America’s Digital Army: Games At Work And War

227 Pages·2017·3.957 MB·English

by  Robertson Allen

America’s Digital Army
Anthropology of Contemporary North America
series editors
James Bielo, Miami University
Carrie Lane, California State University, Fullerton
advisory board
Peter Benson, Washington University in St. Louis
John L. Caughey, University of Maryland
Alyshia Gálvez, Lehman College
Carol Greenhouse, Princeton University
John Hartigan, University of Texas
John Jackson Jr., University of Pennsylvania
Ellen Lewin, University of Iowa
Bonnie McElhinny, University of Toronto
Shalini Shankar, Northwestern University
Carol Stack, University of California, Berkeley
America’s
Digital
Army
Games at Work and War
Robertson Allen
University of Nebraska Press
Lincoln and London
© 2017 by the Board of Regents of the
University of Nebraska
Acknowledgments for the use of previously
published material appear on page xii,
which constitutes an extension of the copyright page.
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017937445
Set in Charter by John Klopping.
Men are born for games. Nothing else. Every child knows that play is
nobler than work. . . . But trial of chance or trial of worth all games
aspire to the condition of war for here that which is wagered
swallows up game, player, all.
cormac mccarthy, Blood Meridian

Contents
List of Illustrations viii
Acknowledgments xi
1. America’s Digital Army 1
2. The Art of Persuasion and the Science of Manpower 39
3. The Artifice of the Virtual and the Real 63
4. The Full- Spectrum Soft Sell of the Army Experience 89
5. Complicating the Military Entertainment Complex 115
6. The Labor of Virtual Soldiers 147
Notes 167
Glossary 177
References 181
Index 193
Illustrations
Following page 88
1. In- game marketing image for the “Alley” level
2. Outside entrance to the Office of Economic and
Manpower Analysis
3. Tommy Rieman and John Adams being interviewed by
Susan Roesgen
4. Reference photo used by America’s Army
level designers and artists
5. The reference photo’s in- game application in
the “Ranch” scenario
6. The front cover to issue 8 of the America’s Army
Graphic Novel series
7. sfc Gerald Wolford, in digital, plastic,
and photographic representation
8. Tommy Rieman’s Real Hero action figure
9. Exterior view of the vae Alpha at the Indianapolis Air Show
10. A mock- up life- size Humvee inside the vae
11. Drill sergeants provide entertainment for visitors
waiting in line
12. Tommy Rieman and John Adams sign free copies of
the America’s Army video game
viii
13. A typical gaming scenario at aec computers
14. Advertisement for the Army Experience Center
15. Ignited poster advertising the release of America’s Army 3
16. America’s Army arcade game
17. America’s Army video game developers at mini
Basic Combat Training
18. Image from the development office the day of the layoffs
illustrations ix