VIDEO GAMES AS A REHEARSAL FOR THE REAL THING

The following came from our pal Faux Smoke. I have posted it in it's entirety. The links are hot.

"So, out of boredom, I put this together & now I'm probably going to post it somewhere or another & email it to a few people... I figure, you probably get a hell of a lot more traffic than I do, to say the least. So I'm sending it to you & presuming you read it, you might decide to consider whether this is worth a post on your blog or not. No worries or concern either way, like I said, I did this out of boredom so don't think its my life's work or anything. End Note ]

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3171494

& BAM! A recruitment center in Second Life is the answer?

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/zd/20081205/tc_zd/234710

If you're wondering what exactly Second Life is, well... here's the wikipedia page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life

Me personally... I don't play crap like Second Life & think that the military fucked up by making a choice to promote through the game, they'd probably have had better luck through a number of other franchise titles. Call of Duty... Medal of Honor... on & on, I could make a list of games that would have probably been a bit more appealing & worth-while for the military in comparison to a largely peaceful & easy-going virtual community. Hell, now that Kojima is basically gone from the Metal Gear series & it is essentially owned by Konami, the U.S. military might have been able to buy a smash-hit title to fill with propaganda... Nonetheless, point being, people bitch about violence in video games & the content of games & all sorts of crap, yet, nothing about this. A-okay I suppose? Eh...

Mortal Kombat & Grand Theft Auto were corrupting the youth & Doom fueled the Columbine high-school shootings, though, the military trying to recruit kids through video games isn't a problem or even an issue known by most folks. World of Warcraft & 'video game addiction' are supposed to be news worthy instead...

But hey, don't think this is the whole of it, not in the least... check this out...

http://www.americasarmy.com/

Propaganda just met the 21st century & that's typically old news for most kids. That's a video game made by the united states military, published & put out with an interactive online community, all filled up with advertisements for enlisting in the service. Notice, the title got a T for Teen rating by the ESRB... & that's important because it means that my previous use of the word "kids" is very appropriate. For a bit about why this game receiving a T for Teen rating is an issue.. well, here's a link to the controversy section of the wikipedia page for this game...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America's_Army#Controversy

So... other than trying to recruit kids & glorify war & military life, what is the military doing with video games? Would you believe me if I said, trying to prevent suicide?

http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/12/01/army-suicide-rates-video-games

Want to play the demo? Link follows...

http://willinteractive.com/demos/beyond-the-front/

I suggest you might consider clicking through it to at least read the disclaimers... a bit interesting if nothing else.

However, this still doesn't end there... We have veterans protest outside a U.S. Army-sponsored video game tournament... "It's like giving candy to kids," Sacramento Veterans for Peace president John C. Reiger said. "It's sort of like military pedophilia in a way, preying on our young people."

http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=51581&catid=2

I know that a whole hell of a lot of people don't really give a damn about video games for the most part, though, as video games have increasingly become integrated into our culture, especially the culture of the youth, the issues that arise around them have become far more serious & relative to each & every one of us, regardless of if we play them or not. First it was the odd video game instead of a pinball machine... Now, well... GTA sold over $300 million in a 24 hour period of time, beating out the Harry Potter craze & taking the world record in the process for highest ever entertainment earner within the first 24 hours after release.

Not only this, though, in a time when the economy & market are typically fucked, the video game industry has been relatively unscathed... in actuality, the video game industry is bigger than ever & more or less, growing while near to all else is faltering.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hbnOSsybCzJICcuK2m2m-ROwF32Q

We're looking at something that has gone vastly & immensely beyond Pong & Tetris. Video games have become so influential & substantial that they have become an industry in its own standing, one that has an impact in the economy & entertainment industry. More over, these games have come to the point of being not only considered with seriousness by the military, yet, seized upon by the military as a viable tool for recruitment.

So... how to end this? Why not with a quote, from a character in a video game, about war?

"War has changed. It's no longer about nations, ideologies or ethnicity. It's an endless series of proxy battles, fought by mercenaries and machines. War, and its consumption of life, has become a well-oiled machine. War has changed. ID tagged soldiers carry ID tagged weapons, use ID tagged gear. Nanomachines inside their bodies enhance and regulate their abilities. Genetic control. Information control. Emotion control. Battlefield control. Everything is monitored, and kept under control. War has changed. The age of deterrence has become the age of control. All in the name of averting catastrophe from weapons of mass destruction. And he who controls the battlefield, controls history. War has changed. When the battlefield is under total control, war...becomes routine." -- Solid Snake, from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots."