Blog 1 – America's Army - is it really a game?

At first glance of the America's Army website I was surprised to see so little about the game itself. Your eye is first drawn to the large story about real life soldier SGT Monica Brown. When visiting websites for other games you are normally introduced with a video or large image of the game-play. America's Army does not follow this principle because it is clear they do not want your main focus to be on the game, but on the United States Army. Rather the colour scheme and background of the website is that of the camouflage worn by American soldiers drawing focus to the army.

In the image of SGT Monica Brown is the text 'We salute our newest REAL HERO.' 'Real hero' really emphasises the point that this is more than a game. Real life people are out there in Iraq and Afghanistan risking their lives for the protection of their country. Most teenagers dream of being a hero, and this taps into that offering them a chance to be a 'real hero', not just a winner of a computer game. I salute SGT Monica Brown and the many others like her, but there are also many heroes who have died leaving families without loved ones. This is a harsh reality of the army and war, and I could not find one instance of this on the website.

With the website so focused on recruiting, I do not believe it gives a fair picture of the reality of war. The graphic novel that sets the scene for the game has a too simplistic view of war, with a simple good guy - bad guy scenario. There is no context of where they will be going to war, or the culture of people they are going to liberate and provide assistance to. In the real life interviews, there was no talk about life at war or even an interview with anyone in a front line position. They were all in nice army camps in the US talking about how great the benefits were, and how proud people were of them. This may be a fair reflection of one part of army life, but the website should deliver a wider range view of Army life.

Nearly all animated images on the website are of soldiers carrying weapons. When looking at the roles you can play in the game, all but one role is shown with a soldier carry a weapon. The exception is a medic. This really plays to the teenage market as teenagers, when they think about the Army or being a soldier, relate best to shooting because of computer games and films.

With the way the website and the game are set up, I think it does promote a more controlled view of combat compared to a usual game's promotion of killing. This is because it aims to teach the user about different postings in the army. This gives them a way to channel aggression in a game that teaches them not only how to fight but also how to avoid conflict, which is just as important. Killing in a game context is much different to killing in real life. On a game it is easy to click a button without consequences and kill an animated figure, whereas doing it in a real life setting at war is far different. This is something I am sceptical of when using games, and gaming events, to recruit teens and young adults to the Army.