Army invades the mall with video game recruitment station
Wed Jan 14, 2009 2:29PM EST
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Pssst, kid! Wanna play some video games?
That's the latest come-on from the U.S. Army, which continues to refine its approach toward engaging teens and twentysomethings. Having seen amazing success with recruiting thanks to its America's Army home computer game, the military is now taking the pitch to the mall. Specifically, to the Franklin Mills shopping center in Philadelphia, where it has set up 60 gaming PCs, 19 Xbox 360s, plush couches, and "rock music" for potential recruits to enjoy.
There's even a real Humvee that players can shoot from installed as part of a 15-foot-high projected battle simulation and an Apache helicopter simulator that recruits can fly.
Sounds like a killer gaming setup... but of course there's a not-so-ulterior motive at work. It's all part of a plan to get younger kids interested in signing up for service, thinking that shooting terrorists in active combat is all part of a day's work.
Naturally, critics are out in full force, including a former Army staff sargeant, Jesse Hamltion, who accuses the Army of misleading kids with deceptive, unrealistic scenarios. Hamilton notes that recruits are unlikely to see active combat and that "the only way to simulate the heat is holding a blow dryer to your face."
Still, the move of course comes at a good time for the Army, which has struggled to fill its ranks for several years thanks to some overwhelmingly bad press. But with civilian unemployment skyrocketing and the situation in Iraq looking better than it has in ages (particularly with the prospect of troops coming home), the Army's high-tech mall paradise may actually be more than it needs to woo the young and impressionable.
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7 Posted by travesty76 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:19PM EDT Report Abuse
Ah, yes, more of the American tax dollars hard at work. How engaging... I have wanted to know who supports the sponsorship of the NASCAR vehicles that the National Guard and US Army support. Surely, this cannot be taxpayer money taking care of these well-funded NASCAR vehicles. Advertising has never seen such disgraced misuse of funds, and even worse, public funds. A rag tag team in the NASCAR series must begin well over 1 million dollars. Now, factor in two drivers, two cars (that we see on the track), two teams, two semi-trucks, etc. Who picks up these tabs? Surely, not the American public, that would be unthinkable...or are we all secretly NASCAR fans and are okay with this travesty.
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8 Posted by e.arocho on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:50PM EDT Report Abuse
You are already playing video games even sports and good old table games like chess are geared towards the development of a warrior based society, engraved in our DNA. If your father played wrestling with you as a child that in it self is an inate pre-desposition to a war like culture. At the Gym in the USMA at West Point there is a famous quote by Gen. Douglas MacArthur that reads: ""Upon the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that upon other fields on other days will bear the fruits of victory," Meaning the importance of sports in our culture as a way to develop the most apt members of our society as its defenders.
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9 Posted by neil_butt_budde on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:35PM EDT Report Abuse
Enticing children into military service with video games is disgusting. There is no "RESET BUTTON" in a real war. Real children and real parents really die and are really maimed in real wars.
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10 Posted by schan365 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:08PM EDT Report Abuse
And what is NASA's response to this? NASA does not seem to take an active interest in recruiting young and educated people. It just seems to languish in the background, just beaming back images of galaxies. We need people on the moons and Mars, not robots. Get rid of guns and get rid of newscasters who have nothing but bad news to report.
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11 Posted by drew_alia on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:48PM EDT Report Abuse
im from south philly and let me tell you, if saddam lived in north philly and was committing genocide in north philly, would we have a right to get stop him? of course. but what if he lived in upstate new york? of course we would. what about a little farther north, like montreal? definitely! so who cares that that scum bum lives 12,000 miles away from me, we need to stop that tyrannical animal no matter where he is, whether he's 100 miles from the u.s. or 1000 miles from the u.s., barbarians like saddam needed to be stopped
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12 Posted by fsbobg on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:03PM EDT Report Abuse
Well seems like most of you all have something critical to say against the military's recruitment effort, so I'm going to say something for it. I am going to serve the country through military service, I have shot real weapons, sim weapons, and played this game. It's a quality game which is designed off of actual training simulators, so its not just a shoot-em-up deal. How can you guys talk down on your Army trying to recruit kids when they're the ones who defend you? Support the kids that think they may want to serve the country and don't go hating on the servicemen.
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13 Posted by a2rbnud on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:43PM EDT Report Abuse
ILLUMINATI ? It would be comforting to think that there is a group out there with any sort of master plan. But the truth is that our government is made up of individuals that only think of themselves and their immediate corporate supporters. Collectively, our politicians are one giant mess with not enough leadership to skillfully apply the basic fiscal discipline that could avoid a total economic meltdown. To deny the fact is to perpetuate the problem.
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14 Posted by bari_harry06 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:02PM EDT Report Abuse
Wow, Im not even sure where to start with this. Well first this inst because Obama or some cospiracy theory. They were using this setup two years ago when I joined obviously Obama wasnt in office. Next, I admit that it is NOT the best way to inform people about the service, but most of your younger generation literally live in an electronic world thanks to society today and will only respond to such. Maybe Im wrong, but we all are slipping out of focus on reality and this is one of thoses "wake up" calls.
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15 Posted by dtwalton_2000 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:49PM EDT Report Abuse
Comment#2, futurelover69, is a real whack job. Obama? Illuminati? The New World Order agenda? WTF does that have to do with the recruiters using video games at the malls to meet their quotas?
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16 Posted by bush_cries_wolf on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:15PM EDT Report Abuse
Is this author for real? In one sentence, he dismisses all the people that have been killed in Bush's war in Iraq as bad press. Then he goes on to intimate that military service is the refuge of those who can't get a job. Either way, my family will be boycotting Franklin Mills mall until they remove this. I don't want my children exposed to this.
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17 Posted by kbosther on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:48PM EDT Report Abuse
The video games that the Army is using to engage the minds and interests of children and young adults were around before our President OBAMA was elected. Parents and Guardians should take control of what games children/teens/young adults play with, including video games. They should start with making intelectual choices of what they purchase. Hey, let us start by not purchasing the toy guns to our preschool children! There are many things we all can do to make this world a better place, for the sake of our children.
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18 Posted by villocents on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:35PM EDT Report Abuse
this is horrible. stupid americans will never, EVER learn. most of you will be forgiven come the day, for you dont know any better. What the west is and has always been looking for, is buried under the dirt of Perspolis. Learn from Cyrus.
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19 Posted by alpinecruiser5000 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:51PM EDT Report Abuse
the phrase "strangers with candy" comes to mind. and people said the cigarette companies were bad!
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20 Posted by justin92484 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:44PM EDT Report Abuse
why does the government tell kids what types of video games they can buy with certain ratings but yet they have their army setting up game reqruitment centers to attract younger kids just to go out in wars and kill.
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21 Posted by instaduce on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:24PM EDT Report Abuse
I, unlike most of the postings above believe this will be a success. Though a video game doesn't replicate all the realities of a war environment, our Soldiers do actually use simulated systems like these to train. And since teenagers have begun to live in front of the television getting fat off of Mario Kart, etc..., the Army is luring them in by talking their talk... Overall, it's the responsibility of the parents to make sure they talk to their kids about how servicemembers have taken the chance of playing Airmen, Soldier, Sailor, or Marine and ended giving the ultimate sacrifice... Either way, my hats off to any of the new recruits who sign the dotted line...
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22 Posted by hazel_wa on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:17PM EDT Report Abuse
Reminds me of a bad Robin Williams movie called Toys, where General Zevo was training kids to operate his war machines on video games. Forget "no police record" and boot camp. The new requirements are: no current addiction to meth (energy drinks OK) able to read and understand written orders (we can teach you if you can't) able to operate video games for hours. God help us all when these kids point automated crowd control vehicles while we're trying to get fed at the soup line.
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23 Posted by silverdragon1670 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:23PM EDT Report Abuse
Comment 13, that is a good show of support. I still disagree with using video games as a method of recruitment. I mean what's next, using video games for training? And no matter how close it is based off of actual training, nothing comes close to the real thing. Comment 15, I agree that the youth of today's society is far more adept and focused on the world of computers, and this would seem to make sense as a recruitment tool. But as you point out and I agree, things in real life are far different. Life is not like in the movies...or the games. In life, someone can kill you. In games, you get second chances.
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24 Posted by rc51_alfred on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:31PM EDT Report Abuse
Funny, I thought games like this take months, if not years to develop so how can it be part of Obama's initiative? Oh you wacky druggies... I do find it ironic that our Federal government took offense to these types of games when they first came out. What happened to all the cries of 'what about the children'. Remember all the tears over these games contributing to youth crime, and the general decline of today's kids?
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25 Posted by bushbot94 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:15PM EDT Report Abuse
At first I thought this was just plain evil but then I thought about it some more. If you're DUMB enough to throw your life away because you were attracted to video games like a dog to a moving car, then it's probably best you leave society and go die in the desert.
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6 Posted by rmushrush on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:44PM EDT Report Abuse
If the army is recruiting with the message "shooting people in video games is like shooting people in real life" then I think we can start there as an identified problem with American culture. I don't want to sound above it all, but good lord, when I think of the way the world could be...and then I read this kind of stuff, it gets me really, really depressed. We are a long way from the promised land.