From Draft NOtices, September-October 2002

America's Army: The Latest Front in the Battle for Hearts and Minds

- Derek Chris

Essentially, America's Army (AA) is a two-part computer game. The first element released to the public, called "Operations" (AA:O), is the first-person shooter (FPS) part of the game that has proven to keep a captive audience. In this part of the game, the player (soldier) starts out at week 5 of basic training at Fort Benning, GA. The first task is to qualify with an M-16 assault rifle and take orders from a not-so-intimidating drill sergeant who is gently barking orders from behind as the player takes aim at the pop-up targets. As the player advances between rounds of the game, there are little informative passages about things such as what a recruit should expect during each week of basic training and little snippets of real military history. From there, the player continues through the rest of basic training, and then it's off to do one's "patriotic duty" to defend America's interests throughout the world, such as raiding a terrorist training camp (modeled from the recent actions in Afghanistan) and defending the Alaskan pipeline against "hostile forces." The game seems to be in sync with current events, as virtual soldiers carry on the "good fight" against terrorism and become accustomed to protecting America's interest in oil.

The second part of the game, entitled "Soldiers" (AA:S), is slated to be released in October of this year. Although there is not a lot of information available about Soldiers yet, it is not an FPS variant of the Ops portion of the game. Rather, it is more of a role-playing game where the player builds up a character as he or she ascends though a career path that the Army offers in real life. The goal is to reach the rank of sergeant in whatever field one chooses, such as infantry, communications, and even mechanics. It is in this portion of the game that some expect Army recruiters to actually initiate contact with good players.

The game was built using the latest rendition of the remarkable Unreal Tournament 3D game engine. The graphics and game play are quite impressive - as they should be, considering taxpayers have so far shelled out nearly $8 million during the past three years for the project, which remains in a continuous stage of development and rising cost. With this much investment, the Army's new tool rivals the latest and greatest multiplayer games on the market. One difference that sets AA apart from the others is that no one can choose to be the "bad guy."

Through the use of realistic sound effects and gripping graphics, the developers have made painstaking efforts to ensure that the player experiences total immersion when playing the game. Every weapon in the game was modeled directly from the Army's own arsenal of weapons, and close attention was paid to make sure that they function as they would in real-life situations, incorporated features such as reload speeds, random weapon jams and faulty equipment. As impressive as all of this is, there is much more to the America's Army game than meets the eye.

Consider this: According to a recent ABC News article about the game, Lt. Col. Casey Wardynski, one of the game's creative directors, says that "it wouldn't be illogical that the game could be used as some form of outreach." Further, he said, "Let's say you play a lot and you've done very well. You could get a message that says guys that perform like you do in the game do really well in the Army."

Overlooking the obvious gender-specific orientation of his statement, it is worthwhile to question the assumption that if one does well in the game, success in the Army is all but guaranteed. Also, if service members cite the game as the primary reason they joined, is the Army going to monitor their success throughout the course of their enlistment and refer to them as recruiting statistics? The game even has a convenient goarmy.com button that the player can click at any time to learn how to "be all that they can be."

Besides being used primarily as a recruiting tool, an even darker side to the game is the fact that this is just one more way to inject militarism into American youth culture and mainstream civilian institutions. As a society, we are constantly being bombarded with one military flick after another, not to mention fiery speeches from our elected (and selected) leaders calling for unilateral, "pre-emptive" military actions across the globe. What is the likelihood that the public will support this open-ended "war on terrorism" as time wears on? In order to ensure that the general public snaps to attention and marches in step with the Pentagon, there has been a continuous effort by military strategists during the past two decades to militarize society as a whole. This is evident in the way the military demands unfettered access to civilian institutions such as the news media, films, schools, job fairs, and colleges and universities, and now with the release of America's Army, the spectrum has been expanded to include consumer products.

"It's just a game - right?! What harm could that be?" True. It is just a game, but it certainly isn't child's play. This is just the beginning. The Army has already said that it is going to keep updating and enhancing the game indefinitely. Even though the full game isn't released yet, there is talk of adapting the game across other platforms such as Xbox. It should be expected that the other military branches will follow suit and develop their own propaganda titles at some point as well.

Even though recruiters are well positioned in most schools, they still have only limited time to interface with students. With games like AA, there will be an ongoing sales pitch. Every time someone plays the game, they are absorbing the military's core values - desensitization to violence, obedience to orders and authority, and push-button killing - which is representative of the contemporary American way of fighting wars. Also, with AA, the military's message is spread out across the board, ranging from kids not yet in high school to people in college and beyond. The game accomplishes two main objectives: 1) to serve as a recruiting tool; 2) to further the push of military values and principles into mainstream society.

According to Wardynski, "The main intent [of the game] is educational. We want to show kids that the Army links training to future success." Really? Success in what? Doesn't the Army train to kill? If you read the AA forums, you can start to get a taste of how they might define success. Here are a couple of examples of the military mindset the game helps foster:

Topic: "Any Current Soldiers on active duty awaiting to go to war with iraq?" (posted by 'LTCOL MOORE')
Reply: "Former Jarhead here wishing i could get back in and go kill a few i was there last time" (post by CoderX)

Topic: "IRAQI OFFICER INTERVIEW" (posted by '19D Cav Scout')
Reply: "Some people just need to die. It's that simple. Saddam Hussein is one of those people. When people wake up to this fact, hopefully after I complete jump school, we can go in and get the job done." (posted by 'Space Monkey')

So far, the success of America's Army has exceeded the Army's expectations of the game, and it's not even complete until AA:S is released in October. Optimistically, Wardynski states, "We're going to be pushing out new versions of the game as fast as we can build them. This same team will be building missions, weapons, and new features for years to come."

The developers were careful to sanitize the cruel reality of killing in the game. When a player is shot, all that is seen is a small red blotch, and not a sound is heard as the target's body collects virtual bullets. Perhaps in the next version, they will add realistic blood sprays, the sickening 'thud' a bullet makes when tearing into flesh, and the agonizing screams of poor souls dying on the battlefield. Only next time, it might not be a game.

Derek Chris served in the Navy until a few years ago.

Information sources: "America's Army" Targets Youth, by Jacob Hodes and Emma Ruby-Sachs, www.thenation.com; www.wired.com; http://electronics.cnet.com/electronics/0-6342366-8-20039836-1.html; http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/wargames020821.html; http://americasarmy.com.

This article is from Draft NOtices, the newsletter of the Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (www.comdsd.org)