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Training From America's Army Game Saved a Life

Posted by Zonk on from the learning-is-half-the-battle dept.

russoc4 writes "Most people who play the United States Army's freeware FPS sit through training simulations so that they may be able to get into the action and rack up some kills. The medic skills learned in the training allow you to heal teammates in the game, but it seems that they also apply in real life situations. According to Wired and the America's Army forums, 'a North Carolina man who saw an SUV flip and roll on a highway last November was able to provide medical aid to the victims with skills he learned from the America's Army.'" See? We learn things from videogames! Feign Death works sometimes, too.

21 of 379 comments (clear)

  1. Yeah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Suck on THAT Jack Thompson.

  2. YES!!! by AndGodSed · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now I have a valid excuse to play violent games! Take that you game banning politicians!

    And yes I am being serious.

    --

    Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity

    1. Re:YES!!! by samkass · · Score: 4, Funny

      America's Army also helped me learn the exact angle at which to fire a 203 as soon as I come out of a tunnel near the bridge to hit the guys getting out of the convoy on the other side! And to close doors in people's faces if I think they have a grenade! And always fire machine guns into vents if I think there might be movement! AA is incredibly educational.

      --
      E pluribus unum
    2. Re:YES!!! by Mr2cents · · Score: 5, Funny

      Why did he have to go through all that trouble? Were they too lazy to respawn, just like everybody else? Bah.

      --
      "It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
    3. Re:YES!!! by Valar · · Score: 5, Funny

      Everyone knows that if the SUV driver hadn't learned to drive from GTA, then the vehicle wouldn't have flipped in the first place.

      --

      ====
      Crudely Drawn Games
    4. Re:YES!!! by Sir_Lewk · · Score: 2, Funny

      I pretty sure everyone understands that, however that fact still does not decrease it's awesomeness.

      --
      "linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
    5. Re:YES!!! by smittyoneeach · · Score: 5, Funny

      It wasn't the driving itself so much as managing the four screaming kids, three cell phones, two GPS and the latte which triggered the impromptu rendition of "When the Touaregs Broke Free"


      (apologies to Roger Waters)

      --
      Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
    6. Re:YES!!! by networkBoy · · Score: 3, Funny

      I just got off the phone with him.
      He's suing the US Army for undermining his position. And he's including gay soldier porn with the filing.*
      -nB

      *because it's Jack: The aforementioned statement was not meant to represent that I know or spoke with Jack Thompson (who is known to file gay porn for some weird reason), nor is anything other than the statement that Jack sees some (weird) reason to file gay porn meant to be a statement of fact. It is this posters opinion that Jack is deranged enough to actually sue the US Army, and in his style would file gay porn, in addition I am positing that Jack would try to stay with the theme and make it gay soldier porn in his posting. If Jack is willing to go with Lesbian soldier porn I will consider reading his filing for spelling errors. Also this disclaimer and all of this post is this posters opinion and makes no assertions of fact or prior knowledge. This is because even though I believe my opinions are true, Jack may not. Then he would sue me. Then I would have to go make a violent video game of me dying via Gay Soldier Porn, to prove some weird point to Jack so he would donate to the charity of my choice (Shriners hospital in Sac CA please), then he would renege on it and PennyArcade would have to step up on it again.

      --
      whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
    7. Re:YES!!! by dintech · · Score: 2, Funny

      That ANYONE above the age of 12, in a CIVILIZED FIRST WORLD COUNTRY, would LACK THESE SKILLS, tells me all I need to know about how "educated" and "enlightened" westerners truly are as compared to how much they THINK they are.
      Basil Exposition: The shouting is a temporary side-effect of the unfreezing.
      DaedalusHKX (660194): Yes... I'm having difficulty controlling THE VOLUME OF MY VOICE.
  3. Yes you can learn things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The other day it was late at night and my car broke down. I had forgotten my phone and wallet, and needless to say I was SOL. But thanks to my "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" training, I quickly dispatched an old lady in a station wagon who stopped at a nearby traffic signal, and drove home. Thanks "Rock Star", you saved my a$$.

  4. Let's just hope... by stormguard2099 · · Score: 5, Funny

    He didn't go through sniper school too

    --
    http://greenobyl.com/ please.... think of the children!!
  5. BF2 is not so good in this area by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Similar thing happened to me but the outcome was not so good.

    A buddy of mine got knocked out when I threw a first aid kit and it hit him on the head.

    And the shock paddles only made things worse.

    1. Re:BF2 is not so good in this area by kc2keo · · Score: 2, Funny

      Speaking of BF2...

      One day I was driving down the road when my car turned off. Turned out the timing belt snapped. Good thing I was a squad leader because I just requested a vehicle drop and the commander delivered right away. While I used that car a fellow teammate started to fix my other car with a "magic wrench".

      Before Patch 1.3 this was not possible for cars to be dropped. Thank goodness for this new gift from EA.

      Well, I think I killed the humor but I'll post this anyway... :-P

  6. Valuable skills by edwardpickman · · Score: 4, Funny

    If flesh eating zombies attack my house they're seriously fucked.

    1. Re:Valuable skills by risk+one · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm the same way with ghosts coming after me while I'm eating tic-tacs in my maze.

  7. Re:Qualifying as a Medic by snl2587 · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is the main reason I stopped playing AA. If I wanted to learn, I wouldn't be playing an FPS.

  8. Does AA have a Cardboard Box? by nodnarb1978 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Everything I needed to know about warfare and life I learned from Metal Gear. Yeah, that's right. The original.

    You can infiltrate classified military installations by disguising yourself as an innocuous cardboard box. There's nothing more indispensable than a pack of smokes. And nothing in the entire arsenal of the Military-Industrial Complex is as singularly lethal as a ninja.

  9. Nah. by morari · · Score: 3, Funny

    What they really mean by "America's Army saved a life" is that someone played the game and, based on that experience, realized how dumb it would be to enlist in the U.S. Army just to die for some greedy politicians' personal crusade.

    --
    "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
  10. Re:And people say you can't learn anything from ga by beav007 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Don't worry if you missed it. It will be back in a couple of days...

  11. Re:LOOK! by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is MY tinfoil hat.

    There are many like it, but this one is MINE!

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  12. What I learned from AA by MrCopilot · · Score: 2, Funny

    Do not shoot the CO.

    --
    OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games