Ah, they’re at it again.

In case you are unaware, the United States Army has been getting a ton of flack from anti-war groups over their use of video games as recruiting tools. This time it’s the high-tech Army recruitment center in Philadelphia, PA that has been placed firmly in the crosshairs of one organization: After Downing Street.

On their website, the group details their plan for the May 2nd protest, which includes instructions on how to evade police suspicion:

Please join us on Saturday, May 2. We’re simply encouraging people to show up early at the mall and spend some time shopping… Shopping bags are an excellent decoy. (The cops will suspect everyone with a shopping bag!) At 2:00 pm people will come out of the woodwork and converge on the Army Experience Center. It may not be wise to congregate into large groups before the demonstration or wear clothing that would suggest your participation in the protest. We think it’s possible for hundreds of us to arrive at the mall without being detected. And it is a free country, sort of.

You have to question any group that says they want a peaceful demonstration, but then tells their members how to avoid the 5-0.

Anyways, they continued:

We can enter the Army Experience Center and cause a great big fuss at 2:00 pm until we’re asked to leave and then we can take our time to get out. We’ll go to peacefully and artistically express our indignation at this abomination. Some are planning on singing. Some will unfurl banners, some will chant and some will cry. There’s talk of a die-in. We are people of peace. We’re nonviolent. The Army is Shock and Awe, Abu Ghraib, recruiting lies, a thousand rapes, and cool video games.

Immediately after the action, we have a location picked out for a demonstration on public property — on the street — right outside of Franklin Mills Mall where we have the “right” to peacefully assemble.

We demand the Army close up shop at Franklin Mills Mall and we’re determined to block the expansion of this monstrosity in malls across the nation. We will be successful in this campaign because we’ll bring in enough protestors to attract national media attention. Simon will get the message that leasing to the Army was a mistake and other retailers will learn from his miscalculation. If he doesn’t close it down, we’ll return in greater numbers.

Let me take off my video game commentator hat for just a moment and put on my ACU soft cap: The cornerstone for these kinds of protests, which have occurred wherever the Army takes their VAE (Virtual Army Experience) is that the United States Army is trying to “recruit the children” through the use of video games.

This is factually dishonest.

The youngest a recruit for the United States Army can be is seventeen years-old and because 17 year-olds are not yet able to sign a legally-binding contract, they also have to have written consent from their legal guardian. Translation: Their parents literally have to sign off on it.

Furthermore, if you simply look at the numbers you will find how absurd this claim is. Each US Army Recruit Station (and all US military recruit depots, for that matter) has weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly recruit requirements that they must meet. The Army isn’t going to waste its time actively going after pre-teens when they’re already under constant pressure to meet these numbers.

A few points:

A.) If your child enlists in the military without your permission, he or she is eighteen and therefore not a child.

B.) If your “child” enlists in the military because of something they saw in a video game, your “child” is a fucking moron.

I’m sorry for being blunt, but facts are facts.

C.) The Army is in a no-win situation, when you think about it. If they remove the blood and gore from these simulators, Group A says they’re not depicting the true horrors of war. If they add in the blood and gore that is all too common in real-world combat, Group B says the Army is glorifying killing and calling America’s Army a “murder simulator”.

D.) The truth of the matter is that while recruiting surely happens at the AEC, the entire complex is little more than a glorified LAN center that offers people free games to play. It’s a PR Stunt that hopes to turn public opinion of the Army away from the “baby killer” image that it has developed over the past several years.

As for it’s effectiveness, I present to you 19 year-old Mikel Smith:

We’re just here to play the games

Duh. Let’s be practical, shall we? Gamers, while interesting and often thoughtful, are also simple creatures. If you put up a display that has free Xbox 360 games, gamers will flock to it like mosquitoes to “that big, blue light”. At the same time, if you ask these people if they want to join the military, you’re going to get a bevy of answers similar to that of Mr. Smith.

This brings up the larger issue of the effectiveness of using video games as recruitment tools. The reason why America’s Army is so successful on the PC is not because there is an entire generation of Americans who want to join the Army and live out their video game fantasies, it’s because the game is free. It really is that simple. Have people enlisted because of the game? Some have, without a doubt. But for the majority of gamers, America’s Army is nothing more than a fun, free shooter.

So that means the game failed as a recruiting tool, right? Not at all. Military recruitment, at it’s core, is nothing more than advertising. America’s Army in itself is but the 21st century equivalent of the famous “I Want You” poster from World War I.

Additionally, other companies have been using video games to advertise their product for years to sell everything from soft drinks (Cool Spot, Pepsi Invaders) to hamburgers (M.C. Kids, Sneak King). Other games, like Wally Bear and the NO! Gang were designed, in part, by the American Medical Association in an attempt to spread the message that “drugs are bad”. The only difference is that while Chester Cheetah’s Wild Wild Quest tries to get you to buy more Cheetos, America’s Army tries to get you to look into the military.

So what’s the big deal about America’s Army? Well, while games like M.C. Kids and Chase the Chuck Wagon (advergame for Purina Dog Food) were generally disregarded as trash (the games were, often times, terrible), America’s Army was widely praised and has built up a loyal fanbase that continues to play the game to this day.

So, in that respect the game has worked wonderfully.

Ultimately, these groups can picket and protest and then go home feeling good about themselves and blog all about how awesome it was to fight “the man”. At the end of the day, all they’re doing is picketing a billboard and keeping me from free Call of Duty.

Popularity: 1% [?]