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America's Army - Not to be confused with the United States Army.
| align=center colspan=2|America's Army | | align=center colspan=2| | | style=width:80px|Developer: | MOVES Institute | | a href="/encyclopedia/Video-game-publisher" title="Video game publisher">Publisher: | U.S. Army | | a href="/encyclopedia/Game-engine" title="Game engine">Engine: | Unreal engine | | elease date: | July 4, 2002 | | a href="/encyclopedia/Computer-and-video-game-genres" title="Computer and video game genres">Genre: | First-person shooter | | ame modes: | Training and Multiplayer | | a href="/encyclopedia/ESRB" title="ESRB">ESRB rating: | Teen (T) | | a href="/encyclopedia/Platform-(computing)" title="Platform (computing)">Platform: | Windows, Linux, Mac; Xbox, Playstation 2 | | equirements: | direct Internet connection (56K+) or LAN, Pentium 1.3 GHz+ CPU or equivalent, 256 MB+ RAM, DirectX 8.1+, 64 MB+ 3D graphics card supporting transform and lightning, and 2 GB+ of uncompressed hard disk | America's Army is a tactical multiplayer first-person shooter computer game whose play consists of adversarial combat rounds between a "United States Army" team and an "Opposing Force" team. Released on 4 July 2002, it was developed by the MOVES Institute of the United States Navy's Naval Postgraduate School through funding of the Federal government of the United States. It is distributed by the United States Army for free on the Internet. It has generated controversy as an alleged case of propaganda for the United States Army. Similar games include Under Ash (Palestinians), Full Spectrum Warrior (US Army), (Department of Defense), Special Force (Hizbullah), Close Combat: First to Fight (US Marines), (US Navy) and (US Airforce). Unlike America's Army, these games can only be acquired in exchange for money. Concept America's Army was inspired by Counter-Strike, a Half-Life modification and the most widely played online first-person shooter at the time, according to Professor Michael Zyda, the director of the MOVES Institute. America's Army can mainly be found as a free download on the Internet or on a CD-ROM at recruiting centers of the United States Army. It regularly receives add-ons and patches. History Shortly after computer-based wargames were permitted on governmental computers for United States Marines in 1996, Marine simulation experts created Marine Doom, a mod based on the commercial game Doom II to be used as a tactical training tool. On account of Marine Doom 's success the US Marine Corps signed a contract with MK Technologies in the following year, which led to the development of Marine Expeditionary Unit 2000 being the first game funded and developed by both the Department of Defense and the commercial game industry. The game was released as a training game for US Marines and as a commercial computer game to the public. A report in 1997 by the National Research Council, whose member Professor Michael Zyda is, called attention that Department of Defense's simulations were lagging behind commercial games and advised joint research with the entertainment industry. In 1999, when the US Army recruiting numbers hit their lowest point in thirty yearshttp://www.cnn.com/US/9909/30/army.recruitment/#1 after two straight years of missed recruiting targets, the Congress of the United States decided to carry out "aggressive, innovative experiments" with regard to the number of recruitments, and the Department of Defense raised its spending for recruitment to more than US$2.2x109, which not only paid for the Army Game Project, but for a promotional campaign for the entire United States Army. For instance they had a new slogan being invented and made a title sponsorship of a team taking part in NASCAR races, where America's Army was later allotted as well. A report by Michael Zyda induced the US Army to spend US$45 million to the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, to create a research centre to develop advanced military simulations. Lieutenant Colonel E. Casey Wardynski, an economics professor at the United States Military Academy, West Point, who later became director of the Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis (OEMA) at this academy and the head of the Army Game Project, exhibited to the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel as well as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Military Manpower the idea of an online computer game designed and distributed by the United States Army. He convinced them of the cost-effectiveness the project would have, and from then on he has collaborated with Professor Zyda. In 2001 the French software company Ubisoft granted the Department of Defense to use for training military personnel. On July 4, 2002, the United States' Independence Day, the first version of America's Army, named Recon, was released after three years of development and it was made available for free as either a download or on CD. Its production cost US$7.5 million and it quickly became one of the ten most often played online first-person shooters, mainly due to the gameplay similar to Counter-Strike, the game's easy availability, the new Unreal Engine and the large number of free servers sponsored by the US Army. The Army is spending US$3 million a year to develop future versions of the game and US$1.5 million annually to support them (e.g. through servers). America's Army: Soldiers, a Role Playing Game in development stage that was to elucidate career paths in the US Army, failed and was brushed under the carpet. In 2003, Ubisoft 's commercial was licensed to be adopted by the US Army for testing soldiers' skills. On November 6, 2003, version 2.0 of America's Army was published, with the full title of America's Army: Special Forces. The developers gave no reasons why the game foregrounded the US Special forces in this and the following versions, and only a Navy-produced booklet found by the investigative journalist Gary Webb explained this shift. It stated that "the Department of Defense wanted to double the number of Special Forces soldiers, so essential they proven in Afghanistan and northern Iraq; consequently, orders had trickled down the chain of command and found application in the release of version of America's Army." http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2004-10-14/cover.asp Being developed by Ubisoft in collaboration with the US Army, America's Army is planned for release on Xbox and Playstation 2 by summer 2005 under the name America's Army: Rise of a Soldier. Gameplay America's Army is a round- and team-based shooter with a gameplay in which the player controls a soldier of the "US Army" team from the first-person perspective. Multiplayer gameplay over the Internet is the game's main component. Before the player may play on the U.S. Army's servers, they must pass four of fourteen training exercises (with the result saved on their profile). Accomplishing the remaining training levels enables the player to play medic, special forces, and sniper characters. Players fight as either the "US Army" or, on Special Forces maps, 'Indigenous forces" against an opposing team called "OpFor" (Opposing Force) and specifically as "insurgents, enemy forces or terrorists. The players characters' are divided into two teams, usually into an Assault group and a Defense one, with the Assault losing the round if the time limit runs out, which is usually set to ten minutes. No matter whether Assault or Defence - the side the player joins is always depicted as of the US Army whereas the other side is portrayed as the OpFor (abbreviation for "Opposing Forces") on all occasions. The players on each team see themselves as American soldiers carrying American weaponry, such as the M16A2. They see their opponents as non-uniformed foreigners carrying Eastern bloc weapons, such as AK-47s (the counterpart of the M16A2 in the game), except for in training maps, in which the only distinguishing features are the players' characters' uniforms. Each round starts with the two teams spawning simultaneously. Unlike in Counter-Strike, players can never see themselves or other team-members as the OpFor and do not buy their equipment but always start with the equipment of the soldier class chosen. The round ends with only one team winning, which can only be done by either completing the objectives, or killing all members of the OpFor, or when the round's time limit is reached. For example, the objective on the most often played map is to kill the rebels' V.I.P., who is trying to survive and escape, or, if you join the other team, you must escort him to the escape zone. Every death your main character suffers by another player, every destruction or killing by him of an objective which he is assigned to protect and especially every killing of teammates caused by his friendly fire will be saved permanently and has an extremely negative effect on your player's score and "HONOR", a number next to the player name, the game consequently calling the actions dishonorable. Every healing of injured teammates as well as every killing of opponents' figures, by contrast, increase your score and "HONOR", the Army game consequently calling the actions honorable in general. The accomplishment of the "US Army"'s aims, instead of their opponents aims, affects your score favorably and therefore your "HONOR" as well, indirectly calling the objectives of the US Army honorable and the objectives of its opponents dishonorable at the same time. The score and, as a result, "HONOR" are saved in the players' accounts. The developers claim this reward system (HONOR) is "modeled after" the values "Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless-Service, Honor, Integrity and Personal Courage" but since it is an indicator of the time a player has played the game rather than the skills he has, players with a high "HONOR" level are often looked down on as addicts.http://www.gamasutra.com/education/theses/20040725/ZLITHESIS.pdf Any player character killed before the round is over become "spectators"; their chat/voice messages cannot be seen/heard by the players still alive, but they can watch the rest of the round. In contrast to Counter-Strike, the developers of America's Army have done little so far to prevent spying spectators from communicating with those still playing, which has become the most popular type of cheating, widely called ghosting. Players whose protagonist is dead receive information through the chat and the view as spectator and are capable of using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) communication programs such as Teamspeak or Ventrilo to let certain living players take advantage of that information, especially information on players' positions, health conditions and weapons. Depending on server configuration, spectators will have the possibility of watching the rest of the round in one to three ways. The first, which is always available, provides a view from the eyes of a specific player of his team, chosen by the dead player; the second allows the ghost to rotate his view around the chosen player; the third is from certain fixed viewpoints that allow the dead player to observe the entire map. The game is a medium-paced yet tactical shooter, in a similar vein as the "Tom Clancy's" series of shooters. Pacing is fast, in the sense that players can be killed in one to a few shots, although the players' movements are a lot slower and the gameplay contains less firefights than that of Unreal Tournament and Counter-Strike. Popularity Its developers claim America's Army is played by several millions of players. According to a survey, the game has had an average of roughly between 3 000 and 6 000 players playing online simultaneously from 2002 until 2005, compared with between 70 000 and 100 000 players playing Counter-Strike under the same counting conditions.http://www.video-games-survey.com/online_gamers.htm Controversy America's Army has been the subject of controversy. Explaining the game's purpose, Deputy Director of Development for America's Army, Chris Chambers, said "the idea is to make initial contact with all Americans about what the Army does. ... You play the game and see how the Army operates." Chris Morris, a CNN columnist, asserts "the Army readily admits the games are a propaganda device." Alexander R. Galloway of New York University argues that the game is not realistic because it omits negative aspects of the United States Army and war. He labelled it "a bold and brutal reinforcement of current American society and its positive moral perspective on military intervention." Chambers has said "the game is about achieving objectives with the least loss of life. It doesn't reward abhorrent behavior, it rewards teamwork." In the official Frequently Asked Questions page of America's Army, its developers argue its suitability to teenagers. "In elementary school kids learn about the actions of the Continental Army that won our freedoms under George Washington and the Army's role in ending Hitler's oppression. Today they need to know that the Army is engaged around the world to defeat terrorist forces bent on the destruction of America and our freedoms," it reads. America's Army, considered by the US Army as a "cost-effective recruitment tool," aims to become part of youth culture's "consideration set," according to testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee by Army deputy chief of personnel Timothy Maude.http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020902&s=hodes20020823 America's Army is the first game to make recruitment an explicit goal and the first well-known overt use of computer gaming for political aims. It has been argued that the game extends a military-entertainment complex, allegedly making society more militaristic.http://www.gamasutra.com/education/theses/20040725/ZLITHESIS.pdf Research papers of four different universities that have analysed America's Army argue that the game is propaganda. One states, "video game propaganda, whether morally right or wrong, is here to stay. It is not a passing phase, but an effective way that the US government has discovered to recruit soldiers and something other nations are now beginning to experiment with as well."http://www-ugs.csusb.edu/honors/02/ResTravis.htm After the paper had been released, a poll by I for I Research said that 30 percent of young people who had a positive view of the military said that they had developed that view by playing the game. At the United States Military Academy, 19 percent of 2003's freshman class stated they had played the game. Enlistment quotas were met in the two years directly following the game's release.http://www.notinourname.net/resources_links/video-game-7nov03.htm M. Paul Boyce, an Army public affairs officer at the Pentagon, said it would never be possible to find out what difference the game has made to recruitment numbers, but that he hoped no one has been recruited because of the game on the grounds that America's Army makes no attempt to help answer "hard questions" about the Army, such as "Is it right for me, is it right for my family, and is it right for my country?".http://www.detnews.com/2004/technology/0412/01/A01-20800.htm In fact America's Army focuses on the technological aspect of war rather than the moral one and has also therefore been referred to as How We Fight, alluding to the US government's series of films named Why We Fight, which supported the war effort for World War II.http://www.mediaed.org/news/articles/militarism In an interview with the American journalist Gary Webb, Professor Zyda said: "We thought we'd have a lot more problems. But the country is in this mood where anything the military does is great. ... 9/11 sort of assured the success of this game. I'm not sure what kind of reception it would have received otherwise."http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2004-10-14/cover.asp References - Chris Morris, "Your tax dollars at play", CNN, 3 June 2002. http://money.cnn.com/2002/05/31/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/
- Wayne Woolley, "Army's Latest Recruiting Tool -- a Video Game -- Is Big Success", Newshouse News Service 8 September 2003. http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/woolley090803.html
- Wayne Woolley, "Army's Latest Recruiting Tool -- a Video Game -- Is Big Success"
- Alexander R. Galloway, "Social Realism in Gaming" (The International Journal of Computer Game Research, Volume 4 Issue 1 Novmber 2004). http://www.gamestudies.org/0401/galloway
External links Journalistic articles - "Simulated Sniping - U.S. Army Recruits Teens With Internet Game" by ABC News (on January 11, 2002)
- "The Army's New Killer App" by a journalist for the U.S. business magazine BusinessWeek (May 22, 2002)
- "US Army using games to recruit soldiers" by a journalist from ZDNet for CNET Networks (May 23, 2002)
- "Join The Interactive Army" by the Associated Press (July 2, 2002)
- "Uncle Sam wants you (to play)" by the St. Petersburg Times (August 19, 2002)
- "'America's Army' Targets Youth" by The Nation (August 23, 2002)
- "In Wartime, Teens Go Back to Their Quarters" by a journalist of the paper Washington Post (April 7, 2003)
- "Army targets youth with video game" by the national US organization Not in our name (November 7, 2003)
- "Army targets recruits with new game" by a large Florida daily newspaper Sun-Sentinel (November 7, 2003)
- "The Pentagon Invades Your Xbox" by a doctoral student for The Los Angeles Times (December 16, 2003)
- "Army Recruits Video Gamers" by CBS (April 1, 2004)
- "Recruitment hard drive" by the The Guardian (June 19, 2004)
- "War games in a time of war" by one of the leading cable news channel in the US, MSNBC (July 18, 2004)
- "Army's war game recruits kids" by the San Francisco Chronicle (September 23, 2004)
- "The killing game" by Gary Webb (October 14, 2004)
- "4 million decide to be all they can be -- online" by the US newspaper The Detroit News (December 1, 2004)
Academic articles
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