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."

Comments

anybody who joins because of a pc game..

[gl4ss]

is a freaking idiot.

is there a way to 'sample' the army experience in usa, in real life? i mean, the game has just about zero to do with what real military work would end up being, especially zero to do what it would end up to be for support personnel they need those geeks in(not to mention that geeks wouldn't in their right mind to join to do something like aa is in real life on the level it's needed in a real army. lemme tell you, real combat training sucks from a geek perspective ;) ).

in countries with mandatory army service the people who will turn it into career pretty well know what shit they're putting themselfs into, be them geeks and non-geeks. i would expect a quite high dropout rate for people joining at a flashy recruit station because they enjoyed a cool pc game(how easy is it to drop out of army in usa? any real penalties?).

Re:anybody who joins because of a pc game..

[pmz]

If the US military needs to make warfighting into a game to attract recruits, then it seems our country is actually less unified and nationalistic than our 9/11 buffs and journalists would lead us to believe.

Sorry to reply to myself, but I also realized that, perhaps, the government is driving away potential recruits. For example, the People are pretty divided on support for the "war on terrorism", where many people would have trouble motivating themselves for future military actions. That's already a large group of people lost for recruiting.

Also, many social programs make it such that people don't have to work for their country to keep it going strong. Why be a part of the military (damn, it's hard work, you know) when they can just sit back and soak up things like nationalized health care and magical tax returns.
Keeping people sharp requires not treating them like spoiled children (it really is a matter of human nature).

It seems that many people just lack the "edge" of previous generations. Maybe this has to do with there being no frontiers, anymore. Even the suburbs are overpopulated and overdeveloped. National parks see so many visitors that there is no natural wonder to bask in, anymore. Granted, we don't have rampant disease or lack of heat in winter, anymore, but those problems get replaced with having to live like naked mole rats piled on top of each other in an hole.

Re:anybody who joins because of a pc game..

[Spock the Baptist]

I'm don't think that very many people join the military just because of a gaming experience. I believe the game to be directed toward young men who are already inclined toward service in the military, and is used by the Army to be a "deal maker," or "to close the deal."

FWIW

Not taking recruits ;-)

[mseeger]

Hi,

i don't know if they handle usual recruits the way they do with virtual recruits. Currently i need about 100 tries for one successfull logon. It took me about a week to complete the basic training (4 missions) just because the authentication fails in 90+% of all cases. It seems that

209.58.64.85 authcentral.login.americasarmy.com

is not up to the task of taking so many virtual recruits and the game is killed by its success.

Bye, Martin

P.S. I'm not in danger of joining tthe US Army. Served my time with a different one and i didn't enjoy it. Most seargants had an intellectual lag which made the experience very frustrating :-(.

Re:Not taking recruits ;-)

[kryten_nz]

Try this as a possible fix (works for me with 1.9, and I'm on 56k in another country).

1. Download this small file: HERE

2. Backup the original IpDrv.u file located at "C:\Program Files\Army Operations\System"

3. Replace it with the new IpDrv.u file.

4. Now run AA1.9 and try to login.

Slightly OT...

[theridersofrohan]

But interesting indeed!

Here's the other side of the story. Special Force, an fps " allegedly produced by the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah. The game's designers seek to "correct" the influence of western gaming concepts on the Middle East. In particular, they want to combat the view that the "oppressor" always defeats the "Arab."".

I found an article about it in arstechnica.

Re:Slightly OT...

[Rayonic]

Wait, that doesn't make sense. While it's true that in America's Army you always see the other team as the terrorists, the win-lose ratio is always the same. In each and every round, one team defeats the "terrorists", while the other team is defeated by the "terrorists".

Yes, I know it always displays the Army as the good side, but it certainly doesn't show the Army always winning. Unrealistic, yes, but necessary for game balance. For another example of sacrificing realism for balance, see Desert Combat

America 's Army made me go on a killing spree...

[Gnulix]

...and I'm suing the army for a gazillion dollars!

mission packs

[CheeseEatingBulldog]

Heh! The Us army can bring out extra mission packs every other month to coincide with their invasions.... Coming soon, from the makers of Iraq: All you black gold are belong to us!...and other such thrilling titles as Vietnam:If at first you don't succeed, sacrifice a whole generation to still not succeed ...and the all time classic Russia: Our police state is more free than yours! ..the Us Army brings you: Democracy: Operation kill them all , the fantastic conclusion...now also available in box set!

Re:mission packs

[gmhowell]

Vietnam, sacrifice an entire generation? Nice histrionics. ~60,000 barely compares to conflicts the US has participatd in in the 20th century. For something that truly destroyed a generation, look further back in US history.

The Vietnam War barely edged out the Korean War WRT % of population dead, and I don't hear Korean War vets pissing and moaning.

Assorted Thoughts

[GeorgeH]

The game reportedly cost 1% of the Army's advertising budget, and they were able to outspend the industry to create what's generally considered a kick ass game. Finally my tax dollars are doing something I can stand behind, now how about a PS2 port?

"The Army is training kids at taxpayer expense to become sociopaths and killers," said Thompson, who says he has written more than a dozen unanswered letters asking the Defense Department to pull the plug on the game. "I love the military, and I'd describe myself as a right-wing conservative. But the Army is doing something very bad."

This is a very pertinent viewpoint, especially in light of the recent GTA shooting lawsuit. What the army is saying by publishing this game is "games affect behavior." The behavior change they're trying to create is an army joining one, but the premise is the same as the people who say that video games create psychopaths. If video games affect people, they can do so both positively and negatively.

I dunno...

[Unknown Kadath]

I certainly enjoyed blowing up Rebel scum in TIE Fighter, but I didn't enlist in the Imperial Navy.

-Carolyn

There are some interesting things about the game.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm active duty military and I pack a gun for a living. I looked at the game and there are some interesting things they have included from a training standpoint. When a weapon malfunctions, the immediate action performed by the 'person' in the game gives the player a view of what you would actually see in real life if performing an immediate action drill correctly as you were taught to do. So a player of that game who was being trained on immediate action for an actual weapon would already have a visual image of what the correct action should 'look like'. I don't think the army was expecting people to sign up because they play the game. I think in part it was to give people an idea of what training is really like as opposed to what the movies show it to be. The average American after the second world war had an 80% or greater chance of having a parent or relative who served in the military. Today that % is under 10%. The average American citizen really has no idea what life in the military is like or what the military actually does. That is not a good thing. That can cause people to vote unwisely due to basing such decisions on faulty knolwedge.

I wonder...

[sbma44]

what the Senators who rail against violent videogames would say if they were aware that the defense department was involved in making them?

This is a fluff magazine piece just begging to be written.

a UN Peacekeeper

[theghost]

I started a secondary account for America's Army. It uses the name "a UN Peacekeeper". So now in the game you get the joy of seeing:

PimpDaddyMac was shot by a UN Peacekeeper.
SupaKilla was blown up by a UN Peacekeeper's grenade.
LaughablyMachoName was sniped by a UN Peacekeeper.

and all too frequently:

A UN Peacekeeper was shot by ~achildwithoutparentalsupervision~.

Other amusing names:
osamas mama
mujahedin
DickCheney
a lil girl (unfortunately the player was an asshole)

Good game, but i don't think it's a very effective recruitment tool. I do commend them for their attempts to discourage tk griefers and racist and homophobic chat spammers of all sorts.

Or they might recruit you

[Jad LaFields]

And I went up there, I said, "Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see blood and gore and
guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill, KILL, KILL." And I started jumpin up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL," and he started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL." And the sargent came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said, "You're our boy."

-- Arlo Guthrie, Alice's Restaurant