08 July 08 - 19:51Peacenicks kill off Army training simulator
This is video of Virtual Army ExperienceFrom US army times
US Army Times
Army shelves virtual warfare game at festival
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Jul 2, 2008 12:29:40 EDT
MILWAUKEE — The Army agreed Tuesday to remove a virtual urban warfare game at a Summerfest exhibit that allowed festival-goers to hop into a Humvee and fire machine guns.
Participants as young as 13 were able to shoot at life-sized people displayed on a computer screen as part of the Virtual Army Experience game.
The game drew criticism from Peace Action Wisconsin. The group called it “totally inappropriate and offensive.”
------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is local story
Northland news
It's called the Virtual Army Experience.
According to the U-S Army, the technology creates a life-sized combat zone.
The experience takes approximately a half hour and participants can drive vehicles and shoot machine guns on their mission.
Up to 50 players can use the simulator at one time.
"They get an actual like pre-convoy briefing just like anybody in the Army would be getting prior to going out on a mission," said Boe. "Once the mission is done, then they also get a post briefing."
But critics of the simulator say the line between virtual reality and actuality has been blurred too much.
Michelle Naar-Obed of Loaves and Fishes says protests are in the works for the airshow on July 19th and 20th.
"We're suggesting that people boycott the event until the Army Recruiting tools are not accepted at the airshow," said Michele Naar-Obed, Loaves and Fishes volunteer.
Opponents of the simulator say the Army is targeting adolescents unfairly.
"I'm very upset over this, I think this is just insane that they would use this kind of venue to train our youth to kill people," said Naar-Obed.
Haymond says no person younger than 17 years-of-age will be permitted to use the simulator.
He says the high tech, virtual combat stresses things video games exclude.
"The reality includes the fact that there's a consequence for pulling the trigger," Haymond said. "That's what video games and P-C games skip over." No comments No trackbacks
You will need to enable javascript to generate a trackback link
