Well "bad" is obviously subjective, but if you were to ask me, I would say yes



Well most forms of propaganda aren't "forced" on you (although many websites these days seems to force ads on their viewers).

But on the accuracy note, this game simply shows the positive side (if you could call it that) of the Army, and that would be the "kicking ***" part lets call it. As on the wiki article, they recieved a lot of criticism due to having no blood or gore (which is obviously a great deviation from the realities of any military conflict) and having no "collateral damage".

The response to this was to keep the rating down, thus retaining their target audience (pre-18 year olds)

But even having that issue removed, is it a positive thing to glorify going to war and killing people?



Personally, to some degree, I do, but that's a different subject for a different thread.

Yeah, I've never understood the morality behind blood and gore removers:

"This game is HORRIBLE! When you smash someone's head, blood poors out! Oh, you can turn off the blood? SMASH MORE HEADS SON!"

The fact that the Army is TARGETING the under 18 age group of people with a FREE game that glorifies war, and is intended to be a recruitment tool, yet doesn't expose these "poor minds" to the realities of war is sickening.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm downloading the game as we speak.

Very true.

The game does have it'd down sides in that regard.

I'd hesitate to say that it 'glorifies' killing the way that games like Q3 and UT do only they have the benifit of being completely unrealistic.
It certainly does remove most, if not all of the negatives involved in war which does create an issue with younger gamers who don't yet know the full implications of what's going on.
I think that largely that is the part of the parent in raising their child to be sure that those separations between game and reality are made.

So, without going too far off topic, yes it's propaganda, yes it certaily has some negatives that could be pretty bad in the right cercomstances, but I think it has enough aspects of realism and entertainment value to make it's overall impact a positive one.

From what I can see atleast.

I've come to see that all Wars are unfair really. They make widows and orphans. Somebodies son, brother/sister, friend, relative is killed. This is true on both sides, and is generally ignored, something that scares me. A video game makes non of these, but now that I know AA:O can get into my system, I think I'm gonna stop playing it. I don't want any one finding a way to hack my computer with it and do something...

We all know what happened last time someone hacked into your computer and deleted certain files..



Agreed. Although it does bother me when game companies say "It's not just a game, it's war!" and similar statements.

Like find your gay porn? Of course not...