US military make an arcade as advertisement

[Asia Kali Yusufzai]

US military have made an arcade in a shopping centre and spent millions to create a military video game experience as advertisement for recruitment.

It's aimed at 13 year olds and upwards (recruitment age is 17)

It's messed up, does nothing for the reputation of video games (especially with Modern Warfare 2 just being released) and is really quite despicable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvMZHrjfC_c&feature=sub

[Somebody]

People need to get over it really. A lot of people could use the discipline the military teaches and its not a bad thing to serve one's country.

Modern Warfare 2 comes out and people herald it like its the second coming of virtual christ yet the military makes its own war game to get people interested in signing up and suddenly the red flag is thrown. I'd say people's values are tragically skewed. The military is reality and war is reality, entire economies are based around war. I think what the world needs is a little less pampering and a bit more taste of reality.

[Asia Kali Yusufzai]

I just dont like the fact that it's advertising something to people who are far too young to join. There's a reason that age limit is in place. Advertise it to the people who have the mental maturity to choose. Dont advertise it to kids as being the same as that game, cus it isnt.

[Somebody]

Its probably not as bad as the press makes it out to be. There are recruiters there to talk with the kids about the entire thing. Naturally they aren't going to focus on soldiers standing around all day it is a game after all.

As I said a 13 year old can play Call of Duty, they should be fine playing another war game too. They should probably raises the age limit but as far as stuff goes its just a game and like all game stuff the media loves to blow it completely out of proportion

[White Wolf Guardian]

I hands down agree with you Tezz, and besides that, several controversial industries advertise to people at a young age, but you will no doubt finding people complain about those more or less. The military is a necessary evil whether we like it or not, someone has to defend the country and the discipline involved in it isn't exactly a bad thing, losses are of course expected to be had, but it is nowhere near as bad it was in World War II.

A video game is simply what it is called, a game with a graphical user interface, the message people get from it is open to interpretation. Whether the military puts its label on it or not as with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, it's still no different than any other war game. Then even if mommy and daddy tell their children to not play a game, it sure doesn't stop them from thinking about it or going and playing it anyways, everyone makes their own choices whether or not people advertise games. 

The press have a way of exaggerating things as well, they will do whatever it takes to make their ratings go up by making something seem hyped up as much as possible. In this situation for example they focus on the teenager age group hoping to stimulate a reaction from parents and then encourage them to prevent their teens from participating in playing the game.

[Asia Kali Yusufzai]

Call of Duty is not aimed at people as young as 13, and it isnt followed by a recruiter advertising to these people the positives of joining the army. That's the problem I find with it. Games like Call of Duty and Armed and Dangerous are aimed at people old enough to join the army. This isnt, regardless of how much the press can twist. They can't lie outright about the age limit to this arcade. And playing call of duty does not push beyond anything more than it just being a game. What this arcade does is show people the game and then show people the positive possibilities of doing it in real life, even though some of them are far too young to consider it. Some of them aren't too young, granted, but there are those that are.

I've nothing against any government advertisements, I am against hypocrisy and the manipulation of an audience younger than the organization is allowed to recruit. It reeks of "get 'em while they're young". And it is manipulation, that's what advertisement is after all.

oh yeah and it totally doesnt help the image of games by the general public. It's really a minor problem in comparison, but i like to cover my bases

[White Wolf Guardian]

Even if that's true, teenagers make their own decisions and are more prone to do so more than most other age groups. Are you suggesting that teenagers are incapable of determining reality from a video game? I mean whether or not this is some military ploy for influencing the youth to recruit at a later age, it's not changing their registration date and it's probably going to change their lives just as much as playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Next thing, it is not illegal for teenagers to play war games 16 and younger, it's just illegal for them to buy them without parental consent.

[Asia Kali Yusufzai]

I'm not saying teens dont know the difference between a game and real life, I'm saying that they're a lot more susceptible to persuasion by a person in authority, who is trying to pull their interest before they have a chance to ground themselves.

[Somebody]

I'm not saying teens dont know the difference between a game and real life, I'm saying that they're a lot more susceptible to persuasion by a person in authority, who is trying to pull their interest before they have a chance to ground themselves.

  Let me add to that thought by saying its better that young people be influenced by a respectable source then a bad one. Yes war is ugly but the military offers a ton of benefits and values that would be good for a lot of people today, such as money for college to further education. If they end up in the military by influences beyond their grounding then its a much better result then being influenced before they are grounded by stuff such as sex, drugs and street violence like a lot of common music, TV and other games protray.

  What the media likes to portray here is the military being the bad guy by doing this. What they don't say or show is the whole picture and in the grand scheme of things a positive influence might be the best thing to happen to kids

[Asia Kali Yusufzai]

personally I dont think that music, TV and games have anything close to the major impact that other human beings have upon teens. And in my opinion, people should be allowed to grow up before they should tackle information and ideas like that. There's a reason the recruitment age is 17, and I think the US military should run by the logic that they set down.

[White Wolf Guardian]

Which is what the military did when they made a videogame, something fun for kids to grow up with