Videos
(32)Screenshots
(113)Cheats and Walkthroughs
(44)
According to the results of a a freedom of information act request, over the last decade, the United States Government has spent $32.8 million dollars on the America's Army video game series. The free-to-play PC and console shooters were created as recruitment tool for the U.S. Armed Forces.
Here is a year-by-year breakdown of what was spent on the game series:
- 2000--$3,500,000
- 2001--$5,600,000
- 2002--$1,862,985
- 2003--$2,600,000
- 2004--$3,866,482
- 2005--$1,288,552
- 2006--$4,050,748
- 2007--$2,788,137
- 2008--$3,887,450
- 2009--$3,395,702
The army is continuing to spend money on America's Army, so look for more updates in the coming months. I suggest you download and play the game, after all, if you're a U.S. taxpayer, you bought it already. But my question is: Does it work? Has anyone you know ever signed up for the army because of this (or any other) video game?
Source: GameSpot
Comments
Displaying 1–17 of 17
gmhl10
Who's idea was this to make this game as a marketing tool and who's the person that allowed it?
They should be punished.
TSuperfly
so glad im not american, great use of taxpayer money... The game sucks to boot...
robutrobut
I was in the Army during the Clinton years....94-99....and if you were awful at the rifle range ...they had stations setup with SUPER NINTENDO's with a M-16 training simulator. The graphics weren't half bad either. I wonder how much the army paid for that crappy game, and i wonder if there are any copies of the cartridge's floating around. It was called the M.A.C.S system (Multi-purpose Arcade Combat Simulator) in fact...lookin around the internet i found an article about it...it even had its own "fake m-16"
http://www.thegamergene.com/ classic/the-macs-multipurpose- arcade-combat-simulator-for-su per-nintendo/
GingerKid
So this is what the retarded American government decides to spend millions of dollars on??? How's your health care system doing? I'm proud to be a Canadian!!!
heyimandy
So.. violent video games are bad, right?
But it's okay to use tax payers money to develop a first person shooter that tries to simulate the army experience, in an obvious attempt to recruit soldiers to fight in a war with no real identifiable enemy whose exit date is constantly being pushed back...
America politics FTW!
Flett117
Im pretty sure this game was originally created as a battlefield simulator for people already in the army. I would say like 4 years, maybe more G4 did an hour special on this game. This is when G4 was video games all day long not cops.
aabacus
I played a LOT of AA when it released.
1. No, it does NOT simulate a real battlefield any more than Forza simulates driving a car.
2. With the right teams it IS fun
3. If you use real world tactics you will do better than a team that doesn't
4. Going Rambo is NOT rewarded as much as teamwork is.
5. Patience is rewarded. (know a lot of gamers with patience?)
6. Camping on defense is an effective, rational and reliable tactic. Camping on assault leads to failure.
7. Grenade spamming is limited
8. Bunny hopping is discouraged
9. It's NOT MW2, Halo, CoD or Counterstrike. It is it's own thing.
10. My take away: if we must fight we can at least fight with honor.
My experience says: 13 year olds don't like it. Older gamers do (read 35+).
Does it work as a recruitment tool? As well as can be expected. You get "some" background/info about what being in the Army means. If it gets you to ask one question or read a recruitment pamphlet you would normally ignore then I think it succeeds. It won't change your core belief system. I played many (hundreds even) hours over the course of 1.5 years and only once heard someone talking about joining the Army (and even he was joining as a result of a personal decision and not as a result of the game's influence)
P1rate
Wow....that's all I have to say. I'm with Anthoni on this one "For $33 Million Dollars you think they could at least give us a good video game." I feel like MW2 and Bad Company would be more realistic because I do not move like a meat popsicle the whole game....Words cannot express how crappy the game has been over the years, I mean its barely playable....
koolboricua
i have no problem with the Army, heck i bow myself to them cuz they are doing something for the better of all us even though they do things i dont like. But making video games? to recruit people? cmon thats just low, arent there any subliminal messages plus publicity to go around in regards to this? i have never played an American Army game and neither will i ever as long as its stamp by USA. i am more of a COD guy
GoTarheels
Actually my cousin's husband joined the Army because he wanted to "shoot terrorists like in video games." His was discharged shortly after basic training.
PiMD360
They should bring this console side.
SonicATL
They need to hire epic or some outside developer to do this, not a special team of unknowns.
XwingVmanX
I haven't played it since 2005, but I do have good memories of. It was a free shooter and me and my cousin has a blast playing it together. Some of the things we did and said in that game was like something out of the dumbest comedy. Once me and him got both teams laughing hysterically. Good times.....
PiMD360
They should bring this console side.
sophals1
I'm a former US Marine and that game is a piece of crap! I remember when we were forced to use it to simulate war and I all I could think of was how is this suppose to feel like a real battlefield? I felt so stupid using it. So anytime we were given the option to play with this garbage I always skipped out. But I don't know some people who never played games kind of liked it. God knows why?
IcemanMX
Great use of taxpayer money at work.
/end sarcasm
I wrote a little blurb about this topic on another site that some have already read. I hope you won't mind if I copy and paste it onto here. I feel strongly about this issue.
---------------------------- ----------------
This is an unethical marketing tool and borders on the line of just plain wrong. Death and killing of real people should never be glorified or taken a back seat to the coolness of getting to fire sweet guns.
At an early enough age, impressionable youths are just that; impressionable. What they don t show you is the post-traumatic stress disorder that comes from killing your first human being or watching a close friend of yours have his body mangled by an IED. They don t show you the deplorable conditions of our VA hospitals and less than sub-par assistance for disabled veterans who literally gave their limbs and then some for the country they love so much.
If you are an rational adult, you can make your own (hopefully informed) choices based on all the facts, but to use a game as a marketing ploy and fool those that can be fooled into thinking that war and real killing is acceptable, then that is just wrong. I do not think that any adult here would allow their children to play an M rated game if they feel that their kid(s) were not mature enough to handle it or at least know the difference between right and wrong and life and death.
Obviously, if you are attacked, then you fight back maybe even until death and I understand that is the way of the world. But I also believe that deep down inside (on a genetic level), human beings do not want to kill each other. I think that mental conditioning, a certain amount of brainwashing, and possibly a twisted mind are all likely candidates for people killing people (or hunger, if you happen to be a cannibal). After all, if humans were genetically inherent on killing each other, I think we would have a lot less people in the world or possibly never have evolved to the point where we are now.
If you want to serve your country, it should be because of an unyielding sense of pride, patriotism and love of your country, not because it is cool to fire guns at people. If the army wanted to recruit more people, they should remind people of why this country is so great and implore them to help defend it physically.
-M
Anthoni
For $33 Million Dollars you think they could at least give us a good video game. Jeez.
Displaying 1–17 of 17
Add a Comment