Slashdot Mirror
Domain: americasarmy.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to americasarmy.com.
Stories · 23
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U.S. Army to d00dz - We're Coming for You
Thanks to cdagobah for mentioning a post up on the America's Army game site. Executive Producer Phil DeLuca posts a message updating the community on a recent anti-hacking campaign they've initiated, and has a clear message for would-be wrongdoers. From the post: "Allow me to speak directly to the bad guys for a moment: When you get banned, know that we know and have records showing you were doing something that's a violation of terms of service, breaks your EULA, and also happens to be against the law. We know who you are, and can track down where you play from. We have incontrovertible proof you did something illegal. The Army is angry, and we're coming for you. " -
On Training, Recruitment Uses For Army Games
wgrover writes "The New York Times Magazine (reg yada) has a new longform article exploring computer games funded for training/recruitment purposes by the U.S. military, as previously covered on Slashdot. 'For the past three years, the military has been entertaining the surprising idea that video games, even those that you play on a commercial system like Microsoft's Xbox, can be an effective way to train soldiers.' Aside from training, the games also improve young people's perceptions of the military: '30 percent of a group of young people with a favorable view of the military said they had developed that view from playing America's Army.'" -
Army Sets Up Videogame Studio
Ralph Lee writes "Is it time to enlist? Wired News is reporting that the US Army has set up a video game studio to model training and recruit soldiers on the heels of the successful America's Army title: 'The America's Army Government Applications office was quietly opened in January in Cary, North Carolina, with a team of 15 video-game creators, simulation specialists and ex-Army personnel. Many of the studio's employees come from local video-game companies like Interactive Magic, Timeline, Vertis, SouthPeak Interactive, Vicious Cycle Software and Red Storm Entertainment.'" It's also noted that "the office is working with a team of 24 video-game creators in Monterey, California, on the latest edition to its main franchise, America's Army: Overmatch, which will be released in March 2005." -
Americas Army Releases Special Forces 2.1 Update
Phil John writes "As announced on the America's Army site, version 2.1 of America's Army: Special Forces is now available for free download, either as a full install or an update from 2.0.0a. There's a BitTorrent version of the update patch and a full standalone Windows version available from 3D Gamers to ease the load on the download mirrors. New goodies available: 2 new maps, brand new physics engine, new weapons and even an armoured vehicle with 50mm gun turret. Go forth, download and continue fighting the 'global war on terrorism'." -
Americas Army Releases Special Forces 2.1 Update
Phil John writes "As announced on the America's Army site, version 2.1 of America's Army: Special Forces is now available for free download, either as a full install or an update from 2.0.0a. There's a BitTorrent version of the update patch and a full standalone Windows version available from 3D Gamers to ease the load on the download mirrors. New goodies available: 2 new maps, brand new physics engine, new weapons and even an armoured vehicle with 50mm gun turret. Go forth, download and continue fighting the 'global war on terrorism'." -
Using Games To Predict Terrorist Actions?
Thanks to Popular Science for its feature article discussing the opportunities for using game-based simulations to predict the actions of "allies, enemies and even terrorists." The article explains: "The need for sim Qaeda agents is taking modelers down strange paths. The team at Moves [creator of the America's Army recruiting game] is trying to model the behavior and thinking of terrorists by creating a series of computer characters to populate a model code-named Iago, after Shakespeare's arch villain." However, Will Wright, creator of The Sims, injects a note of caution with regard to the general concept, pointing out: "As you scale up to larger and larger systems, you can probably model large trends... But what the Iraqi resistance will do over the next month is based on thousands of tiny local factors that seem to always be in flux and to be too granular to be modeled." -
America's Army Expands Focus, Plays Down Goals
Thanks to The Olympian for its feature on a new U.S. Army combat unit's exercises, as recorded for free PC game America's Army. The newly-launched Stryker Brigade Combat Team was the focus of the research, and the article explains: "The game focused on infantry in the beginning. For the game to remain fresh and realistic, game designers expanded the 'America's Army' universe to include other specialties, such as combat medic and paratrooper." Although the title has been linked with Army recruiting success in the past, a spokesperson for the game plays this down, saying that "it's a 'happy byproduct' if the game draws more young people to the recruiting office", and arguing: "That's not what we're about... We're about creating awareness and strategic communication about what the Army is about." -
America's Army - Development, Impact Analyzed
Professor writes "The MOVES Institute's America's Army team has placed a booklet on the game's development and impact (PDF link) onto the web." The MOVES Institute is part of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and their page notes this booklet was "...developed for the America's Army exhibit [part of the Bang The Machine exhibition] at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Art Center... [and] tells you all you wanted to know about the philosophy, history, and implementation of the MOVES Institute's hit game." We've previously covered the reported recruiting success of America's Army. -
America's Army 2.0 Available for Linux and OS X
Time Doctor writes "Linux and Mac gamers will be happy to hear that America's Army 2.0 is out of private beta, and available via mirrors at 3DGamers and HappyPuppy, among others. See this news post on the AA site for the gameplay changes." We covered the release of the Windows version of AA 2.0 a couple of weeks back, as this free FPS recruiting tool continues toward its goal of "providing civilians with an inside perspective and a virtual role in today's premiere land force, the U.S. Army." -
America's Army 2.0 Available for Linux and OS X
Time Doctor writes "Linux and Mac gamers will be happy to hear that America's Army 2.0 is out of private beta, and available via mirrors at 3DGamers and HappyPuppy, among others. See this news post on the AA site for the gameplay changes." We covered the release of the Windows version of AA 2.0 a couple of weeks back, as this free FPS recruiting tool continues toward its goal of "providing civilians with an inside perspective and a virtual role in today's premiere land force, the U.S. Army." -
America's Army 2.0 Available for Linux and OS X
Time Doctor writes "Linux and Mac gamers will be happy to hear that America's Army 2.0 is out of private beta, and available via mirrors at 3DGamers and HappyPuppy, among others. See this news post on the AA site for the gameplay changes." We covered the release of the Windows version of AA 2.0 a couple of weeks back, as this free FPS recruiting tool continues toward its goal of "providing civilians with an inside perspective and a virtual role in today's premiere land force, the U.S. Army." -
America's Army 2.0 Available for Linux and OS X
Time Doctor writes "Linux and Mac gamers will be happy to hear that America's Army 2.0 is out of private beta, and available via mirrors at 3DGamers and HappyPuppy, among others. See this news post on the AA site for the gameplay changes." We covered the release of the Windows version of AA 2.0 a couple of weeks back, as this free FPS recruiting tool continues toward its goal of "providing civilians with an inside perspective and a virtual role in today's premiere land force, the U.S. Army." -
America's Army - Special Forces Released
Thanks to the official site for news of the release of PC FPS/recruitment tool, America's Army - Special Forces, with download locations for the Windows client listed by Blue's News, as this "...latest release in the [freely downloadable] America's Army game series focuses on the critical, specialized role of the Army's Special Forces within the U.S. Army as they fight the Global War on Terrorism." GameSpot has a press release revealing the new missions include "...a Combat Search And Rescue (CSAR) of a downed helicopter pilot, the rescue of a wounded Resistance leader from a hospital in an urban area, a nighttime reconnaissance mission to identify enemy aviation." Previous Slashdot articles have revealed the apparent success of the game in recruiting young people to the Army. -
Turn Your New Opteron Into A One-Game Console
An anonymous reader writes "A new 64-bit Linux CD can instantly turn an AMD Opteron-equipped PC into the ultimate gaming console, according to Super Computer Inc. (SCI). The company has created a distribution of the popular America's Army multi-player strategy game on a bootable Linux CD, that it says was developed in partnership with AMD, nVidia, and the US Army." -
America's Army Recruiting Success Discussed
Thanks to Nola.com for their article discussing the success of the America's Army game/recruiting tool, as the free PC first-person shooter "...now has more than 2 million registered users, making it one of the five most popular action games played online." Most interestingly, since "...the ultimate aim of the game is to arouse tech-savvy teenagers' interest in serving in the Army", can the success of the game be measured? The article gives an example of the Kansas City Recruiting Battalion, who are hosting monthly LAN sessions at a technical college, and "...can claim seven new recruits among the players, and expect to sign at least as many more in the coming month." -
America's Army - Operations 1.9 for Linux Released
Primer writes "Icculus has done it again: The Linux port of America's Army: Operations version 1.9 is now available. This latest version features many improvements in the interface, punkbuster, and a new map. The file weighs in at a hefty 504 megs, but luckily there are plenty of mirrors, plus a very well seeded torrent. Get it while it's hot!" -
America's Army Client For Linux Released
nexex writes "You can now download America's Army for Linux as a stand-alone installer. Previously it was only available as a full ISO on a Gentoo LiveCD." The official America's Army site has more info on this Army-sponsored FPS title, first released about a year ago for the PC, which "..provides civilians with an inside perspective and a virtual role in today's premier land force: the U.S. Army." -
Second Army-Sponsored Game Comes To Xbox
Shackleford writes "CNN has an article that discusses a new Xbox videogame, the commercial version of an United States Army-sponsored project to train squad leaders in real-life combat tactics. It was developed by Pandemic Studios and the commercial Xbox game is titled "Full Spectrum Warrior" - there's an ad for it here." Here's the official site for the non-commercial console version of Full Spectrum Warrior - is this version intended for internal use only? Obviously, both of these are completely separate titles to America's Army, another Army-sponsored game. -
Gentoo Games
TheSurfer writes "Today, Gentoo announced the creation of Gentoo Games, 'a gaming technology company created to deliver innovative Linux-based game technologies to the public'. They also released a GameCD with the full version of America's Army. For more information, see the threads in the forums here and here." -
Getting Accepted for Video Game Beta Tests
netfunk writes "Now that we've finished taking submissions for the Linux beta of America's Army, I've written up some thoughts on the process of choosing participants. There are some interesting statistics on what comprises a 'Linux gamer' and some rough guidelines on what kind of applicant made the cut vs. what kind went directly to the trashcan." A good read. Now let's hope not everyone starts saying they power their graphics with an old Voodoo2 card. That's been my edge for getting into beta tests for years, even after upgrading. -
America's Army on Linux
jojor writes "It seems that icculus.org has gotten America's Army to run under Linux, as this screenshot will attest. America's Army is UT based and free (as in beer). More games for Linux, yippeh!" Awesome. I consider America's Army to be one of the best things my government has funded within recent history. -
Linux Games WIth Guns
ZaMoose writes: "Not to beat on the poor America's Army servers any further, but their sitrep for today featured the following interesting tidbit: "That's not all. We're also working on an in-game browser, linux port, and host of other features. Yes, we've been busy the past week!" (emphasis mine). For those not familiar with AA:Operations, it is a free (as in beer) first person shooter developed under the watchful eye of the US Army. It received mounds of praise at this year's E3 and was released to Windows users July 4th." Well, it says Linux server port, anyhow. And JD writes: "Apex Designs have announced that their GTA-style game Payback is coming to Linux. The port appears to already be fully playable as there is a status report here which includes some early screenshots. (And their website doesn't require IE. :)" -
E3: Epic, US Army Develop Games as Recruitment Tool
securitas writes "Reuters and AP tell us that Epic Games and the US Army have announced the America's Army series of games, jointly developed by the Department of Defense and Epic. The first two-part game in the five-year project includes an RPG called Soldier and a first-person shooter called Operations. The game will be free of charge and available for download in July or August, with 1.2 million CDs simultaneously released, attached to gaming magazines. Does this remind anyone else of the war-room scene from Toys or Ender's Game?" Future installments will include Sim Mess Duty, Sim Standing Guard in the Rain, Sim Blister, and Sim Invading Iraq to Keep Approval Ratings High.
