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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.
It's an attempt to stamp out the perception of a soldier being a mindless automaton, a concept well overdue. I know a number of military people, and aside from being generally more disciplined and more respectful, they're not all that different. Once they get into other, more elite units like the Rangers, Airborne, Special Forces, etc, they *have* to be able to think for themselves, particularly because their missions require flexibility and since command may well fall on them in an emergency.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country." --George S. Patton
I thought the fundamental rule of game design is to balance Realism with Fun. Ask any famous game designer about it. Sometimes you gotta reach out away from the real to make the game flow well, or to balance out what you can do.
Lets look at some popular games:
CounterStrike: Most people would say this is as "real" as it gets, when you die, your gone. But you can get hit in the leg, stamper for a second, then are back running full speed again. You can get shot in the arm, but still fire back. This game has a lot of realism, but it still balances it out with a 'fun factor.'
Age Of Empires: The designers of AoE always talk about how stuff like Catapults had to be changed. Originally, you needed someone to fire and move them, but it lead to too many problems, so they just made them self useable, and movable. Upon doing this, they felt the game flowed better, and the testers had more fun with the game.
I could go on, but I think "true realism" isn't what the gaming community wants. Games are a time when you can do stuff you normally wouldn't do...
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Well, that's your opinion and you're entitled to it, of course, but I disagree. Anyone who joins into a branch of the military expecting to be all action and intrigue and excitement is going to be disappointed, if what my friends in the service have told me is true. Sure, there certainly is some more "glamorous" things that happen, but unless I'm mistaken, you can also expect a hell of a lot of boredom. Again, if you feel that he was belittling the armed services, that's your perogative, but it's also my right to disagree with you. I didn't find anything at all insulting in the jokes, and I stand by that opinion.
As to your dig at moderation, does that mean that you have absolute control over what other people consider insightful, or interesting? If I find a post interesting and moderate it so, but you disagree, does that mean that the system doesn't work? If you're going to get pissed off about it, just wait until you've got some mod points of your own and then mod it down. That's the beauty of it - YOU control moderation as much as the next guy, so what are you complaining about?
Al Qaeda has ninjas!