July 9, 2007 -
Can the U.S. Army be faulted for including the uber violent Xbox 360 hit Gears of War in a recruitment-oriented video game tournament?Raw Story takes the Army to task for adding Gears to the roster of titles for the Army Gaming Championships, a ladder event which kicked off on the 4th of July.
The Raw Story feature makes specific mention of GoW's chainsaw bayonet:
The Army is sponsoring a tournament featuring one of the most graphically violent video games every produced. Players will be rewarded tens of thousands of dollars in prizes from the military for chainsaw massacres of opponents, whose deaths are stunningly illustrated...
The venture provides the Army another avenue to reach tech-savvy recruits -- though participants must be willing to be contacted by an Army recruiter -- as it struggles to maintain its ranks in the fifth year of the Iraq war...
Army officials "looked very carefully at the games recommended," [Army spokeswoman Louise] Eaton said. While including M-rated games initially "gave us pause," Eaton said they were OK'd because the tournament is only open to players age 17 and up...
Others games in the Army tournament include Command & Conquer 3, Resistance: Fall of Man, Call of Duty 3, and, of course, America's Army.
Comments
I know, I was refering to the army commercials. They kind of send a message that everyone that enlists in the army will become a CEO or something.
You know the LaRouches are wetting themselves heavily over this.
:/
The military has used a large variety of tactics to recruit new personnel over time. And not just modern US military. Promise of wealth, promise of family security, promise of glory, promise of easy tours of duty, promises of glamourous locations, and so on. This is nothing new.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
As Nightwing says, I think it's more about what is 'popular' rather than anything to do with 'training', after all, the whole idea of the American Army is to take a recruit and rebuild them from the bottom up into soldiers, usually dealing with any preconceptions along the way. Anyone thinking life in the Army is somehow life 'Gears of War' is in for quite a surprise, for a start, you'll note a distinct lack of ambient soundtrack.
I don't really think they glorify war as much as they glorify military service.
Who cares, the tournament was open only to people 17 and up. As for it being used as an evaluation tool, games can only be used to determine someones ability to make snap judgments and the ability to organize others.
Thats is a best case too. Most of the time they are worthless for any kind of evaluation of a persons abilities.