March 20, 2008
Nearly two years ago Joseph DeLappe, an artist and academic, created a virtual protest of the Iraq war - with a video game twist.DeLappe used the Defense Department's own, freely-distributed recruiting game, America's Army, as his vehicle to protest the conflict. As we reported on GamePolitcs in 2006:
DeLappe began joining online matches. He doesn't play the game, however. He simply uses the game's chat interface to type in the name, rank and date of death of U.S. military personnel killed in the Iraq conflict. When his avatar is killed, he simply waits for the next round to begin and continues to enter the names of the dead.
DeLappe's goal is to eventually enter the name of every service member lost in the war.
The New Media Research Studio blog reports that DeLappe is still at it and will present a live performance of his protest in New York City tomorrow with a discussion to follow. Last week GamePolitics detailed another DeLappe project, a Second Life re-enactment of Gandhi's 1930 Salt March protest.
DeLappe is also working on a project to create memorials to civilians killed in the Iraq war.
Comments
@ Ebon Heart
This is "art" in the loosest terms. It is the equivilant of tying a thousand balloons to a bridge.
Simple... 2 computers! One to run Second Life, the other to run America's army....
Kinda hard to do since it's in a video game.
The war in Iraq has cost the U.S. 3 Trillion dollars, yes 3 Trillion dollars I kid you not.
all I can think is "Spam!"
sounds like it'd get really irritating in-game.
But it's hard to tell what he is actually protesting about, because he didn't give a straight answer when asked in that GP interview. Why didn't he give a straight answer? Either he doesn't know the answer, or the answer is something he doesn't want us to know.
With something like this, I think he should have figured out why he was doing it and what he was trying to say, and if these reasons stood up to the example set by the people on his list. Doesn't he owe them that, at least?
He has a good point in the protest but agreed AA isn't the place to do it.
Except 90% of the people who play AA don't give a crap about what the guy is doing there fore it's the wrong place. Now if he did it in front of a recruiting station, hey the guy has something.
I'm sure I could think of more reasons if I had the EULA or TOU for America's Army on hand, but here's three reasons that come to the top of my mind almost immediately:
1. Chat Spamming
2. Griefing and Interupting the game for other players
3. Team Stacking (Creating an unfair team balance by not playing the game)
A game (yes, it is a Game at the end of the day, regardless of how many people want to call it a 'recruitment tool') is NOT the place for this kind of behavior, let alone "voice" this kind of anti-war dissent. His supposed "message" doesn't make him any less of a jackass. This is a guy who makes a living on controversy and calls it "art", I sincerely doubt that he gives a damn about his "message" other than the amount of attention that it gets him.
Because there were more. A lot more, actually. Not saying Clinton had any responsibility beyond that of any normal CiC. It's just the way the numbers worked out.
I *am* saying that this guy doesn't give a fig for the ACTUAL dead soldiers. He only cares about his "protest" and his "art."
Any arguments about the war in Iraq should be made to the people who can influence America's withdrawal: the policy makers. If someone plays America's army and decides to join the army, then that has nothing to do with the war in Iraq. Stopping a handful of people from joining the army will not end the war.
for the first time, trolling is an art
Yeah I wouldn't blame Clinton for those deaths or the military for that matter. Let's blame whos fault it really is, Congress. They Can choose to go to war, and wether or not to fund it. Personally I'm agreeing with the
"I *am* saying that this guy doesn’t give a fig for the ACTUAL dead soldiers. He only cares about his “protest” and his “art.” He comes off like Cindy Shehan minus the foaming at the mouth.
I understand and agree that protests within games are disruptive and annoying, but so are protests in real life. I hate getting held up in traffic by war protesters, but I don’t tell them they shouldn’t be on the sidewalks distracting drivers and causing a slow-down. Annoying yes, but my annoyance can’t trump the protesters right to be there and speak their mind.
Like it or not, AA is the ideal place for a protest of this sort to take place not only because AA is a government project and tool, but because the protest itself opposes the goal of that tool.
But if he really cared about making waves, he would have to invite some of his friends to join the "protest". Such a move might pull a load on AA's servers and get some kind of reaction from the US Army.
As to whether or not AA is a recruiting tool, it may have been initially designed to help recruiting efforts, but we have to consider the practical effect it has. How many people play AA and then say, "well, that sold me. Sign me up!" It's not a recruiting tool, it's a game. Granted it is a propaganda game, but it's still a game.
And besides which, games are past the stage of being just games. You can find books less intricate or complicated(and no, I dont mean kiddie books) than some of the high end games.
What this guy is doing may not be art, or even a good idea, it's something he's allowed to do. Of course, the right to free speech doesn't necessarily mean we have to listen...
@Elalonna
Well spoken. You read thoughts.