Blog #1_man the army really needs recruits...

1. On the first website that is given to us (http://www.americasarmy.com/) there are some rhetoric that i find truly disturbing. The web page seemed fine to me at first but then i started looking at the little details. I counted the word army 18 times in the home page, with the small section in the middle of the page towards the bottom about the real hero a little too much. A gamer gets the sense of website is just a website to promote the game but little things like that and the link on the top right and side by the media key to the U.S. Army part is really disturbing. The creator of the website does a good job blending the game with real life. They do a good job making the line between reality and fantasy blurry for young teenagers. There are screen shots of the game and the ESRB rating on the bottom of the page to let you know its a game but the page is overwhelmed with army propaganda.

2.

Its there for the curious teen that still doesn't know what to do with his life. This whole game tailors to a target market, teenagers that play lots of video games and have no aspirations to go to college. They think that the game can or will be as easy as the real thing. I believe the web site's rhetoric effectively appeals to the young teenage gamer.

3.

I do agree with Navy Veteran Boyle to some degree. I agree that this game does indoctrinate war and violence, it is the not the first video game to do so. I believe that games like Call of Duty and this army game indoctrinates war but most importantly it indoctrinates violence. Most video games desensitizes kids to violence. I played a lot of violent video games growing up and violence really doesn't effect me as much as other people, although beginning exposed to the six o'clock news in the d.c. metro area has the same effect. I believe the media for the most part has down played the Iraq War. But the constant exposure the war has desensitized us to the war. I believe that most people don't know if the war is over or not. And thanks the economic crisis ask yourself whens the last time you heard any details on the Iraq War.

4.

I don't believe the website or the video game promotes violence but it does promote a pride in the army and it desensitizes kids to violence. It makes people less likely to freak out too violence, its a way to strengthen a persons mind to war. I feel that video games are just games, no matter how violent a game is it will never cause a child to go to the edge.