branches of the military help create violent video games

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branches of the military help create violent video games

Postby darkbeforedawn » Sat May 06, 2006 12:11 am

<br>This is a continuation of "Why are they scaring us with the news?" thread, but I thought it deserved a fresh start....<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.alternet.org/wiretap/35759/">www.alternet.org/wiretap/35759/</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br>Subliminal Militarization<br><br>By Adam Elkus, WireTap. Posted May 5, 2006.<br><br><br>The U.S. Army and video game producers are increasingly collaborating on war simulation games designed to attract a new generation of potential soldiers. Tools<br> EMAIL<br> PRINT<br> COMMENT NOW<br> <br>Also in WireTap <br><br>An Excellent Reason Not to Join the Military<br>Aimee Allison <br><br>Rally to Save Darfur Draws Thousands of Teens to D.C.<br>Anna Bernstein, Jonah Jablons <br><br>Loving to Hate Reality TV<br>Dino-Ray Ramos <br><br>Dixieland Justice: the Slow Murder of Rodney Reed<br>Jordan Buckley <br><br>Why I Will Boycott on May 1<br>César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández <br><br><br>More stories by Adam Elkus<br><br><br> <br> <br>In the last few years, war simulation video games have enjoyed a boom. Marketed primarily to teenage boys and twentysomethings but played by gamers of all ages and sexes, they offer the thrill of the age-old battle against evil.<br><br>Particularly popular are semirealistic action games like "Rainbow Six," "Counter-Strike," "Battlefield 1942" and "Medal of Honor," allowing players to become supersoldiers in historical American battles or fight against the current bogeymen, Al-Qaida terrorists. They are obsessively detailed in replicating the experience of battle, minus the more troubling moral aspects of killing that are inherent in warfare. Unfortunately, they also fill the gamer's head with an idealized view of war.<br><br>These games are in a different league than your typical GI Joe cartoons. Military shooters provide a deceptive amount of detail, allowing you to literally see the battlefield through the eyes of a soldier. One can play with the exact weapons, vehicles, equipment and uniforms of the army in scenarios that replicate historical conflicts of Vietnam, the Gulf War and World War II, as well as fictional skirmishes against terrorists and guerrillas worldwide. The rush of adrenaline is overwhelming. How did the game designers develop such detailed games? In the answer lies the problem.<br><br>New frontier in military recruitment<br><br>At a time of falling military enlistment rates, it is becoming more difficult to reach the young. Slick advertisements with heavy metal music and shots of aircraft carriers are not enough to reverse the loss, and mothers are preventing recruiters from talking to their children. But the booming industry of video games provides convenient access to America's youth.<br><br>Video games as a whole have experienced a rapid growth in popularity. Seventy-five percent of American households play computer and video games. In 2005, 228 million computer and video games were sold: effectively two games for every American household. The earnings of blockbuster game titles often rival that of Hollywood films. "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" grossed an astonishing $236 million compared to the blockbuster movie "War of the Worlds," which grossed $234 million in the United States.<br><br>Consultants from the various branches of the armed forces are paying attention and have been involved in the production of these games. TomDispatch and USA Today reported that the officials from the Army's Infantry School in Fort Benning, in concert with a joint Army/USC project developed the Microsoft Xbox game "Full Spectrum Warrior."<br><br>The armed forces also employ simulators to train their soldiers, which according to National Defense Magazine can sometimes consist of modified versions of popular games. In the '80s, the tank simulation game "Battlezone" was altered by military programmers to train Bradley Fighting Vehicle drivers. In the mid-'90s, the military modified "Doom" for use in training Marines in squad combat. Since then, the Naval War College, in Newport, R.I., has worked with Sonalysts Inc. to create more than 500 games. Among them were three combat simulations that Sonalysts developed for commercial distribution by Electronic Arts of Redwood City, Calif., including "Jane's Fleet Command," "688(I)," "Hunter/Killer" and "Sub Command."<br><br>The Army has also developed its own video game, "America's Army." According to TomDispatch, it was developed with the assistance of such entertainment and gaming industry stalwarts as Epic Games, the THX Division of Lucasfilm Ltd., Dolby Laboratories, Lucasfilm Skywalker Sound, GameSpy Industries and others. It is a free game, available for download on their website after bypassing many ads for enlistment. By making it free, the Army opened a second front in the recruitment wars, a beachhead in the home of the American teenage male. It can be legally downloaded by those as young as 13; it has been downloaded 16 million times, and there are more than four million current registered players. It is bundled with gaming magazines and given away at NASCAR events and state fairs. The Army spent a total of $7 million designing it, and maintaining the online play option costs it around $5 million per year.<br><br>Rewriting History<br><br>Commentators have frequently noted that the Pentagon's control of coverage during the Gulf War helped the U.S. military avoid the image problem it experienced during Vietnam. Instead of pictures of dead soldiers, crying peasants and severed limbs, the viewer saw laser-guided bombs cleanly hitting their targets in a high-tech spectacle that resembled something out of a video game. The war was portrayed as a conflict -- despite abundant evidence to the contrary -- in which no one died who did not deserve to, an extension of a Saturday morning action cartoon in which the good guys triumphed cleanly over a mustachioed villain. The message was that modern war was clean, efficient and fought by experts.<br><br>Today's video games present a similar worldview -- you, the brave marine, armed with high-tech weapons, fight against evil villains who want to kill you. The battle lines are drawn cleanly. No moral questions are posed, and nowhere is the psychological reality of taking a life even remotely considered. No innocent civilians die. The weapons always work like a dream. Your enemies are evil, but they are stupid and will wait for you to attack and kill them. When you die, you can return to the Game Over screen.<br><br>There is more to war than strategy and calculated violence. Would a Vietnam simulator game show the countless villages napalmed by American pilots? The infamous photo of a naked girl running down the road, screaming for help? The Buddhists burning themselves to protest the Diem government? The terror of American soldiers as they are cut to pieces in a foreign land by guerillas that melt back into the populace? Mothers crying as their sons come home in caskets? Would a simulator ever show a legless and armless veteran in a VA hospital?<br><br>It is difficult to answer the question of what could truly bring to life the horrors of war for those who have not experienced them, but video games are certainly not the answer. No artistic medium has ever come close to replicating the true sensations of combat, though in film and art there are many notable attempts. And, in many ways, even violence designed to be horrific is still completely riveting. Though an antiwar director might want you to be so shocked that you will turn your head away from the screen, you will not. In fact, soldiers in the Gulf War, according to Anthony Swofford's best-selling memoir, Jarhead, used scenes from antiwar movie "Apocalypse Now" to hype themselves up for combat.<br><br>With historical war simulators, the military also has the opportunity to rewrite history. The teenage gamers pay more attention to simulators than a boring textbook or teacher. If they play a Vietnam simulator with its flash and sound effects, the conflict's enormous complexity will not register. They will remember military conflicts as pure contests of strategy and force, with none of the external political, moral, historical, ideological and humanitarian factors involved.<br><br>Ends justify any means<br><br><br>For all the talk of violence in shooting games, the real danger is the semifascist themes inherent in many of them, and the attitudes that they instill in players. With the notable exception of "Grand Theft Auto," the player usually plays a figure of authority that must snuff out some undesirable. For example, one can get the impression from playing the mid-90s coin-op shooter "Virtual Cop" that being a police officer entirely involves pumping lead into endless waves of dark-suited mobsters. To use a modern example, in "Splinter Cell," the game tells you that, as agent Sam Fisher, "You alone have the Fifth Freedom: the right to spy, steal, destroy and assassinate to ensure that American freedoms are protected." A better slogan for George W. Bush's "War on Terror" could not have been devised. Sam Fisher clearly would not have any problem torturing an adversary, so why should you? The message is clear -- the ends justify any means.<br><br>The myriad abuses of the "War on Terror" may be a reflection of a combat force raised on violent video games. According to Gulf War veteran Mary Spio, now the pop culture editor of One2One Magazine, "What we saw in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal was the tip of the iceberg -- it was a glimpse of a generation of war gamers coming of age. [V]ideo games that allow players to kill real human beings are desensitizing generations of American society." Douglas Gentile, assistant professor of psychology at Iowa State University and director of research for the National Institute of Media and Family, agrees with Spio's sentiments: "It is probably more likely to be a vicious circle, where increased interest in war leads to playing these games, which leads to more aggressive feelings and increased negative stereotypes of other cultures, which just fuels more interest in war."<br><br>We can look to the past to see the ultimate effects of this kind of subtle brainwashing. At the start of World War I, the impressionable young men of Europe believed that the most noble thing they could do was go to war. They, along with their parents, believed that wars were clean, and the coming conflict would only last a few months or a year at most. They eagerly lined up to do battle with little idea of the reality of war. Then an entire generation of European men perished in the muddy fields of France. They perished in brutal warfare that bore no resemblance to the cherished fantasy of their societies, a fantasy that centered around notions of noble cavalry charges and pistols at ten paces. Through games like "America's Army" and its commercial cousins, the Pentagon is attempting to create a modern version of the noble war fantasy. But right now American soldiers are dying in Iraq, in a conflict they barely understand. For them, there is no Game Over screen and no extra life. <br><br>Adam Elkus lives in Pacific Palisades, Calif. He has written for Truthdig, Strawberry Press Magazine, Wanderings and Altar Magazine.<br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: branches of the military help create violent video games

Postby greencrow0 » Sat May 06, 2006 12:55 am

I am absolutely NOT surprised that the military are behind video games.<br><br>after all, it's like brainwashing and advertising 'the product' all in one....and the target audience pays for it. How good is that?<br><br>GC <p></p><i></i>
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I am only surprised this wasn't done before

Postby Chiaroscuro » Sat May 06, 2006 2:55 am

I remember reading an article discussing the possible problems of violent video games. One of the main guys against the shoot 'em up games was a highranked retired Army man who said they were just like the techniques the military uses to desensitize soldiers to violence. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: I am only surprised this wasn't done before

Postby HMKGrey » Sat May 06, 2006 3:13 am

<br>I'm not convinced that this guy, Elkus, really knows what he's talking about. <br><br>It's true that the US Army have devised a video game and are basically giving it away for free but it's not a particularly good game and it should be remembered that Lucas et al are not really involved in this game so much as they have technology which has been licenced in to the game - sort of like Dolby and music. Most games companies (even Electronic Arts and Activision) remain pretty much outsider organizations and their creative teams - the life blood of their existence simply wouldn't stand for any real involvement in a blatant government semi-psy-op. <br><br>Yes, both EA and Activision are multinational publicly traded companies but their entire reason for being is dependent on game development and most game developers are the equivalent of digital age punk bands. They want no dealings with The Man. <br><br>It should also be remembered that no study has ever conclusively shown a link between violent video games and violent behavior. It's been suggested by various congressmen and journalists that, in fact, research has shown the opposite but, to my knowledge, these statements have never stood up to real scrutiny. <br><br>All in all the video games industry does a very good job of policing itself through its own trade body [The ESA]. In fact, if you draw a compariosn between music, film and video games in terms of self-policing then both the film and games industries far outweigh anything done by the music business in terms of active acceptance of social responsibility and actions thereupon. <br><br>Sorry if I sound like an industry shill - I'm really not. But knowing a bit about this, I hate it when lazy journalists pipe off about games and violence. <br><br>One last: despite all signs to the contrary, violent or M-rated games actually account for less than 12% of games sales in the US. To listen to the media, of course, one would imagine that it was exactly the opposite. <br><br>Respectfully, <br><br>HMKGrey<br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: I am only surprised this wasn't done before

Postby FourthBase » Sat May 06, 2006 6:05 am

The 18-25 year old soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan...<br>How many of them were experienced FPS gamers, I wonder?<br>Isn't this the generation raised on FPS's?<br><br>If the military is behind the battle simulation games...<br>Who the hell is behind those futuristic nightmare FOS games?<br>Those things are hyper-violence-desensitizing. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: I am only surprised this wasn't done before

Postby HMKGrey » Mon May 08, 2006 2:35 am

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Isn't this the generation raised on FPS's?<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Middle class white kids who can afford the high end PC's needed to play most FPS's seem to be in pretty short supply in our military, if the kids on the THC documentaries I've seen are anything to go by. <p></p><i></i>
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Army programs

Postby LoganSquare » Mon May 08, 2006 11:28 pm

<br>Former West Point Psychology professor (and former Spec. Forces officer) Col. Dave Grossman wrote a book titled On Killing that discusses the U.S. Army's program to develop a conditioned killing response in soldiers. His website talks about the effect of first person shooter games on children. <br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.killology.com/index.htm">www.killology.com/index.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Anita Jones, a computer science professor at the University of Virginia first proposed that the military and Hollywood jointly develop key technologies in the mid-1990s when she served as the Defense Department's director of defense research and engineering. (see L.A. Times article: <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.isi.edu/latimes_uarc.html)">www.isi.edu/latimes_uarc.html)</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>The result was the Institute of Creative Technologies: <br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.ict.usc.edu/">www.ict.usc.edu/</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>I don't think the question is so much the connection between video games and violent behavior as it is an automatic robotic like readiness to engage with a weapon that may not even feel violent to the perpetrator.<br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: branches of the military help create violent video games

Postby professorpan » Tue May 09, 2006 12:49 pm

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>I am absolutely NOT surprised that the military are behind video games.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>The military are involved with *some* video games, particularly those with military themes. <br><br>Emphasis on "some." <p></p><i></i>
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Re: branches of the military help create violent video games

Postby HMKGrey » Tue May 09, 2006 1:19 pm

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>The military are involved with *some* video games, particularly those with military themes.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Totally agree with the emphasis on *some* that professorpan cites, but would also say that *involved* is a bit too broad and undefined. <br><br>Take EA's "Medal of Honor" series. EA did go to various military people and check details for realism etc as well as working with a lot of ex-army consultants on other historical details but that's a far cry from an 'X-Files' type scenario where some General drives up to EA's HQ and tells the CEO that he needs to start making war games as it would be good for democracy or such. That's what some people seem to think happens and I don't buy that. <br><br>The games are quite good enough <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>without</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> the army telling anyone what to do. <br><br>The army's own games largely suck, mind. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: branches of the military help create violent video games

Postby professorpan » Tue May 09, 2006 1:30 pm

HMK,<br><br>You must understand that THEY control everything. Everything. Remember Super Mario Brothers? An obvious product of the boys in the basement at Langley if I've ever seen one.<br><br>Think about it -- mushrooms? A quest to save an innocent princess? A "Minus World" level from which Mario can't escape? All clues that it serves as a platform to turn innocent children into drug-using, mind-controlled sex slaves.<br><br>And guess how many of the soldiers currently stationed in Iraq played the game when they were kids? Most of them. Look at them now. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: branches of the military help create violent video games

Postby FourthBase » Tue May 09, 2006 1:35 pm

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Middle class white kids who can afford the high end PC's needed to play most FPS's seem to be in pretty short supply in our military, if the kids on the THC documentaries I've seen are anything to go by.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--> <br><br>#1 - PC's were required for FPS's about 10 years ago.<br>#2 - Most poor kids have access to a video game system.<br>#3 - Even most poor kids have quarters (for arcades). <p></p><i></i>
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Re: branches of the military help create violent video games

Postby FourthBase » Tue May 09, 2006 1:39 pm

BTW, STFU Pan. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: branches of the military help create violent video games

Postby HMKGrey » Tue May 09, 2006 2:11 pm

<br><br>I remember being at a rave in England in the early 90's and I saw a kid wearing a t-shirt that said:<br><br>IF VIDEO GAMES WERE REALLY THAT BAD FOR YOU, WE'D ALL BE WANDERING AROUND DARK ROOMS, EATING LITTLE PILLS AND LISTENING TO REPETITIVE ELECTRONIC MUSIC BY NOW. <br><br>I thought it was both hilarious and profound. <br><br>But as for everyone owning video games systems and PC's etc.: It's true that video games systems are always realtively inexpensive towards the end of their lifecycle but it's also true that until recently (last 5 years) FPS's were not big sellers on video game systems. The mac daddy games of video game systems have usually been sports games and fighters like Virtua Fighter and Street Fighter... with an occasional smash involving FPS characteristics (DOOM, Quake, Duke etc). <br><br>Halo for Xbox was the first massive console only FPS hit. <br><br>They've always sold better for PC and in that regard, higher end PC's have usually been needed to play the better and bigger selling games and anyone with a background in tech will tell you that selling these machines to poor people is nigh on impossible. And there's a big schism across racial lines in most technology markets, sadly. <br><br>Pan: Shigeru Miyamoto invented and created all the Mario games. For all the world, I can't imagine him sitting with anyone from Langley. He's an extraordinay man and utterly committed to non-violent games. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: branches of the military help create violent video games

Postby FourthBase » Tue May 09, 2006 2:29 pm

#1 - Again, arcades.<br><br>#2 - Perhaps by "FPS" I'm also thinking of semi-FPS games, where the perspective is first person, but the protagonist is still in view. Like, what was that game...Torok?<br><br>#3 - Even if the strictly FPS games weren't the biggest sellers, they still reached a sizable audience of kids and teenagers. If there's a particularly aggressive boy in the house, he might have actively seeked a FPS. So even if you're not reaching the maximum audience, you're reaching dedicated FPS fans. Many of whom are obese couch potatoes...but many of whom are physically capable of joining the military when they come of age.<br><br>#4 - Lots of lower-class (not necessarily the poorest) families have PC's. And, um, most poor people are white, btw.<br><br>#5 - So FPS on home systems have become popular in the last 5 years...i.e., there've been thousands of 13, 14, 15, 16 year old boys who've reached the minimum age of enlistment in that time. <p></p><i></i>
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Re: branches of the military help create violent video games

Postby professorpan » Tue May 09, 2006 4:06 pm

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>However, I don't believe that one requires a guide, but only a strong spirit, clear intention and courage. It seems to me, from what I've read, that the Ayahuasca is your guide and teacher. <hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>HMK -- please read my post again envisioning my tongue deeply embedded (as in a FOX reporter in Iraq) in my cheek. I know it's hard to tell when someone is being playful on this forum, particulary when some posters have been known to (seriously) suggest that little league baseball is a plot to turn children into Nazi soldiers... <p></p><i></i>
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