US Army Spending More Money To Recruit Gamers

Everyone is familiar with America's Army. It is the game which has just snowballed in momentum now gaining massive audiences of gamers worldwide, both young and old. The US Army has lined up $2 million dollars in advertising and sponsorship which is to take place in the Global Gaming League Website. Apparently the core audience (80 percent) of this website consists primarily of 17-24 year old males.

However, one of the anti-gaming advocates California Senator, Leland Yee, has already issued a statement criticizing the advertising campaign.

"It is disconcerting that the Army has decided to invade these websites with millions of dollars in advertising. While many of these young people are being desensitized to real-life violence through these online violent video games, the Army has decided to sweep in and exploit the situation. I urge them to reconsider this advertising strategy ... My father like so many others served honorably in the Army and our soldiers today are fighting because they want to give back to this country. Many of today’s violent video games do not portray this service as admirable, but instead glorify violence and promote racist and sexist behaviour. These are not the lessons we should be teaching our young people. When ads for the armed forces are placed on websites promoting these types of games, it blurs the line between fantasy and real-life violence."

His claims that games promote racist and sexist behaviour are an exaggeration. Several games have been accused of these things, however, these claims are not indicative of the entire gaming catalogue. In fact, many games promote service in the army as being admirable. Most World War II games and I think, specifically, Brothers in Arms, Call of Duty, and to a lesser degree Medal of Honour definitely promote positives about military service. I think Brothers In Arms positively promotes the sacrifices made by those men who served in World War II. As per usual, an anti-gaming advocate speaks about negatives without understanding any of the positives of gaming.

The Australian military spends a great deal of money targeting gamers in their advertising. You only need to open PC Powerplay or check out other gaming related websites to see Australian military advertising on them. The Australian military have been doing this for quite some time. However, we haven't had the soothsayers portraying doom and gloom about this. The Australian military needs quality recruits, this is no great secret. Fortunately, we don't have the anti-gaming mindset in the media and with politicians which occurs in the US.

With the reality of television and movies now gamers would have an understanding as to the violent and unforgiving nature of war. Games are not realistic portrayals of war based events. They are fictions used as a means of entertainment. To say that all gamers are desensitized to real life violence through video games is a gross overstatement. It is without foundation. If someone joins the army based on their experiences playing Americas Army then they are going to be given a rude wakeup call and they are not joining the army for the right reasons in the first place. The army will sort these people out pretty quickly. However, to have someone stand up and take just another cheap shot at gaming is of no real surprise. These people categorize all gamers with the same, violent brush without actually understanding who gamers are. Anyway, would I be someone who makes a gross generalisation, such as, we all know that all politicians are liars anyway.