Saw this on usenet. It was a true Zen moment for me.
Subject: America’s Army
Could someone please tell me what needs to be modified in the .ini file of the game to allow the expert marksmanship to be my qualification. thanks
Robert
It was a Zen moment because I knew an admin guy in the Marine Corps who got popped for trying to do this very thing. His Battalion Commander subsequently modified his .ini file to read:
PlayerStatus = DischargedUnderLessThanHonorableConditions
The fourth rate local news broadcast is doing a big expose on America’s Army tonight. I’m guessing that was a reporter who wanted to tackle the sniper angle, but sucked too bad to qualify himself.
And here’s a bit from the bbc
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2438695.stm
That is bothering parents like Jack Thompson.
He is threatening to sue the army if it does not keep the game away from children.
“I’m the father of a 10-year old boy,” says Jack Thompson.
“Every day I drop him off at school I know that he’s at greater risk because even some of his classmates as well as others in the general population, train obsessively on these shooter games.”
Yes, the graphic portrayal of enlisted men shooting at targets on a range is far too much. This must be stopped!
Is the guy who’s thinking about suing the Army American, or should we think about starting an American Foreign Legion? It’s weird to this kind of story at the BBC. Just think of all the impressionable young limeys we’re programming to fight our wars!
Edited to say:
OK, I saw the report on the local station I was talking about and surprisingly, it was pretty positive. Basically a fluff piece about how the Army is using the game as a recruiting tool. They even interviewed a couple teenagers who were planning on enlisting and who had played the game. They even worked a couple quotes in from one of them and a recruiter about how the game doesn’t teach you anything practical. And they showed some footage of the woman reporter trying, and failing, to qualify on what was obviously a woefully under powered computer.
The concerned parent is American, not a limey. The report is from the BBC’s Pentagon correspondent.