nukoda.com

“The people of San Francisco say no to the recruiting of underage youth.”  That’s how one protester described a sizable protest against a joint project between Ubisoft and the United States military to create America’s Army, a first-person shooter with its sights set on recruitment.  The demonstration took place August 6th in San Francisco, specifically in front of the Ubisoft building.

America’s Army is owned and operated by the US Army, who have publicly admitted that its a primary recruitment tool — the boxart says “Empower Yourself. Defend Freedom” — and really, what could be more American than that.

Anyone can obtain a free copy of the game either online or on DVD at a US Army recruitment center — the question is whether gamers can see through the smoke screen, and take the game at face value for what it is: a game — or whether the army glam will get to them and satisfy the army’s recruitment division.  America’s Army was published by Ubisoft for release on the 4th of July in 2002 for PC, again for Xbox in 2005; with 9 million registered accounts as of April 2008, and a mobile version from Gameloft, there’s no shortage of candidates for the military to seduce.

Protest organizer Micheal Reagan describes the game as a “recruitment tool the US army tries to pass off as a video game.”  He disapproves of the game because violates international law. The law concerning recruitment dictates that it’s illegal to recruit to anyone under 17, and because America’s Army has a Teen rating from the ESRB (13+), minors are eligible to obtain a copy years before they reach 17.  Reagen and other protesters aren’t there to drag on the “Conservative-Grand Theft Auto-hatefest” debacle — he decidedly states, “it’s not the violence, it’s the recruitment.”  He closes with, “game companies like Ubisoft, Secret Level, and Gameloft have no business working on this recruitment tool.”