"America's Army"

All day everyday there are aspects of life that are so stressful and hard to deal with, they feel like a burden that will never be lifted.  The feeling of wanting to be lost in another world would just be the token to ease the pain for a little while.  For me, reading a book or watching a movie is an outlet I use to help me get through the stresses of everyday life.  For others, it may be playing a video game that gives them power and feelings of accomplishment and success.  "America's Army" is a video game designed to give people the strength and success they may be lacking in their "normal" lives.  

The website is designed to draw attention immediately, and get people to sign up for the video game.  The graphics used for the entire program is just mind-blowing because it shows that the creators behind this gaming website put in a lot of thought.  Just take, for example, the graphics of the high-ranking official in "Game Training".  Nascone looks almost like a real person down to the details of the evenly-shaped eyebrows, the eye color, the ear shape; all of the details of this official are a perfect resemblance of a real human being.  That's the advantage the creators use because while people play this game, it will not only look like they are truly in life, but it will feel like that as well.  "America's Army" was designed for the intense video gamers that want to achieve success and feel powerful.  If anyone was to have a doubt about whether they would be the only person playing, could never exist because it states on the website the number of members is 9,785,138, at the time of the last check of the website.  That's an incredible number of people playing this game, which I have never heard of prior to this blog.  Another saying that would draw people in right away is the slogan "one of the ten most popular PC action games played online".  With that number of members and the statistics that show it must be a great game, why would anyone doubt it?  

This is where the downfall to the video game becomes clear.  It may be a great thing to try and promote being in the Army and being part of the people that can say they are the "best-trained, most respected, and embody physical strength".  However, this game, although it may have realistic graphics, is not a realistic interpretation of the how the army would be if a gamer was to actually join the army.  Just like Todd Boyle stated, this game is somewhat "brainwashing" gamers to believe the army is exactly what the army is portrayed as through this video game.  It shows the heroes and physically strong, the amazing stories of survival and injured going back for more.  Is that a real interpretation of how every aspect of the army is in Iraq, though?  No, because the game doesn't show all the innocent children blown up into pieces, the mangled hands and arms of your comrade next to you.  It doesn't give you the same emotions and fears that you would really experience in Iraq as a soldier.  The media helps in educating the ignorant as to what really goes on over there and the lives that are lost day in and day out.  "America's Army" is simply one aspect of the army, that although it may be a great team to be a part of, it shouldn't be "sold" to children and adolescents in this perfect, fun way.  

The last question made me laugh because we just had a discussion in my psych class about violent video games and whether the had an impact of the violence seen in teenagers.  What was discussed in class was that a lot of people play violent video games and  not every single one of them turns out horrible and goes and purposely hurts others.  I believe that "America's Army" wasn't created to promote violence because violence is a fact of life.  You can try and hide from it but it will always be there.  I don't think everyone who plays violent video games becomes a violent person.  However, I do think there is a possibility of it happening, but there isn't a set correlation between violent video games and violent behavior.  The person has to choose whether they want to take those violent actions from a fictional video game and make them become real.  I personally, don't like violent video games because I just don't think they are appropriate.  Life isn't a game and neither is war.