was from Pat: This underscores the importance of organizing openly, using list-serves, blogs, Facebook, radio, indymedia and anything else that works. It’s too late for the March event, but we have enough time if we all decide April 25th is a go. Please sign up to the Franklin Mills Mall Yahoo Group. There are 18 members so far, although we haven’t used it because some were worried about police snooping. If we allow these fears to dominate our actions, we’ll never shut the thing down, which I believe we have a chance of doing if we attract a large crowd and national TV. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/franklinmillsmall/ I hope everyone has a chance to click on the doodle. http://www.doodle.com/4dny2panssa6vfqn So far, seven of us have said Tuesday, March 17th at 8pm works. Elaine, do you want to set that time for the call or do you want to hear what others might say? I’m off to the mountains of Western Maryland – gonna build chicken coops and look for bears. The bears are out! Pat |
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Comments
Better late than never!
Submitted by Andrew (not verified) on Wed, 03/25/2009 - 4:35pmAs a former military marketer whose last project with the Army was the VAE, I could not be any happier with the possibility of this project losing its funding. It was a completely misguided effort from the start that hemorrhaged taxpayer money and operated without even minimal knowledge of appropriate safety standards or ethical considerations. In my opinion, one need look no further than the Advertising Agency behind the effort to find the flaws that ultimately brought the exhibit to the brink of its elimination. Normally, I would say that I hate to be an “I told you so”. But in this case, I love it. For more info on deceptive military recruitment, visit www.CAMMMO.org.
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