Army Reports Success Luring Recruits With Videogames

[Tom Goldman]

Army Reports Success Luring Recruits With Videogames

Despite the recent shut down of the Army Experience Center in Philadelphia, the U.S. Army says its videogame recruitment facility was successful.

The U.S. Army installed a multi-million dollar recruiting facility in Philadelphia called the Army Experience Center two years ago, which was just shut down at the end of July. What made the facility unique, and also garnered it negative attention, was how it brought in kids as young at 13 with the allure of free video games.

The Army Experience Center allowed visitors to sit in recliners while they played war games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare [http://www.amazon.com/Call-Duty-Modern-Warfare-Xbox-360/dp/B0016B28Y8/ref=sr_1_2?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1280686246&sr=1-2], as long as they could prove they were 13 or older first (though presumably gamers younger than 17 had permission to play M-rated games). Apache helicopter, Blackhawk helicopter, and armored combat Humvee simulators were also housed in the facility for a somewhat more realistic look at combat.

Since the center's opening, it created a mass of controversy and was constant target by protesters for shutdown. Protesters such as veteran Staff Sgt. Jesse Hamilton believed using games was an inappropriate way to recruit, saying: "The heat, people screaming, blood, flies, horrible smells, smoke in your eyes stinging, sand - the list goes on and on - and they've taken all of that out."

AEC spokesman denies such allegations, saying: "If you were to ask any one of [AEC's visitors], 'Do you feel as though the Army is going to be like playing with a controller or game?' they're going to smile and say, 'Absolutely not.' It's crazy to even think that." He says that the AEC was shut down according to schedule because its two-year pilot program ended.

Though recruitment rates in the Philadelphia area have remained the same, the AEC attracted 240 recruits with what the Army reports as half the staff. Videogames appear to be a partial component of the Army's recruitment centers for the near future, as two new ones will be replacing the AEC that will also allow free gameplay, but are said to be scaled-down from what the AEC provided.

The Army Experience Center does feel a little bit sneaky, and though I've never been there, it seems it was attaching a component of "fun" to joining the Army. If it had allowed for play of all types of games, like Guitar Hero [http://www.amazon.com/Super-Smash-Bros-Brawl-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B000FQ9R4E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1280686195&sr=8-1], the games could be considered just a way to get kids through the door. The fact that the games were war-based makes me feel like the protesters may have had a point.

Source: NPR [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128875936&ft=1&f=1019]


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[WrongSprite]

Protesters should realise that people are not stupid enough to join the army over a game.

It's not just something you do on a whim, it's a very serious decision.

 

[Booze Zombie]

People who are going to join the army are going to join the army, letting them play games is merely positive reinforcement for something they already want to do.

 

[Woodsey]

It's not just something you do on a whim, it's a very serious decision.

Yeah, but some people are stupid.

OT: Don't like the idea of it myself; all this does is bring potential harm to us by bringing back claims that games are made to desensitise us and help us kill.

 

[TheRealGoochman]

Though I probably wouldn't enlist, the center sounds pretty cool and it seemed like a cool place to visit

 

[VitusPrime]

Surely if the centre had been more than 'Simulations and games' and was almost more a museum of the army of sorts...it sounds like it would have been a great place...regardless at least they -could- close it down via the power of protest...

 

[William Dickbringer]

Protesters should realise that people are not stupid enough to join the army over a game.

It's not just something you do on a whim, it's a very serious decision.

True, but you greatly underestimate the stupidity of people.

and the fact they are 13 years old at the youngest so it really didn't look for them at the beginning

 

[luvd1]

Protesters should realise that people are not stupid enough to join the army over a game.

It's not just something you do on a whim, it's a very serious decision.

Saddly enough there are people that dumb.

 

[Jumplion]

People who are going to join the army are going to join the army, letting them play games is merely positive reinforcement for something they already want to do.

Keep in mind that 13 year old kids (or older) went here, I highly doubt they even know what's for dinner next week.

I guess it depends on the age range of who went there, but it does seem a bit disurbitng that they were using a game that glorifies war to promote it. Just seems a bit dishonest to me, but hey, I don't plan to go to the army so that's they're decision.

 

[enzilewulf]

You don't decided to die for your country over a video game. You don't get to restart in life.

 

[Jadak]

- Jesse Hamilton believed using games was an inappropriate way to recruit, saying: "The heat, people screaming, blood, flies, horrible smells, smoke in your eyes stinging, sand - the list goes on and on - and they've taken all of that out."

Video games aside, since when does any means of recruitment offer the recruits familiarity with those things prior to actually joining up?

 

[HK_01]

I think they're just trying to justify spending millions on America's Army.

 

[Loonerinoes]

While it is true that most middle-class people would not be more attracted to joining armed forces after playing videogames, problem is that the middle-class never is the army's target.

It's always the uninformed poor, who try to escape whatever misery they're already in and when they see something as fun as videogames right next to promotionals for signing up to the military, they tend to subconsciously connect the two.

Eh...just another subliminal mindfuck I suppose. Not legally wrong of course, but pretty obvious in its ultimate intent.

 

[awsome117]

People who are going to join the army are going to join the army, letting them play games is merely positive reinforcement for something they already want to do.

Keep in mind that 13 year old kids (or older) went here, I highly doubt they even know what's for dinner next week.

I guess it depends on the age range of who went there, but it does seem a bit disurbitng that they were using a game that glorifies war to promote it. Just seems a bit dishonest to me, but hey, I don't plan to go to the army so that's they're decision.

Well, I was much younger (I guess 10) when I thought about joining the army. Not like I want to do that now, but it was a thought, so maybe they had the same.

 

[Blue Musician]

Protesters should realise that people are not stupid enough to join the army over a game.

It's not just something you do on a whim, it's a very serious decision.

No offense, but some people are THAT dumb to do that.

At least on Mexico of course, A 40% of the mexican army hasn't finished primary school, another 35% didn't finish middle school and the rest is people who did finish those 2 schools and/or never did their next studies. And most of the cases it is in some sort because of videogames.

Now, I am not into a anti-videogame policy, etc, etc, etc. But sometimes videogames can do that.

 

[Thedayrecker]

Does this seem wrong to anybody else?

 

[darthzew]

I wish I could go there. It sounds like fun.

I'm doubting it works like, "Did you like this game? Well do it for realz! Join the Army!"

I'm betting like, "Hey, come try out our simulators and play some free games and since it's free, would it be too much to ask if we could talk about joining the Army with you?"

I don't think the AEC is unreasonable at all.

 

[nonl33t m4st3r]

While it is true that most middle-class people would not be more attracted to joining armed forces after playing videogames, problem is that the middle-class never is the army's target.

It's always the uninformed poor, who try to escape whatever misery they're already in and when they see something as fun as videogames right next to promotionals for signing up to the military, they tend to subconsciously connect the two.

That is a complete falsehood. To quote a Washington Post article:

"'"The new excuse is, I'd never send my son to fight in Iraq," says Schaeffer. An author with no military background who lives in an affluent area near Boston, Schaeffer also blames the lingering priorities of the Me Generation. "My class are dismissive of anything other than the glittering fast track of money.'

Statistically, recruits are less likely to come from affluent Zip codes such as those in many Washington area suburbs. Some claim this is because military recruiters target the poor. But recruiters are not welcome in most affluent neighborhoods...

Civilian and military researchers have confirmed that recruiters are not targeting the very rich, but neither are they aiming at the very poor -- the privileged aren't interested, and the disadvantaged can't handle the increasingly technical training. It's the middle they're after.

Studies by organizations ranging from the University of Maryland's Center for Research on Military Organization to think tanks to the Department of Defense indicate that members of the military are actually better educated on average than their peers. As many as 98 percent earned a high school diploma or equivalency degree, compared with 75 percent to 84 percent of young civilians

Until Vietnam, the military broke down along the same political lines as the rest of the country, about one-third independent, one-third Democratic, one-third Republican. The enlisted ranks still do. But in the past 30 years, the officer corps has undergone a revolution. In the most recent comprehensive study, conducted in the late 1990s by the Triangle Institute for Security Studies, Republican officers outnumbered Democrats 8 to 1. In 2006, only 16 percent of Army Times active-duty readers, who are mostly senior in rank, declared themselves Democrats.

Contrary to a common misperception, minorities are only slightly overrepresented in the military, making up 35 percent of service personnel compared to about 33 percent of the general population.

Overall, recruits tend to come from small towns. And, while these small towns often have a boarded-up factory, family incomes indicate that those joining the military are the upwardly mobile working middle class.

There's clearly some self-selection going on, too, because nearly half of all Army recruits are following in the footsteps of a parent who has served. We seem to be creating an American warrior class."

The link to the article is here. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/18/AR2007071802785.html]

In short, the military is not made up of uninformed lower class drones, like you suggest. In fact, the opposite is true; the military is better educated, and just a diverse as the civilian population at large. They are middle class, and it's more to do with family history than any sort of "brain-washing."

 

[Dioxide20]

Protesters should realise that people are not stupid enough to join the army over a game.

It's not just something you do on a whim, it's a very serious decision.

No offense, but some people are THAT dumb to do that.

At least on Mexico of course, A 40% of the mexican army hasn't finished primary school, another 35% didn't finish middle school and the rest is people who did finish those 2 schools and/or never did their next studies. And most of the cases it is in some sort because of videogames.

Now, I am not into a anti-videogame policy, etc, etc, etc. But sometimes videogames can do that.

You use those statistics like its a bad thing. For one, that's Mexico, not the USA. The military is in some cases the last choice for making a living for underprivileged people. Many people from Mexico are underprivileged and under educated because that is the state that their country is in, so that is why those statistics are the way they are.

Now in the USA, where everyone is required to go to school for so many years, if you are that stupid to believe that the military is the same as the ones portrayed in videogames, then they deserve to find out the hard way.

And honestly, do we need to protest everything that might get some stupid person killed, or put in some unwanted situation? Really, it's just ridiculous that we have to accommodate for idiots.

EDIT:

^the post above mine also leads into another point. In some areas, the military gives out scholarships to those who join up, allowing soldiers to attain a higher education, where, in some cases, had they not joined the military, it would have been impossible to go to college.