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(AccessAtlanta) Interesting Army sets up "Virtual Army Experience" battle simulation video game featuring six full size humvees at Six Flags in an attempt to recruit new players for IraqBox Live   (accessatlanta.com) divider line 172
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7548 clicks; posted to Main » on 13 Apr 2008 at 1:39 PM   |  Make this a Fark FavoriteFavorite    |   share: Share on OMGTWITTER WEB2.0share on StumbleUponshare on Facebook  more»   |    Get this fabulous T-Shirt and impress the methane out of your friends! shirt it!

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filth [TotalFark] 2008-04-13 01:17:37 PM  
Heh. Good work, submitter.

 
LargeCanine 2008-04-13 01:41:23 PM  
Cool.

 
excedrin 2008-04-13 01:41:24 PM  
IraqBox Live... nice

 
ph0n1c 2008-04-13 01:41:50 PM  
IraqBox Live

+1 with extra points for poignance

 
EsteeFlwrPot 2008-04-13 01:42:28 PM  
I'd ride it.

/dnrtfa

 
WhotheWhatNow 2008-04-13 01:42:55 PM  
Ender Wiggins does not approve.

 
Mr. Chainsaw 2008-04-13 01:44:12 PM  
That article made me sick to my stomach.

 
Heamer 2008-04-13 01:46:50 PM  
Good headline, scary article.

 
BDR459 2008-04-13 01:49:01 PM  
Elder's World?

 
emilyek_1 2008-04-13 01:49:27 PM  
I heard you don't respawn in rl.

 
J. Frank Parnell 2008-04-13 01:50:00 PM  
FTA: "Your mission is to deliver supplies to a humanitarian aid force inside hostile territory. But a genocidal indigenous force will try to stop you!"

Those genocidal indigenous forces are damned RDX rammers, screw this i'm going to another server.

 
Lemon-Lime Malthus 2008-04-13 01:51:23 PM  
Greetings Starfighter! You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada...

 
TexasIsBetter 2008-04-13 01:51:55 PM  
Jesus, are they trying to give PTSD to recruits before they even join?

To bad its nothing like that over there. It's more like alright Ive been down this road a thousand times before, hmm is that a hole in that bridge? whats this debris? Ok we will turn around and set up a 360 until we get air on station to look at the bridge. They want us to RTB instead? Ok fine...BOOM

hey thats not how it went in the videogame! I got to shoot at insurgent! Your telling me they just hide and blow us up as we drive by? Maybe thats why the first humv flipped upside down at that six flags.

 
GunshipPolitico 2008-04-13 01:54:16 PM  
Great Headline
I'm going to start referring to the war that way. Of course I have a buddy in the Army who wants to go to Iraq because he would get paid more, and he's a helicopter mechanic, so all he really has to worry about is presidential photo-ops.

 
Hunter7795 2008-04-13 01:55:07 PM  
Since when do enemies "pour" out of buildings and run at you?

Maybe stupid enemies.

 
CygnusDarius [TotalFark] 2008-04-13 01:56:14 PM  
So, who's seen the sniper rifle?.

 
dreamcrusher 2008-04-13 01:57:46 PM  
As a special surprise, Mike, himself - one of eight "Real Heroes" traveling with the show - runs out from behind a door to address the group. He tells them the ambush was like the game, but it took 45 minutes and it was, well, real. But now he has his own action figure that the kids can buy.

"Buy my doll, or the terrorists win."

/But good for him.

 
TexasIsBetter 2008-04-13 01:58:50 PM  
GunshipPolitico: Of course I have a buddy in the Army who wants to go to Iraq because he would get paid more,

I don't know if the extra 200 bucks a paycheck was worth it.

 
Jon Snow [TotalFark] 2008-04-13 01:59:06 PM  
Lemon-Lime Malthus: Greetings Starfighter! You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada...

America's Army- video game as recruitment tool.

 
GBmanNC 2008-04-13 01:59:29 PM  
"This is awesome!" says Harrison Bentley, 14, who was visiting Six Flags with students from A. Crawford Mosley High School in Lynn Haven, Fla. "I was going to buy a Mario game, but now I'm totally going to get this one."

O rly? You were going to buy a mario game on your xbox 360? Any 14 year old boy knows you can't buy mario games on a xbox. Sounds like an army plant...

/my tin foilz, let me show you it

 
ScubaDude1960 [TotalFark] 2008-04-13 02:00:11 PM  
Does Six Flags ship you home in a body bag if you lose?

 
Razecewic 2008-04-13 02:00:16 PM  
Propaganda is disgusting.

"Awesome! I'm going to get to go out into an air-conditioned battlefield and fight waves of terrorists that take five seconds to even get their guns up, but if they shoot me, it's OK, because I'll still have 29 health units left and then if I get shot any more all I have to do is pick up a medkit and I'll be at full health again! Those IEDs sure do make a lot of noise, but it's a good thing they can't hurt you too badly. And when the mission is over, it'll teleport me back to my living room so I can play a different game!"

/Exaggeration, I know. But these "simulations" in no way simulate a two-year plus contract to a sandy hellhole... Those recruitees might have a hard time discovering that this war video game wasn't such a good idea once their friends who signed up with them die by any number of causes.

// Mr. Chainsaw, me too.

 
SomeGuyFromColorado 2008-04-13 02:01:06 PM  
The headline was so good that I decided to opt-out on RTF. I'm in a happy Sunday mood and would like to keep it that way if possible.

 
irockalot 2008-04-13 02:01:24 PM  
i53.photobucket.com

 
bolzy 2008-04-13 02:01:40 PM  
How many lives does one gets?

 
Saborlas [TotalFark] 2008-04-13 02:01:46 PM  
No gravity gun?

Not interested.

/excessively realistic games bore me
//let me do something impossible in real life, dammit!

 
McGinley Square 2008-04-13 02:02:18 PM  
They had this at the digital life expo in NYC. I played it. The line was two hours long. They scan your ID...take all sorts of information, then let you 'play'.

It sucked though. The gameplay was really piss poor. And I wanna see blood and dead terrorists on the ground when I shoot them.

Huge propaganda crap...

 
Savior Self 2008-04-13 02:03:08 PM  
I guess it makes sense that they need more bodies to fill the big order of body bags to come out of Iraq for the next 10 years.

It is pathetic that a theme park would allow this to happen.

 
jjorsett 2008-04-13 02:04:12 PM  
Hunter7795 2008-04-13 01:55:07 PM
Since when do enemies "pour" out of buildings and run at you?

Maybe stupid enemies.


You think a guy with an AK-47 going up against an uparmored humvee with a .50-cal machine gun and close air support is some kind of genius? There's video of people running out into the street and getting gunned down before even getting a shot off. I actually feel a little sorry for these poor slobs, until I read about their ilk going into villages and killing entire families for having satellite dishes and music players.

 
Sarcasm Incarnate 2008-04-13 02:06:14 PM  
Good one subby.

 
Broadside 2008-04-13 02:06:58 PM  
How about Sandbox live?

 
Chameleon 2008-04-13 02:07:33 PM  
Razecewic: Exaggeration, I know. But these "simulations" in no way simulate a two-year plus contract to a sandy hellhole... Those recruitees might have a hard time discovering that this war video game wasn't such a good idea once their friends who signed up with them die by any number of causes

On the other hand, any kid idiotic enough not to know that might well make good cannon fodder.

/not a slam on soldiers who knew what they were into.
//someone has to go first

 
Razecewic 2008-04-13 02:07:38 PM  
jjorsett, I think those ones die for their stupidity, as natural selection goes. The smarter ones at least take cover; smarter than those are the snipers; smartest are the ones in positions of leadership over them without ever fighting and without being revealed to the public eye so that they might be captured and/or assassinated.

 
Chirping_Cricket 2008-04-13 02:08:24 PM  
Wow...

As a special surprise, Mike, himself - one of eight "Real Heroes" traveling with the show - runs out from behind a door to address the group. He tells them the ambush was like the game, but it took 45 minutes and it was, well, real. But now he has his own action figure that the kids can buy.

An action figure. They made a bloody action figure of the guy. I wake up with nightmares and I'm confined to a wheelchair...and they make a god damn action figure in order to idolize war? So, which of the eight heroes traveling with the show are amputees? Is there an action figure of the veteran who's lost the use of his legs? You could put him in a wheelchair and make it a remote-control toy. Maybe the box it ships in could be converted to a casket, complete with "Patriotic American Flag".

This is disgusting.

 
Razecewic 2008-04-13 02:12:14 PM  
Chameleon: On the other hand, any kid idiotic enough not to know that might well make good cannon fodder.

//someone has to go first


Very true. I see from your point of view now, and I think I like it up here.

 
thelordofcheese 2008-04-13 02:12:29 PM  
~barf~
OK, now I'm going to get drunk and barf.

 
Virulency 2008-04-13 02:13:33 PM  
basic training sure got easier... all you have to do is ride, point and shoot?

 
Razecewic 2008-04-13 02:14:53 PM  
Holy sh-
Chirping_Cricket is exactly what I was talking about. Check my above post if you haven't already, please.

 
goofass 2008-04-13 02:15:20 PM  
Lemon-Lime, I love that shiat!
www.gamerevolution.com

/in fact I'm drinking my way through a case of lemon-lime Gatorade to ease the three-day hangover from my latest foray into boozy debauchery. True story.

 
goeniegoegoe 2008-04-13 02:15:23 PM  
Excellent headline, article made me sick.

 
mikec2003 2008-04-13 02:15:48 PM  
Savior Self: I guess it makes sense that they need more bodies to fill the big order of body bags to come out of Iraq for the next 10 years.

It is pathetic that a theme park would allow this to happen.


so i guess by that logic, is it also pathetic that airports allow the Blue Angels, and Thunderbirds to perform. after all, all they are is "propaganda" recruitment tools. thats the #1 mission of flight demonstration teams, to get kids interested in the navy or air force as a way to recruit them.

so sure, stop this army game, retire the flight demo teams, hell, lets shut down recruiting stations, and abolish the military, and see how long we last.

face the facts, we need a military, and to do that we need recuritment tools that get through to kids these days. for my generation it was flight teams, and playing with military type toys, for this generation, its video games. until we come up with a soldier clone program, we are going to have to continue recruiting efforts, unless you'd rather have a draft

 
mgshamster [TotalFark] 2008-04-13 02:17:14 PM  
Yup, this is pretty much accurate, except when I was there we never called in for air support, we just kept driving and let higher know that there was a potential IED there. (If we didn't get hit by it).

/My commander was(still is) an idiot.


TexasIsBetter: Jesus, are they trying to give PTSD to recruits before they even join?

To bad its nothing like that over there. It's more like alright Ive been down this road a thousand times before, hmm is that a hole in that bridge? whats this debris? Ok we will turn around and set up a 360 until we get air on station to look at the bridge. They want us to RTB instead? Ok fine...BOOM

hey thats not how it went in the videogame! I got to shoot at insurgent! Your telling me they just hide and blow us up as we drive by? Maybe thats why the first humv flipped upside down at that six flags.

 
CygnusDarius [TotalFark] 2008-04-13 02:18:22 PM  
I think that, in the end, this whole generation of video-gaming soldiers will end up like this (new window).

/Not rickroll
//Just... Weird

 
Egalitarian [recently expired TotalFark] 2008-04-13 02:18:24 PM  
Razecewic
jjorsett, I think those ones die for their stupidity, as natural selection goes. The smarter ones at least take cover; smarter than those are the snipers; smartest are the ones in positions of leadership over them without ever fighting and without being revealed to the public eye so that they might be captured and/or assassinated.

That's way too simplistic an analysis. You should factor in chance, ambition, aggression, social class, selfishness, and the instinct for self-preservation for starters. The latter does not necessarily correlate with raw intelligence.

In WWI, England lost a number of young literati. They were smart, but unlucky and probably not aggressive enough.

\simplistic Darwinian arguments are easy to make, but not necessarily true

 
randomizetimer [TotalFark] 2008-04-13 02:19:53 PM  
Cool, +1 for army and subby.

 
ComicBookGuy 2008-04-13 02:20:30 PM  
Oh, I can tell this is going to be a fun thread.

comic-mint.com

 
Egalitarian [recently expired TotalFark] 2008-04-13 02:20:49 PM  
mikec2003
face the facts, we need a military, and to do that we need recuritment tools that get through to kids these days. for my generation it was flight teams, and playing with military type toys, for this generation, its video games. until we come up with a soldier clone program, we are going to have to continue recruiting efforts, unless you'd rather have a draft

or pay soldiers a good salary, instead of dumping huge amounts of cash on military contractors for overpriced toilets, outsourced functions like food service and mail delivery, and futuristic weapons that don't work.

Also, fight wars that are morally just, feasible to win, and competently prosecuted.

 
FlyingJ 2008-04-13 02:21:09 PM  
TexasIsBetter you don't have the cheatcodes?

war-as-videogame, meh-I think I'll get a jorb @ Chick-fil-A;
Link (new window)

 
dreamcrusher 2008-04-13 02:24:23 PM  
CygnusDarius: I think that, in the end, this whole generation of video-gaming soldiers will end up like this (new window).

/Not rickroll
//Just... Weird


Ok..

So...

Let me get this...

hold on...

ok...

ok...

But....

WTF!??!??!!

 
goofass 2008-04-13 02:24:29 PM  
FTA:

Bentley also said the Virtual Army Experience gave him a good impression of combat. "After seeing this, I really do think I could join the Army one year. I think I'd be good at it. But I'm good at astronomy, too, and that seems a little safer."

Maybe there is hope after all... for some. Maybe?

 
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