The US Army has announced a "partnership" with a group called Project Lead The Way to "to enhance student curriculum by using a variety of Army technologies to promote student interest in the engineering and technical fields." Project Lead The Way is a 501(c)(3) focused on science and engineering education for middle and high school students. From the press release: The platform for the new curriculum is the America's Army PC game, a free online game that provides civilians with a virtual role in the U.S. Army by introducing them to Army technologies, Rules of Engagement, training and missions. Used ...

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A year and a half ago, Gonzalo ignited a debate here on WCG about Tactical Iraqi, a game funded by DARPA and created at USC ISI. Gonzalo's took the position that there is no moral way to support U.S. military aggression, even if it seems Sometimes I follow referral links into the site, and today I noticed that we were getting some clicks from the Wikipedia page about the game (officially titled, Tactical Language & Culture Training System). Imagine my surprise upon reading how it concludes: There has been little controversy about the use of the software in the serious ...

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Last month we reported (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) that consultants from SAIC testified before Congress, mistakenly identifying a fan video created by a Dutch Battlefield 2 player as terrorist propaganda. Nightline ran a story on the topic last night, in which they both show the absurdity of the whole series of events and expose the Pentagon's simple-mindedness about such issues. I was interviewed for the story, which you can read or watch at ABC's website. Also covered at Gamepolitics and Kotaku. It's a good story, and I'm glad Nightline put this sort of report together. I'm also glad I ...

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Before I start, I must say that I haven't yet been able to find this story at reuters.com. I could only access to it through News.com, so this can mean that the wire has been modified by that site. That being said, almost 3 weeks after the Congressional Hearings, Reuters reports on the fact that US Congressmen were shown a comedy video as if it was evidence of terrorist activities. Well, actually they don't say that. The story, as it appears on News.com, is framed around the author of the video. It is presented as the story of a poor ...

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(This is a follow up to a previous story, where we detailed how a Committee from the US House of Representatives was shown an amateur comedy video as evidence of terrorist use of videogames for recruitment).This post has been updated Thanks to Liz Losh, we now have the transcripts of the Hearing of the House Select Intelligence Committee on Terrorist Use of the Internet for Communications. No much is learnt from the transcripts (apart from confirming the little knowledge that the "experts" advising the government have on videogames). The transcripts do not describe the videos that were shown, only the ...

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Update: Liz Losh has managed to get the transcripts from the sessions. We will make them available shortly.What follows are several sources that point out to a very troubling fact. Unlike what was first thought, Reuters did not misreport on what happened at the Hearing on Terrorist Use of the Internet. What actually happened is that US Representatives were shown a parody video as real evidence that terrorist groups were using videogame mods to recruit young members. In other words, US lawmakers are being advised by incompetent contractors that mistook an amateur video with dialogue from South Park creators for ...

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Update: It appears that Reuters is not to blame here; rather, they were reporting the actual events of the congressional testimony, during which, it appears, parody was provided as evidence that terrorists are using videogames as recruiting and training tools. We're looking into this and trying to straighten it out. Normally I wouldn't open a new post on this topic, given that Gonzalo just covered it, but the gravity of the situation recommends it. As Gonzalo noted, Reuters ran a story about "Islamists using US video games in youth appeal." And as Gonzalo also noted, the article was manipulative and ...

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Here's a link to a Reuters article called "Islamists using US video games in youth appeal". Frankly, I find it misleading, manipulative and a clear example of propaganda. Propaganda as in twisting facts with ideological goals. Basically, the article quotes Dan Devlin, a Defense Department public diplomacy specialist. This fellow gave a talk to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and argued that al Quaeda and other groups have created mods of popular videogames where they inversed the good guy/bad guy relationship and Americans ended up as the ones to kill. Here comes my question? So what? How come ...

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"US troops use computer game to learn Iraqi gestures" it's the title of this BBC article. You certainly do not need a videogame to know that a middle finger means "get the fuck off my country you bunch of butchers". Ok, get ready cause Frasca is about to lose his shit. The article is indeed very old news, since the game, developed by the University of Southern California, has been around for a while. I just saw the article at the BBC and lost it. You know what, whoever designs videogames to train invasion forces deserves my pity. They are ...

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Games are virtual and they only represent an alternative to reality. Yeah, sure. Here's a very interesting article from the New York Times (Free registration required. Well, it's not really free, they keep your data) about how North Koreans are the bad guys du jour and how, interestingly, South Koreans do not like their neighbours to be demonized by (Western) videogames. I wonder why we need to go look for bad guys so far away when there are so many available right next door? ...

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I really wanted to love this game. Seriously, I did. America's Army is such a great example of persuasive gaming and I hoped the Navy released something as interesting as their colleagues from the Army. I guess they did not. I say I "guess" because I could not endure more than 18 minutes playing this game. You think reviewing games for a living is a great thing? Think again. It is definitively not if the game in question is Navy Training Excercise: Strike and Retrieve. 18 minutes is not enough to review a game, I know that. But the thing ...

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