• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

America's Army Goes Punk!

www.americasarmy.ca



This site was recently put up by the punk group Propagandhi, to promo this song “Die Jugend Marschiert” and their soon to be released album.

Wicked song, and cool critique of a game that I always thought deserved more criticism than it got. Prop is by no means mainstream, but their core audience are definitely not gamers, so I think its good that more people might hear about this rather bold piece of American war propaganda.










[btw, not sure if this is OT or Gaming Forum. The subject matter (and probably where the conversation will end up) is definitely OT, but it is based on a game. Mods do what you will.]
 
Kroole said:
BTW. The song was actually quite good.

Propaganhi does in fact rule. From my home town no less!

Its worth checking out their first album "How to Clean Everything" if you havent heard them before, or their lastest album "Purina Hall of Fame" for more songs similar to this one.
 
It's a free game to encourage recruitment. Really, there's nothing wrong with this game, and the cost of development/maintenance is negligible when compared to other projects. Honestly, I don't see people complain like this when they advertise on TV and in magazines.
 
typhonsentra said:
It's a free game to encourage recruitment. Really, there's nothing wrong with this game, and the cost of development/maintenance is negligible when compared to other projects. Honestly, I don't see people complain like this when they advertise on TV and in magazines.


I’ve never played AA, but the purpose behind it is pretty fucked up if you ask me. The crazy right-wingers have no problem talking about “murder Simulators”, and yet I never hear this game mentioned.

Isn’t this game the closest to the definition of a “Murder Simulator” out of any game? I mean, these ain’t no aliens or Nazi’s or whatever that you’re killing, this is a literal training tool for war!

I dunno, I think if anything people should be more concerned about this game than they are. This is definitely different than a magazine ad or TV commercial.


Error Macro said:
lol, that site won't last very long.

Its been up for over a month and a half now.
 
Error Macro said:
well slap my ass and call me uncle karl marx

I'm convinced they just haven't found it yet. I mean, they ripped off the logos, and the url is a pretty good score :lol


I hope one of you doesn't tell them and ruin it for the rest of us now :D
 
PlayStation Tree said:
I’ve never played AA, but the purpose behind it is pretty fucked up if you ask me. The crazy right-wingers have no problem talking about “murder Simulators”, and yet I never hear this game mentioned.

Scratch the "crazy right-wingers" bit and replace it with "politicians looking for media attention", or are you so far left that both Clinton and Liberman are now "right-wingers"? AA isn't anything more than what already exists. It just revolves around what the Army wants in a game as opposed to some commercial project. Do you agree that the game is too violent? or are you just upset that some politicians are hypocrites (nothing to be shocked about there)?

PlayStation Tree said:
Its been up for over a month and a half now.

And considering that it's using content ripped directly from the legit site, that's a bit surprising. Does Canada not enforce copyright law anymore, or does americasarmy.com just not care?
 
PlayStation Tree said:
Isn’t this game the closest to the definition of a “Murder Simulator” out of any game? I mean, these ain’t no aliens or Nazi’s or whatever that you’re killing, this is a literal training tool for war!

Isn't it just a recruiting tool? This is like condemning DVDs or video tape because the military sends out recruiting videos. I think you're going too far in your analysis here.
 
Interesting that you bring up right-wingers that defend this game yet bash other games, because Jack Thompson (Who I assume you were referring to) uses this game as an example of a "murder simulator" all the time in his arguments against the industry.
 
It was a low-cost recruitment tool that is a pretty damn good game. Leftwing nutjobs and rightwing nut jobs both don't like the fact that the game is there. I think it is great when someone of the left is on the same side as that asshole Jack Thompson.
 
hooo said:
Scratch the "crazy right-wingers" bit and replace it with "politicians looking for media attention", or are you so far left that both Clinton and Liberman are now "right-wingers"?

I guess I am. I mean, I’m on the left of the political spectrum, and I’m from Canada. Doesn’t that make me a baby-eating hippy communist?

hooo said:
AA isn't anything more than what already exists. It just revolves around what the Army wants in a game as opposed to some commercial project. Do you agree that the game is too violent? or are you just upset that some politicians are hypocrites (nothing to be shocked about there)?

I guess it’s more the connection with reality that bothers me. When you play Doom (which I’m only using an example because the politicians always do), it’s a pretty abstract thing you’re doing, going around killing space monsters. But if a kids playing AA, it’s a lot more real because they can (legitimately) think of themselves carrying out these actions. In fact, the game is inviting them to come try to live out these actions.

I personally don’t give a shit about the violence in the game, or in any other game. My point is that this game shouldn’t be exempt from these criticisms from politicians just cause its going to further their own ends.
 
typhonsentra said:
Interesting that you bring up right-wingers that defend this game yet bash other games, because Jack Thompson (Who I assume you were referring to) uses this game as an example of a "murder simulator" all the time in his arguments against the industry.

Then I stand corrected. I by no means agree with Jacky-boy there, but I would hope that they if they're gonna criticise violence in games they wouldn't exclude this one, just cause it so happens that they are the ones (generally speaking) supporting this type of recruitment tool.
 
I paused Led Zeppelin to listen to that crap? Ugh.

This is pretty stupid in all honesty. There's nothing wrong with America's Army. It's free, it's just advertising, and it's not teaching people to go out and kill. I'm sooooo sick and tired of all the retarded political witch hunts these days.
 
btrboyev said:
nice. been a fan of Propagandhi for many many years.

me too. havent really followed them lately, nice to hear they are still making music
 
PlayStation Tree said:
But if a kids playing AA, it’s a lot more real because they can (legitimately) think of themselves carrying out these actions. In fact, the game is inviting them to come try to live out these actions.

Have you actually played AA? IIRC it wasn't really a violent game, and was pretty responsible. There are more violent "real-world" FPS examples out there, but I guess they don't get criticized because they're about killing Nazis and shit? Games like COD are pretty directly connected to the militaries the players represent (in terms of presentation), and are probably even better propaganda tools, yet people don't seem to be disturbed that someone might want to reenact those scenarios.
 
PlayStation Tree said:
Isn’t this game the closest to the definition of a “Murder Simulator” out of any game? I mean, these ain’t no aliens or Nazi’s or whatever that you’re killing, this is a literal training tool for war!

Remember kids Nazi's aren't real people, they are just like the boogey man.

I have always thought the whole AA thing was kind of screwed up, I mean it is something freely distributed with the intent of getting people to act on what they do in the game but in real life! And this is by your overly sensetive government who at all times seem fairly happy if the questionable content is in line with their final agendas.
And it just makes america come off as a place even more fucked up than they already appear to the rest of the world.

I do see any recruitment tools like this to be fairly stupid on the whole.

"Just one political song to drop into the list that stretches years and years long."
 
SOCOM Navy Seals grows on the Playstation Tree and is a better game...but it's not free. I think there's an AA game coming out on Xbox but you have to pay for it. Is it less propaganda then?
 
America's Army is seriously one of my favorite multiplayer games ever. I spent all of last summer playing nothing but the map Pipleline in this game. Like 5-6 a night. Love it and I'm looking forward to seeing how the console version turns out.
 
Top Bottom