Blog #1: America's Army Response

Well, this website has a lot of things that would help to bring in people to the army’s cause. I think they even might have hooked me with some visual rhetoric. Right when I came to the page there was something about how you get to learn real medical procedures that you wouldn’t survive the game without; that is pretty cool. Then it goes on to say things about a career in army medicine, which is something that I have always considered. Then the benefits package comes in and all the good things they could do to further your career and help you do what you want with your life. AMAZING! There are also links to the army website, just incase this game was wild and crazy enough to push you into joining, which isn’t a bad idea. The colors and imagery look like a guys theme, trying to attract young men, women as a plus, into thinking that the army is for them. I think that it definitely appeals to the target audience of young people.

The photos they show are all cool, and they show young men and women serving with honor for their country and I think that will help sell the game… but I also think that it will make kids, who think they are ready to join and can do it, sign up, but they will never make it. Maybe signing up prematurely? Like you can’t sign up for the army based on a game, it won’t give you first hand experience on what life in Iraq is like, or what being a peace keeper in Georgia is like, or help you experience the traumatic experience of seeing a child getting killed. My uncle just came back from Iraq, as a consultant for the army, as well as serving in his younger years, and he says this game is a great look into the whole army thing, but will never prepare you emotionally for what you would have to deal with that happens in war. Like you can go though basic training in the game, but if you do indeed sign up for the army, how are you going to survive it if all you do in life is sit around all day and play video games. You need to be in shape and be able to stand up to the rigors and challenges that the army will throw at you. You might be super at fine motor skills and shooting, because your muscles in your hands are all worked out from game controllers, but it’s not going to help you learn how to correctly hold an ak-47 or how to change clips on a Desert Eagle in less than five seconds.
Sometimes I do agree that videogames do promote violence, yes. Look at all of the gangster games where you steal cars and rape women and just kill for the fun of it. If a group of people are doing that together and have a great time off of it, then whats to stop them from going outside and thinking they could be bad boys and thugs themselves by recreating it when they see a nice caddy rolling down the street with 20’ rims? I do not think this game promotes violence though, I might sound like a hypocrite now, not sure, but I think that the army is great and serving for our country is a great cause and anything that will get young people out to defend us and honor is a great thing. Yeah, it portrays killing infidels and people who are against our country, but someone needs to stop them and try to put an end to the war. That’s funny, ending war with war, or more fighting; sounds terrible. Anyways, I think that a lot of war games out on the market right now are crazy and super violent and I do not like them, but this game looks like it just wants to show people what being in the army is like and trying to get people to sign up to help defend America, and anything for America is pretty super to me.