The U.S. Army’s Best Recruitment Tool Was a Video Game

The U.S. Army finally unplugged the servers for its video game, 'America's Army.' It put in millions of dollars for a game that you could grab for free. But the military wasn't trying to make money: It was trying to get people to enlist.

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[kingofcherries]

"We are the US army, we are not your kids parents."

I like how the US government can say this, but the entire entertainment industry cannot.

[Blackkrimson]

I see the Marines advertise on Halo tournaments this year. They literally had a marine handout the trophy to the team who won the tournament

[josephjohnston]

The army had this, the navy had top gun.

[SolidMikeP]

I remember playing, and realizing you were always American, you could never play as the enemy.

So basically one team would be playing as the enemy and not know it because the skins would be army. Always thought that was creepy

[clickthecreeper]

33 million dollars… that’s about the cost of a single trident II missile. I think they can afford it.

Bottom line is, the cost of this program is a tiny fraction of the US militaries budget. Whatever recruitment scheme they try to pull, it could be excessively funded without costing them a veritable dime.

[Mrfudd]

I remember playing this as a kid, everyone that I played with actually took the game serious. Was a fun game and this video definitely brought back memories😂

[ralpherl]

I remember around mid 2000's playing the medic course and loving it, I'm a doctor now lol. Thanks America's Army 🎮🕹

[BinaryBlueBull]

Sad to hear this game is now gone. I was part of a pretty high-ranking clan in the first 5-10 years after this game came out so it was a major part of my life for a good number of years. I have very fond memories of it and of the camaraderie it brought. I was the only foreigner (European) in that clan, the rest were all Americans, so I used to get up in the middle of the night to practice with them and to play competition. I was also the youngest by far, because I lied about my age when I joined, though in hindsight I'm sure they knew. Good times. I wonder how those guys are doing now, I hope they're doing great

[NorthSnipes]

I know plenty of guys around the Halo scene that joined a military branch because of the already military members in my groups. I don’t think it was intentional recruiting from those guys, but it still worked out. That being said most of the guys I know that have joined the military have gone to the Marines, not the Army. Forcecon 2022 was certainly a very interesting and likely successful attempt at recruiting though. Having esports teams from different military branches compete in a high production event that is federally funded certainly grabbed a lot of attention.

[radarlovedr]

I remember years ago when the gov was all over the news with the whole” violent video games makes kids killers” kick. At the same time, there was a game series called socom navy seals. A game where you play as a squad of navy seals and do all sorts of military missions, like killing. On the last couple of pages in the booklet, that came with the game, that stated, basically, if you like their game and are good at it, then why not try the US military! It was literally a military recruitment ad you could fill in and mail off, all postage paid, to find out how you could be of service to your country. Kinda playing both sides of the fence there if you ask me. But of course that is how our gov does.

[bliblablubb]

I would say that having twitch streaming soldiers is an ethicly better advertisement than for example recruiters in a mall, coming to schools or directs ads in the tv. All these have an element of active approach by the military and passive receptance by the viewer. Twitch streams emancipate the viewer by actually giving them free choice to watch content made to advertise the army. The viewer has to actively approaches the military which is more agency than they had with other media.

[swdoctor]

I was the clan leader of an International clan of around 100 members, we had about 4 servers running and had a massive reputation as a clan most teams wanted to compete with. Even though the game was free the cost of the servers was something we had to consider to run a monthly subscription - which wasn't an issue. I loved the camaraderie of the clan members and the amazing skills of some players. Plus the whole community was completely engrossed in this game for years until the servers started to disappear and newer games came out.

It was an amazing era and I thank all my clan members and the community for instilling a team spirit and loyalty that I have used throughout my work career.

[syntaxed]

It was one of the best tactical FPS games in the 2000's - If they had stayed with the tried-and-tested formula the game would have never died.

[darkduplexmc]

When I was younger I remember watching my dad help them with testing bugs and giving them feedback on bugs glitches hacks etc. my dad used to tell me all the time this game was to recruit people into the branch. I remember seeing this game through all its stages

[vBuster]

One of the best games to ever come out. I have met people almost 20 years ago that I still talk to, and occasionally play video games with today. Some of them in the army(quite a lot actually). And a lot that weren't. The game when it first came out had an endless budget it seemed, becaus the quality of the game at the time was high, the rules of engagement were crazy new and weird, and the recruiting element kind of made it so you would not want to misbehave, or cheat so you do not have to sit through it all over again lol.

[Namingway]

I'm surprised that cost was even discussed. It's worth every penny for them to do this sort of thing, especially since they're literally spending pennies of their MASSIVE budget to fund this.

[SpoonBoy]

I played this game and would joke with my friend that they are trying to recruit us and

[ReprobiCrucesignati]

When i was a kid and playng AA, the only thing that i cared about was that it was free and my pc could run it 😂

[Miley_]

My friend I went to school with and we were early into airsoft, joined the Army and became a Ranger because of America's Army PC game! That was a good game for back in the day 1000% made him join!

[LoveFactorySweatShop]

I was Navy JROTC in high school . Then 9/11 happened in my Senior year. A few months later I turned 17 and called an Army recruiter. Video games DEFINITELY DEFINITELY DEFINITELY influenced my choice in choosing the Army over the Navy.