America's Army - FPS Psych Experiment

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America's Army - FPS Psych Experiment

Posted by Zonk on Monday December 13, 2004 @05:44AM from the it-always-feels-like-somebody's-watching-me dept.

dory writes "Newsreview has up a story from October on America's Army and the way the military is using it. The piece discusses a clan, the Army's research mentality and implementations, as well as some MRI studies on gamers." From the article: "The Army has been collecting player information in a vast relational database system called "Andromeda," Wardynski said, which recruiters will be able to use to look up a player's statistics if one of them shows up in a recruiting office. A version of America's Army now in development will take that a step further, allowing players to create a "persistent" online alter-ego, one that steadily progresses through the virtual ranks by taking additional training or specialized missions, generating valuable data along the way."

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Advice to 17 and 18 year olds by g-san · 2004-12-13 05:49 · Score: 4, Funny

Quick, go download this game, play with your real name, and get your ass fragged at least 20 times a day.
1. Re:Advice to 17 and 18 year olds by evilmousse · 2004-12-13 06:01 · Score: 2
  
  so... do teamkillers get labled as suspected terrorists?
  
  i've passed on this for other fps's.. can you do anything approaching rocket-jumping? spawn-camping? telefragging?
  
  has anyone ever considered that this might be an OUTLET for violent behavior.. that is.. someone who would have been interested to do it for real is satiated by the virtual? "no, sarge, i don't think i want to go out there, i just want to get back home to my videogames."
2. Re:Advice to 17 and 18 year olds by Profane+MuthaFucka · 2004-12-13 06:56 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  The aptitude tests don't really count for much, I found out. I didn't write anything at all on mine. Just folded it up and made a paper airplane out of it.
  
  They said I would be perfect for the Air Force.
  
  --
  Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
My friend Ender... by Pacifix · 2004-12-13 05:50 · Score: 4, Funny

... said this game totally rocks. It's great to be on all of these practice runs... what, they aren't practice??? - J. Bean
Wartime Culture by Jason+Ford · 2004-12-13 06:02 · Score: 5, Insightful

From the article:

'In the wake of 9/11, the public and media reaction was, in the Army's words, "overwhelmingly positive." Salon's Wagner James Au, for example, gushed that the game would help "create the wartime culture that is so desperately needed now" and excitedly anticipated the day when youngsters raised on America's Army would pick up real weapons to cleanse the globe of real terrorists' (emphasis mine.)

I was just pondering the other day what it is our country needs. Education, I thought. Health care, I mused.

Man, was I off! Now I realize that the thing our country needs most is a wartime culture.

--
I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens. --Isaac Bashevis Singer
1. Re:Wartime Culture by Jason+Ford · 2004-12-13 06:36 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  Wartime Culture is another way of saying "Clueless sheep who believe that a video game is like real war"
  
  I've never played the game, so I don't know how realistic the game seems. I would think, though, that the game must involve the possibility for your character to be injured or killed. Maybe you're driving along a desert road and BOOM! your up-armored jeep blows up and you die. Or maybe you just get sniped by a camper.
  
  And people are going to want to sign up for real?
  
  If I were making a game to recruit young boys into the Army, God-mode would be the default, and there'd be plenty of nudity and sex. At least then the 'clueless sheep' would join the Army in the hopes of meeting the beautiful topless nymphomaniacs that roam the battlefields.
  
  --
  I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens. --Isaac Bashevis Singer
2. Re:Wartime Culture by Jason+Ford · 2004-12-13 07:20 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  So you believe that the appropriate method of securing these things is by government intervention?
  
  No, I don't believe that, although I do see how easy it would be to draw that generalization from my post. My point was that a single-payer system tends to reduce costs.
  
  Work hard. Help yourself. I have done it, people I know have done it. I am no better than anyone else, therefore if I could do it, anyone can. There are no excuses.
  
  I work hard and help myself as well. My parents were not rich, but they had enough money to buy me a used car when I was still in high school. The car more than paid for itself in the money I was able to make working after school hours. I got scholarships, and a subsidized loan from the government. I quintupled my earnings, and paid back the loan with interest.
  
  Now, what if I couldn't get a loan from the government? I had very little money. My parents, through no fault of mine, had declared bankruptcy three times, because they are irresponsible. No one in his right mind would loan them any money, or would allow them to co-sign a loan for me.
  
  Now, what if my parents couldn't afford to buy me a car, or clothing, or food? What if I had to drop out of school so that I could work in order to help my family buy food or rent an apartment?
  
  Or, what about the man I met the other day? He stopped me and asked if he might shine my shoes. I explained that my shoes did not need shining and tried to walk away. He asked again, and before I could say no again, he explained his situation: he was a recent parolee who regretted the mistakes he made in his life and was trying to raise his sister since his mother's recent death. He can't get a job because no one will hire him because he committed a crime. Shining strangers' shoes will only get him so far. How should he help himself?
  
  You may not be better than anyone else, but you were likely better off than a great many people. Did you have at least one parent or relative to care for you? Did you have anyone that cared about you at all? Were you born physically or mentally challenged? Maybe you are a little bit luckier than you thought.
  
  --
  I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens. --Isaac Bashevis Singer
3. Re:Wartime Culture by joFFeman · 2004-12-13 07:22 · Score: 2
  
  as for making joining the forces a sexy option for the kids, they have definitely done their part. for one, there is no blood in america's army, just like real war. nobody gets dismembered when fragged, and everyone fighting against you is a 'fanatical terrorist who hates america' rather than an enemy soldier ("just doing his job") by default. you don't see babies with bombs strapped to them, nor do you see the weeping families of the innocent deceased crying over them.
  
  you know what they say: war is heaven.
  
  --
  "Life is great; without it, you'd be dead." -Harmony Korine
4. Re:Wartime Culture by Jason+Ford · 2004-12-13 07:39 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Actually, chances are good that if you get into the army, you'll get a hot chick
  
  Hello there, Mr. Rumsfeld. Welcome to the Internets.
  
  When they add the 'Dear John letter' to the game, you'll have the ability to lose your wife to your best friend who stayed home. You can enjoy having part of your paltry wages garnished to support the child you hardly get to see anymore, if you make it home. Sign me up!!
  
  --
  I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens. --Isaac Bashevis Singer
This was the plot of... by -dsr- · 2004-12-13 06:12 · Score: 5, Funny

The Last Starfighter, right? Video games scattered across the nation as secret military training, and the high-scorers being recruited.

Does the DoD now get *all* of their ideas from Hollywood?
1. Re:This was the plot of... by kk49 · 2004-12-13 06:22 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  It's only fair, since the DoD is spreading Hollywood's crappy copyright laws around the world.
  
  --
  You can have your god back when you are old enough to handle the responsibility.
I can see it now... by Khuffie · 2004-12-13 06:22 · Score: 2, Funny

"5t0p 5n1p1ng j00 f4g T4lib4N c4mP3r 4nd f1ght l1k3 4 m4n!"
How does this translate to the real battlefield? by Caesar_X · 2004-12-13 06:28 · Score: 5, Insightful

I know several people who worked on America's Army, and I found the article very thought-provoking. But when I see the overweight, Frito-eating guys at the local online-game center playing AA or HL2, I don't see how the Army is going to make these...men...into soldiers. There is a big difference between pressing a mouse button to kill a virtual terrorist and humping an 80-pound pack for two weeks only to get a fleeting shot at the enemy now and then. Let's be honest here, most of the soldiers of tomorrow are playing on the football fields when they are 14 and 15.
More like the other game in the book by Chemisor · 2004-12-13 07:23 · Score: 3, Interesting

Battle School made use of a "mind game", an adventure game designed to analyze the mind of its players. You remember it for the "Giant's Drink", which put the player in an unresolvable situation to force adoption of unconventional strategies. It is a much more appropriate analogy in this case, which uses a an FPS game for a similar purpose, except that the skills developed are pertinent to the front-line grunts rather than their commanders. "Less brains, more action" is the future slogan of the American Army.
Re:How does this translate to the real battlefield by MobyDisk · 2004-12-13 07:41 · Score: 2, Funny

In the army of the future, Frito-eating guys from the local online-game center will be remotely controlling cyborgs made from football players.
Re:Completely unrelated question by hambonewilkins · 2004-12-13 08:21 · Score: 2, Insightful

I like how no one considers the option of just NOT playing the game, which is one big commercial for the Army anyway.

--

God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
Obligatory Simpsons Quote... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-12-13 08:29 · Score: 2, Funny

"The wars of tomorrow will be fought by tiny robots on the tops of very high mountains.
Your job will be to build and maintain these robots."
Re:How does this translate to the real battlefield by pnutjam · 2004-12-13 08:45 · Score: 2, Interesting

You thought you were kidding about the plastic surgerysd.

--
Cheap storage VM.