According to this piece on Gamepolitics -- the Daily Kos of the Mushroom Kingdom -- US military recruiters were recently found to be using ridiculously creepy creative tactics in order to get the youth of America interested in signing up for a tour of duty. It seem that during a recent Halo 2 tournament at a GameStop in Manchester, New Hampshire a large number of sub-18-year-old kiddies were turned away due to strict contest regulations (and the possiblity of hardcore teabagging action). Never one to turn away a chance at free bodies, the military recruiters apparently set up a similar event of their own nearby and ushered the crestfallen kids into their foreboding van gaming tourney.
Hit the jump for the full deets.
From the Union Leader article sourced by GP:
Manchester – By 9 p.m. more than 100 gamers, some with parents in tow, had gathered at the GameStop for a "Halo 3" release party, and plenty more were expected by midnight, when the wildly popular X-Box game would officially go on sale.
There was only one glitch in the festivities -- a "Halo 2" tournament was delayed after the chain store's district manager, Suzan Shockley, announced that nobody under 18 could participate. Top prize: a copy of "Halo 3."
"I'm sorry, but it's a company rule. We take the game ratings seriously," she said. "Our store manager misunderstood the rules of the tournament."
The futuristic combat game is rated M for Mature for "blood and gore, mild language and violence," which means you have to be 17 to buy it, or a parent has to buy it for you.
Fortunately, the Air Force was on hand to save the day.
As co-sponsor of the gaming event, local Air Force recruiters were manning party central outside in the strip shopping center parking lot off South Willow Street, where underage gamers who had fled the store in despair flocked for pizza, Mountain Dew and a chance to play "Halo 2" on a split screen from the back of a pimped-out military SUV.
Obviously it isn't illegal for the military to set up a gaming event, but as children under 18 aren't lawfully able to sign contacts such as the one allowing Uncle Sam to give them guns and ship them to the desert. As much as they won't be punished OR should be legally -- cue kneejerk liberal reaction -- their tactics here are downright Orwellian. Or, they would be if George Orwell lived in an insanely empirialistic England embroiled in unncessary warfare and constant degredation of long-guaranteed human rights.
When the Air Force personnel are quoted as saying "Our target market is identical to that of video game stores" you begin to realize exactly how far intertwined with the military their PR wonks have become, so it should come as no surprise to see such morally reprehensible tactics from one arm of an entity we as citizens purportedly have control over.
/sigh
I'm moving to Iceland.
Contest:
2:17 AM on 09.27.2007
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I, for one, am stunned.
It's a little absurd.
They sugar coat the shit out of it. I mean, let's face it. High Schoolers aren't the hardest to persuade. You can make it sound good enough and you can get people. It's crap.
We should all do those above the influence commercials for the army. That's be a pretty funny parody, actually. Somebody get to it.
Wait a minute...
that bitchin suv probably came equipped with neon lights and a pull-up bar, because we all know a real man can do pull-ups...because i can`t :(
SPARTACUS! /triple front flips
lol thx man. Lazytown FTMFW!
For reals! They will not let you hang up until you prove to them that you are unable to hold a rifle.
I was called once and I stayed on the phone with this guy for about 15 minutes. I was so fed up by the end, that I just honestly told him, "I don't want to have anything to do with the army because I don't want to die. Sorry, bye."
I was trying so hard to say no nicely and he wouldn't accept it. Guy's name was Randy.
Agreed. And unlike some random telemarketer, you know this Army recruiter guy has your name/number/address and is probably checking your house's location in Google maps while he's on the phone with you.....how do you hang up on someone like that lol...
As already stated though it is an all volunteer service. Its not like Israel were you are required to serve a minimum of 2 years in the military.
@Churchhills Dog, getting teens to play a combat game (which is rated over their age) with the clear intentions to get them to take part in real combat isn't seen as evil in your eyes?
Mind you, evolution in practice I guess.
Do not want. :[
Every damn day a recruiter came into the arcade, acting like he was just a "game watcher," looking for possible recruits. Every so often he would actually come up to me and start talking to be about the benefits, despite me never asking. It got to the point where the regulars started complaining, so I had to ask the guy to leave. He did, but 2 days later, they sent down someone else. Exact same shtick, too. This continued to the point where I had to talk to the district manager about the problem.
The arcade closed down do to theft losses, but they never stopped hanging around the place. Not once. Craziest damn thing I have ever witnessed.
And I like how people are upset that they let the kids play an "M" rated game, how many people on here are under 18 or played adult games before they where 18.
Besides the recruiters have 1st amendment rights the same as everyone else, and you DO have a 1st amendment right to spread your views to minors, the 1st amendment is not "18 and over only".
(# 28) on 09/27/2007 07:04
"They won't join the Air Force... there are no Warthogs there"
Actually, there are Warthogs in the Air Force...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-10_Thunderbolt_II AKA the A-10 Warthog
Nobody is going to join the armed forces because they got to play Halo. Calm yourselves. All they are doing is entertaining these kids, and providing them with the same information they would have gotten at a recruiter's office. If those young folks weren't inclined to join the military in the first place, this wasn't going to convince them.
You can all take off your political panties now and calm yourselves.
When i think of a gamer the first image taht comes in to my mind is this:
I really can´t imagine that kid doing push ups, or running, or being on guard.
The only thing he can think of is: killing aliens, eating cheetos and drinking Mountain Dew.
About the article, i am sorry but Armed forces tend to disgust me. Specially the way they try to hook up guys to join them.
But yes, this is giving me the same vibe as when IGN or 1up mentioned the Halo theme being a new military anthem. It conjured up images of gung-ho cowboy soldiers in a Humvee, driving through Anbar province with Halo soundtrack cranked to 11 while one 18 year old guy is going crazy behind the .50 cal.
Due to theft losses? In an arcade? Tell me someone walked out with a cabinet.
If you let your underage kid roam around at midnight unsupervised, and they happen to end up talking to a military recruiter at a military sponsored event, then that's your problem, not mine.
Yeah, the way the military's going about it all is underhanded, but if you're dumb enough to believe everything they're telling you, and that you'll NEVER see combat, then that's your problem, not mine.
I say Don't blame them, or try to call it underhanded or whatever.... it's not as if it's something new. Heck, I'm sure somewhere in the world 4000 years ago there was a chieftain with an extra goat, letting the boys take free turns on it in exchange for bearing a sword in the next raid on the planes men of the north.
If you want to feel disgust, or creaped out... blame the government at large, blame your parents (or yourself if applicable) for not voting. The Air Force knows that it needs bodies, how else is it going to do it? Sitting around waiting for lazy kids to just show up? Not likely. Have you ever tried motivating todays youth? Anything less than video games and junk food just won't cut it anymore... even Uncle Sam's Misguided Children (the USMC) had to go to go all high tech in it's advertisement, because they need to attract kids and simply being the best their is wasn't a good enough draw for the masses...
It's not creapy, it's history.
So for me this is just another culture and i see it as it is: you are at war, you need more people, you do anything you got to to recruit.
If it has anything to do with videogames, then is a go.
Anyway, this sucks. It's entirely not appropriate and yes, I can definitely see some dumb, hopped-up Halo fan actually signing up for the military without thinking. Trust me, it can happen and it has happened, I guarantee it. It's really pretty shitty and sleazy, and I don't just say that as a quasi-pacifist.
The manager hired 3 new people and a week later, a lot of money was missing from the safe. This happened 3 times. They couldn't pin down who did it, because the 2 people he fired still had the key and the safe combination. It was a fuck up that cost everyone their job.
@TheMartino*
(Still waking up...or talking to myself...)