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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."
It is truly amazing that the organization that gave us the America's Army video games...wait for it...now has a video game studio!
Holy shit! Who would have thunk that releasing a Game like America's Army would lead to building a game studio?
Do you catch the hint of sarcasm yet?
WTF, like really. Of course they have a freaking game studio...somebody had to build the freaking game in the first place.
No Comment.
Am I alone in feeling somewhat disquieted in the military in this country associating itself with the entertainment industry? Is this the thin end of the wedge?
The apparatus of state is separated from the church, because it is harmful. It should likewise be seperated from the entertainment industry, because of the propaganda possibilities, shaping the next generation of Americans.
Meine Schwester ist sehr, sehr reizvoll - Nietzsche
Didn't the Tom Cruise character (Vince? Vinnie?) in The Color of Money talk about this as a possible future for his video game prowess? That he'd work for the military as a video game specialist, since all the training and then the action will be done like computer games? Was that before or after "Ender's Game?"
And then there was that movie Toys...
Alex.
America's Army looks, plays, and runs great ... except for the parts that aren't the Unreal engine. All of the software around the engine needs some serious work. Here's hoping the new development team can whip this software into shape! Huah!
Warning, rant follows:
This is not the forum for complaining about the shoddy software (that Americans probably paid collective millions in taxes for), but here are a few of the simplest pieces of functionality that are miserable failures:
- Server can't cycle maps, causes client GP fault
- Client menu layout is incomprehensible
- Whether you're online or offline is some kind of mystery
- Plenty of 'Error connecting' messages with no information
- Connecting to a so-called LAN game requires opening the command console
- There was talk of 'admin mode' and the only documentation for logging in as an admin is in the FAQ (if it's so frequently asked, then how about making it part of the login dialog?) Then once you log in as admin, are you a player with admin ability, or some non-player observer. How do you get back to being a regular player? Others don't see you logged in, but your personal user name appears in the admin list of online players....
It's a front to get more recruits for the war. You'll get deployed! (I'd better put in this ;) or I'll need to search for my asbestos underwear.)
We may experience some slight turbulence and then...explode. -Capt. Mal Reynolds
Since the first Ender story was published in 1977
working in the game industry, i can't say that i'm too happy about that. But my guess is like most organisations sponsored by a state they will just blow a lot of money and won't produce anything useful. America's Army ain't a counterargument - that was done by a private company.
Maybe they're gonna hire the guys from Rockstar Games who developed Manhunt, team them up with the developers of the Silent Hill series, and put them to work on a Guantanamo/Al Ghraib interrogation simulator...
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
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First, Yes I play the game. No I feel no special affinity the Army than I felt before I started playing the game, I simply like more of a strategic FPS verses a run and gun FPS.
/a person who will now pledge their life to the army because of a game.
Second, The government applications team (who the story is about) has nothing to do with the public version of the game. They produce a version for training purposes within the army.
Now for a rant about the rant.
"- Server can't cycle maps, causes client GP fault"
- simply incorrect.
"- Client menu layout is incomprehensible"
- What part? Ah, I know, there really is a confusing menu option. "Personal Jacket", now I don't know about you but because I know a few military people I kind of assumed that this was where I put in my information, you know the 'personal' stuff that kept me separate from all others.
Maybe you just saw that first one and it just got to you and you didn't see the next option, the part that says "Training" where you go to do the training?
Oh, wait, maybe the one that says "Settings" for things like well settings.
Maybe the part that says "Deployment" where you, guess, deploy, you know what a military person might say when they are going to deploy?
" - Whether you're online or offline is some kind of mystery"
- Let me explain, if you are playing, you are online, if you are not playing, well your not online, now here's the tricky part...If you press escape while your playing, you don't disconnect you just toggle to the menu. (now I know this is like many other games, even counterstrike but I figured that I should explain it.)
"- Plenty of 'Error connecting' messages with no information"
- Ah, now I see the problem, you tried the equivalent of an RC from a continually evolving project (you know that there are developers constantly working on improving the game right?) and discovered a connection error. Just as a kind note, this problem was fixed on version 1.9 (they are now on 2.1) You might want to give it a try again.
"- Connecting to a so-called LAN game requires opening the command console"
- Directions for connecting to a LAN game follow them carefully. 1. Click Deployment 2. Click LAN 3. Click Refresh 4. Double click on the Server 5. Let the server load.
" - There was talk of 'admin mode' and the only documentation for logging in as an admin is in the FAQ (if it's so frequently asked, then how about making it part of the login dialog?) Then once you log in as admin, are you a player with admin ability, or some non-player observer. How do you get back to being a regular player? Others don't see you logged in, but your personal user name appears in the admin list of online players...."
-Here you have a point, the log in screen does not allow admin log in, you have to type "open ***.***.***.***?admin_password=********" Simply put the game has official servers and leased servers, all others are unsupported.
To become a regular player again you have to log out as admin (this means you have to leave the server because joining is how you logged in), This is most commonly done by typing "disconnect" then "reconnect".
Ah I feel better now.
(most of this was sarcastic and the rest was hogwash true hogwash, Mod it down. I just felt that these points had to be addressed.)
Thank you for the attempt at clarification (Anonymous Coward), but I don't see things your way. Yes, I've learned how the interface operates and how to interact with it to get what I want. However, just because 'lots of games' are like that doesn't mean it's good interface design!
No, just being in game is not the only time you go online. When you want to get your personnel jacket, you must connect. While doing training, you must reconnect to update your jacket. If this fails, you've completed the mission, but your record is lost. To start training, you must connect - if remote servers are down you can't even train locally.
What if you start up the game and don't care about your personnel jacket, and just want to join a freinds server? Well, you have to fill in the name field in the first screen even if you don't connect. The lan connection just picks up your name from there.
When I want to connect to a friend's personal server, I cannot use the LAN screen. It's technically a LAN game, but doesn't work there. Instead, I must open the console. How about a tab for "direct connect". It should include Player Name, Password, IP, Port.
I'm running the 2.1 version and a server on a dedicated machine. The server will not properly cycle maps. It's all over the forums - it's broken. Maybe leased servers do, but that does me no good. Furthermore, when the server starts it CHANGES MY CONFIG FILE SETTINGS, removing the map cycle list! This is just plain wrong. Even worse, it makes every client (all fresh 2.1 installs) GP fault. Simply the truth. We mitigate this by setting high number of rounds per match. When the match is over and the clients GP fault, I restart the server manually with a new map on the command line.
I recognize that most people get used to crappy software. Yes, we do learn to work with it no matter how unwieldy. My primary point transcends Americas Army - we should not be so lenient of trashy software. Demand better products.
(I am that Coward) (to be said like, "I am that man")
After reading your response, I feel that I owe you an apology. I assumed (which is of course not a good way to start) that I was talking to someone who had tried the game circa v1.7 when there were so many more problems. I happen to know a few people who tried the game then found the errors, never to look back.
I see that you have done much more and still have viable complaints. You see the flaws in the game just as I do. Yes, I completely agree that there are problems and I have run into all of said problems except the GP fault.
I think that you must be right about getting use to trashy software. I have been playing the game since it's initial release and have found the upgrades to greatly increase functionality, stability and all around fun but I have neglected to remember that it was horrible to begin with and all the patches given, though greatly improving, have not yet brought the game up to par.
I can honestly say that I have run into all of your concerns except map cycling (I haven't run a server on a local machine since v2.0.0a) and the dreaded GP fault (from which I have been blissfully free). I simply did not find them to be an issue or thought that they were all fixed. Your point of view shows me that what I considered fixed, was not sufficient.
I again apologize for my tone and sarcasm.
Thank you for the apology. You have renewed my faith in the quality of the slashdot community!
Regarding the important stuff (technical): There have been many improvements since the early releases. Remember when teams got shuffled between rounds and there wasn't even a good way to pick teams?
I actually resolved (well, found how to avoid) the map cycle GP fault. To clarify, the server never shut down - but when maps should cycle, all connected clients would GP fault. Every time I run the server it seems to re-write the config file (which is really annoying). It may be re-inserting fail-safe values where I had a typeo. I can't tell anymore because it changed what I had. I started from scratch, and map cycling worked! So, the real complaint is that the clients GP fault if there's a mistake in the server's config (try getting away with that in any production level software).
The fact that I've kept playing through all these woes is a testament to how good the gameplay is! I really like the rules and environment for this game (much better than die-respawn-die-respawn... ad nausium). Here's looking forward to 3.0.