U.S. Army recruiting at the mall with videogames

U.S. Army recruiting at the mall with videogames

www.canada.com

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The U.S. Army, struggling to ensure it has enough manpower as it fights wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is wooing young Americans with videogames, Google maps and simulated attacks on enemy positions from an Apache helicopter.

Jesse Hamilton, a former Army staff sergeant who served in Iraq in 2005 and 2006, said the use of videogames glamorized war and misled potential recruits, calling it "very deceiving and very far from realistic."

(visit the link for the full news article)

Killing is Fun!
Isn't that the message that this is sending?

I think that this is despicable and utterly disgusting.

This may also promote sadism.

Imagine playing an xbox game like ghost recon, you like it, it's fun so you sign up and give up your life to join the military and get trapped.

Is this any way to recruit?

Isn't this also false pretence?



www.canada.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

i guess you havent heard of www.americasarmy.com

americas army is a training sim based on the unreal engine. ive been playing it since its (FREE) release about 6 or so years ago on 4th july.

[edit on 1/3/09 by Obliv_au]

The main culprit of forced recruitment is not video games, but rather recent unemployment statistics. The poor join the army to have a job, not because of Xbox, even the cited article acknowledges that.

Seriously, if you are stupid enough to fall for video games then you are the kind of person we deserve in the army. Though that sounds terrible...

They've been misleading young men and woman for years about the horrors of war.

You are gonna have a hard time getting kids to sign up if you show them the potential reality. They used to just use words like "honor", "courage", or "serve your country".

Now that isn't working, so they have to come up with some new B.S., by appealing to their egos, make them think they are good at the game. Get them to think that joining would be EVEN BETTER than the game, because then they'd get to be using real tanks/helicopters/guns.

Throw in some misleading promises of riches $$$ and well, the machine just keeps grinding away. Happens in every country.

Those flight simulators aren't really a video game. Besides, if a video game convinces them to join up then I doubt they will go all the way through with it.

The recruiter gets you to meps, from there you go through a series of breifs and tests. By the time they are through with that they will see that they won't be flying Apaches for a living. Unless of course they have a high test score, which I doubt. Even if they do sign up right there, they still have about a month to change there minds before going back to take the oath and being shipped out. Even then once you get to reception you are given another chance to change your mind. If you stick it out all the way to basic, you are given your last chance to leave after your first day at basic. Some give you the option to quit all the way up until graduation.

They give you these chances because the military doesn't want you if you don't want to be there.

After all that it is safe to assume that the memory of playing a simulator has been forgotten. Can't really say a recruiting tool like a game put someone in the military.

Look at a recruiter as an application. You fill it out, but that doesn't mean you are going to be hired.

Military recruiters are the best salesman in the world, they will use any tool necessary to accomplish their mission(quota) they also get bonous pay for reaching said quota. Using video games/sims is just keeping up with the times, it's the same as them using DVD when they first came out.