Im finally getting around to last weekends New York Times magazine and thought that you might find this article on the intersection of video games and urban warfare to be interesting. Heres an incredibly troubling clip:
Before long, military experts began to approach private-sector game designers, looking for opportunities to collaborate. Video games have even been used as a form of outreach, the military’s public face to American youth. More than 10 million people have downloaded a first-person shooter game called America’s Army that the Army gives away as a recruiting tool. It now ranks as one of the most popular games ever. (In a recent poll by I to I Research, 30 percent of a group of young people with a favorable view of the military said they had developed that view from playing America’s Army.)
Unicycle-riding clowns wrangling kids up into school busses for vacation bible school just cant compete as a tactic. Jesus had better whip up his own first-person shooter game… X-treme X-ian… “Last time, I died for your sins. This time, it’s your turn.”
