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• Saturday, September 16, 2006 01:28 PM

  Response to DeLappe

  You make a good point here about scale and context. What the Army is doing with this game is wretched enough that I can support your efforts to subvert it, to make players notice that this is not an ordinary video game, and of course to make them think about the war itself. It's not the same thing as a general opposition to video game violence, which was the implication of some of the earlier letters by gamers who suggested that you just don't understand gaming.

  I wonder what to make of the gamers playing America's Army. Some surely are affected by the propagandistic elements of the game, but if the letters here are any indication, there seems to be a substantial number of players who ignore that element. One could think of them as also subverting the Army's intent by taking advantage of a free FPS and disregarding its political meaning. I'm very curious how many players would fall in that catgory.

  I agree that the Vietnam sims are especially creepy, and I was horrified by JFK assassination shooter that came out a year or two ago. The perspective switch (US soldier vs terrorist) in AA is fascinating, I agree.

  Also on the question of games and society, I'm very interested in issues of gender. Is a character like Lara Croft empowering for female gamers? Or does she represent the worst of male gamer fantasies? As a woman, I vote for the former, yet I recognize that may not be the case for all gamers. But that's a debate for another forum.

  —RBC Read RBC's other letters
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