Army using videogames...

For a while now I have been hooked on first person shooters. I mean the thing I like about them is that there are fun to play with people online, test how fast your reaction time is, and are sometimes very realistic. However, I was unaware until I read these articles that shooters are been used by the army in order to help recruit people and “train them”. On the article “Military is just a game”, it talks about how the army including the CIA have spent millions on creating video games that help train the recruits and help recruit people. The game that the army has used a lot for the recruiting is America’s Army, which is a first person shooter. I mean to me this is a surprise since I never thought a game could be used to actually train for something in as dangerous as war. Yes it does give the player an opportunity to see how the terrain and battles are without actually been there. Yet, to me this is a bad way to let recruits find out how war really is. We don’t want them to think that war is just shoot the bad guy and game over. Although this wouldn’t really affect the adults, but more of the younger kids which another article talks about this. In the article US Military Recruits Children: "America's Army" Video Game Violates International Law by Michael B. Reagan it states that the army is manipulating the youth gamers by using video games and promoting violence. The author also says that using this to recruit children is immoral and wrong since this will make them want to join based on the game and not on their liking. I must say that I disagree with this author. I mean its just a game. I'm sorry, but get over it. Its not like every kid that plays this game would actually want to join the army. Most likely they are playing it because it is fun. Besides they cant even join the army until they are 18 so whats the big deal? This author need to take a chill pill and realize that it is just a video game! Anyways now that I got into the topic into of realism there was this website promoting a movie of people who pretend they are in Iraq. I think this is a great video since it show ordinary people how the war in Iraq is brutal and how soldier/citizens face danger every day. To conclude I think the army should keep on doing video games to help recruits. After all that thumb to thumb action might help them someday into the real world combat.