Blog #1

The entire site for this America's Army video game is very elaborate and well organized. While it's not very colorful or visually appealing, it follows the military theme very well with the digital camouflage and "Army Strong" details. There is hybrid text all over the site with the different links and features of the game. Also, at the bottom right of the screen, there is a "comic series", which is rhetoric aimed at entertaining the audience. The use of "For the first time in the history of the America's Army franchise..." is a way of enticing the user into playing the game. The site seemed very misleading to me. The title at the top of the page, "Every Detail Counts" really bothered me. Sitting behind your computer in the comfort of your dorm room playing some computer "shootem' up game" is nothing like the real thing. Honestly, if you're good at a video game, it doesn't say anything about your ability on the real battlefield.

The intended audience in any U.S. Army sponsored video game or event is potential soldiers and recruits. This is the type of media that the Army needs to branch out to our generation because we are a technology based generation and it is no secret that the computer is the best way to communicate with people our age. The website's rhetoric does appeal to it's audience quite well. The site promotes the sense of unity and pride that the military is known for.

I completely agree with Navy veteran Boyle that the website indoctrinates the ideology of war. The site makes war seem like it's some sort of a game, which is incredibly disconcerting to me. The war we are fighting right now should not be seen as exciting or fun, it's very serious and very dangerous and the killing has not ceased. I know a lot of people fighting right now, and and a few of them are on the front line. Their war experiences do not relate to this video game. They remember the faces of the people they kill and they can't just close their computer after the day is done.

I don't think this video game promotes violence or aggression like other video games do. A lot of games promote violent, bloody, gory, senseless killing for drugs or cars or money. In that sense, I think it should be put in a separate category of video games. At the same time, however, warfare should not be a form of entertainment or fun.

I have a lot of friends in the Army, Marines and a few in the Navy. A few of them saw the military as a way to get away from their problems, but really all of their problems are still going to be here when they get back from war. The military is a very honorable career and it takes a lot of courage to do a job like that.

Blog #1

 

My cousin, Lizzy(right, 19) and her husband, Brennan(19) before his deployment to Iraq as a sniper.