By Hans Wuerflein

The ever controversial recruiting tool/game America’s Army has opened its books to show a rather hefty total.

$32.8 million.

Compare that with the original goal of a five-year project running around $7 million.

Gamespot obtained the records through a Freedom of Information Act showing the costs of continued development of the game over the past decade.

Follow the jump to see a bit more of a breakdown on that number.

Here are the year-by-year totals for development costs.

2000–$3,500,000
2001–$5,600,000
2002–$1,862,985
2003–$2,600,000
2004–$3,866,482
2005–$1,288,552
2006–$4,050,748
2007–$2,788,137
2008–$3,887,450
2009–$3,395,702

Now, admittedly, the free to play game has received several versions and upgrades, and expanded out to retail console versions, but how do you undershoot by quadruple?

Even if you just add up the first five years of development it comes out to more that $16 million.

Video game development is expensive, but this really is getting into the proverbial and often ridiculed $300 toilet seat level of money management.

A couple words off of this recent write-up on the subject.  Comments welcome.

Is recruiting for the military through video games the right way to go?

Well, video games unrealistically portray warfare to be a glorious and passionate exercise.  Though there may be much of both, the central directive is far from “kill the most bad guys,” and instead is fight for your God and country.

The theme of honor and the moral decision involved in fighting is rarely seen in video games.  Especially with being able to have “infinite continues” and just restart a level video games don’t do the realy military justice.

Though, we’re not sending kids into combat fresh from their Xboxes, so video games garner interest; that’s all.  That’s all they should do also, training is needed and the army is in need of interest and the training will happen after.

The logo for the U.S. Army's offical Video Game

En 1985, O. Scott Card nos mostró una novela de Ciencia Ficción en la que la vida quedaba reducida a un inocente videojuego: El juego de Ender. Cargado de una sensibilidad inusitada, el libro consiguió los premios más relevantes del género (premios Hugo y Nébula) narrando un desgarrador relato sobre la llamada Tercera Invasión. Más allá de su contenido, nos encontramos con un apenas un niño, Ender, en cuyas manos está el destino de la raza humana.

El vídeo que ilustra esta entrada (encontrado en el siempre recomendable Fogonazos) muestra cómo la guerra se desarrolla hoy en día a miles de kilómetros de los puntos calientes. En Afganistán, un avión sin piloto lanza una bomba siguiendo las órdenes de un operario sentado en Nevada (EE.UU.). Allí, con la única ayuda de una pantalla y un joystick, el piloto virtual controla el aparato y le da las instrucciones precisas. Una cámara le muestra el objetivo, y una cuenta atrás y un botón rojo dan la orden de acabar con él. Tan preciso, tan exacto, y tan inhumano como cualquiera de los simuladores de vuelo a los que hemos jugado de pequeños. Con la diferencia de que el avión es real, la bomba lo es, y el cadáver, también.

La lógica nos dice que un videojuego tiene que intentar asemejarse lo más posible a la realidad para conseguir su objetivo. No en vano, cada día el consumo de recursos crece en favor de hacer real un escenario simulado. El problema es que esa realidad virtual desvirtúe el verdadero mundo y deshumanice al hombre. Quienes crecimos con el born to frag de juegos clásicos como Doom, Quake, etc. nos valíamos de cargar con un arma y acribillar objetivos sin piedad. En algunos casos no era más que una IA sin vida, en otros eran personas que jugaban contra nosotros. En esencia todo aquello era un juego. Una diversión. ¿Qué ocurriría, pregunto, si detrás de esos enemigos abatidos hubiesen realmente personas? ¿Cómo distinguir la realidad si, llegado un punto, ese «juego» abandonase la Red para convertirse en un escenario real?

El Ejército de los EE.UU. ha usado en repetidas ocasiones juegos de guerra para entrenar a sus hombres. America’s Army es sólo un ejemplo de simulador táctico utilizado para aprender técnicas de batalla. Hasta ahora, la línea que separa Realidad de Realidad virtual era clara. Más allá de esos simuladores, un soldado debía estar en el campo de batalla: experimentar el miedo, la tensión, el fragor de la guerra. Hoy las nuevas herramientas permiten a un soldado estar en una posición ventajosa. No hay sudor, no hay miedo, no hay vida. Un arma a distancia. Protegido por miles de kilómetros. Un ser humano pierde así su humanidad. Tras una pantalla lo que vemos son objetivos, nuevos enemigos que debemos abatir para conseguir acabar el nivel. Sumar un punto. Ganar el juego.

Cuando la guerra sea estar detrás de un ordenador, cuando no veamos humanos sino sprites en la pantalla, cuando el soldado no distinga realidad de ficción; entonces ocurrirá la hecatombe. Y habrá que tener miedo, pues no hay hombre más peligroso que el armado y que no sufra, que no sienta, que no viva. Que no piense.

The latest instalment of the popular America’s Army (AA3) video-game series has recently been released to widespread acclaim. Whilst there are many similar ‘first-person shooters’ currently available, AA3 is unusual in that it is downloadable at no cost since it was developed by the United States (US) military as a recruitment tool.

This reflects an increasing use of combat video-games with ulterior motives, both by the world’s military as well as by those politically opposed to conflict. Indeed, the US army now has a dedicated hi-tech public-relations centre where the wider general public can experience such games for themselves. Since the use of video-games can be seen as specifically targeting children, however, this recruitment strategy has been fiercely criticised as unethical.

Such condemnation raises a number of important questions as to the social role of video-games. For example, the fundamental morality of trivialising an issue as serious as war by treating it as mere entertainment is highly debatable. This is particularly the case as such games rarely attempt to depict the suffering and human cost that is an inevitable consequence of military action, thereby sanitising the true horrors of war. The social consequences of such portrayals of violence within video-games have previously been the subject of much discussion.

Furthermore, a growing number of these games are based on ‘real’ rather than fantasy scenarios, and so can often be seen as rewriting history by presenting a simple dichotomy between ‘good’ and ‘evil’, rather than accurately portraying the complex uncertainties faced by combatants during the actual fighting they claim to represent.

Alternatively, such games could be viewed as useful educational simulations that question the morality of war itself by giving a player the opportunity to experience a historical conflict from the perspectives of all the different parties involved.

Such issues have been the topic of recent heated debate surrounding the announcement and subsequent abrupt cancellation of a video-game based on the controversial battle for Fallujah.

‘America’s Army’ official website

‘US Army Experience Center’ official website

‘Six Days in Fallujah’ press release from Konami

Cancellation of ‘Six Days in Fallujah’ from the Guardian

Li, Z. (2003).The Potential of America’s Army the Video Game as Civilian-Military Public Sphere

Baldwin, M. W. & Dandeneau, S. D. (2009). Putting Social Psychology into Serious Games

Games

America’s Army
http://www.americasarmy.com/

This is the Army game, literally. It was developed by the United States Army to enhance public understanding of who they are and what they do, and to help promote the US Army for recruitment. If you want an authentic video game experience of the military, download this free game fro your computer, Xbox, or mobile device. There’s 26 different versions of it now. And it’s free.

Peacemaker
http://www.peacemakergame.com/ ; http://www.gamesforchange.org/

A great strategist once said that ‘war is politics by other means’. Give peace a chance in this political strategy game where it is up to you to bring peace to the Middle East. You can play as either the Israeli or Palestinian Leadership, and the game is based on real events, with real news footage and the manipulations of powerful people behind the scenes. You could win a Nobel Prize, or you could plunge the region in deeper pain. Do you have what it takes to be a peacemaker?

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
http://www.callofduty.com/ ; http://www.infinityward.com/

Call of Duty4: Modern Warfare is the fourth in the first-person shooter Call of Duty series, and the only one set in modern times. There are new weapons, new stories, and new locations, for single-person missions, multiplayer team-play or multi-player deathmatch. Battle your way through an invasion of a Middle Eastern country or bring down a rogue Russian state. Keep your mind clear and your eyes sharp and you just might survive Modern Warfare.

Movies

Gunner Palace

After the United States invaded Iraq in the spring of 2003, young American soldiers found themselves holed up in one of dictator Sadaam Hussein’s former palaces, enduring insurgent attacks after the war had officially been declared over by the politicians, doing what they could to stabilize the country they’d just bombarded, and trying to stay sane in an insane world. This is an unsanitized look at the war in Iraq from the point of view of soldiers in the thick of it.

Stop Loss

Sgt. Brandon King, played by Ryan Phillipe, has just come back from Iraq and he and his unit are trying to deal with adjusting back to civilian life. Some of them drink, some beat their wives, some are just haunted by the memories of it all. And then Sgt. King learns he’s been “stop-lossed”–called back to Iraq against his will to extend his tour of duty. Torn between his patriotism and his longing to leave the war behind him, he grapples with duty, friendship, guilt, and honor in this powerful story produced by MTV Films.

There goes marketing!

The development team for America’s Army 3 hasn’t been heard of from since they were sacked after finishing their latest game:  America’s Army 3.

Military spokesperson, Lieutenant General Marcus Anders gave the following statement:

“It’s in everyone’s best interest that the great minds behind America’s Army 3 be relieved of their duties for the U.S. military. It’s a tumultuous time for many of us , and we needed to put the past in the ground, so to speak. We assure you that each of the team’s members were informed ahead of time, and knew that this would be their final project with the US Army.”

Although countless attempts to reach any of the developers of the America’s Army 3 have been completely unsuccessful, the wife of one developer was more than happy to speak up on her husband’s behalf.

“Although Harold has been missing since his termination at the studio, he did leave me a voicemail discussing a debriefing session behind the munitions shed at the local Air Force Base. Apparently they were giving them a big send off, because I could hear fireworks going off in the background. But I know Harold, and I’m sure he’s just out looking for a new job.”

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Hosted by: Grant Brunner & Marty Keefe

Grant’s Topics

• TWRminator Salvation OR TWRthday Episode IV: A New TWR
• Movie Monday: Memento
• Movies Without a Monday: This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Atonement, and Tipping The Velvet
• You seem different: Hats off to the Terminator. 

Marty’s Topics

• America’s Army 3 is out 
• Jay Ray wants me to talk about the Army

Podcast of the Week

• Personal Effects: Sword of Blood 

Wikipedia Article of the Week

• Voynich Manuscript
• Lightvessel

Plugs

• GrantBrunner.com
• Macgasm
• They Said Server Closet
• MEK Photos

Kotaku reports on a rumor that the Emeryville, California-based developer of America’s Army 3 has shut down.  The details come in from those who claim to be former staffers.  If the rumors are true, the studio shut down just one day after the game officially launched.

The reports say that the contract studio who developed the game was shut down due to a lack of funds, and that future development will be moving to an unknown developer based in Alabama.

According to Kotaku, the ex-developers who contacted them also noted that, “a lot of good people [worked] insanely long hours on this game that was butchered by outside sources.”

Source Kotaku.

This, folks, is one broken game.  I couldn’t get anywhere in the interface without a system crash.  The Steam forums are full of people with the same issue.  Here’s hoping for a patch.

–UPDATE–

One day after the horrible release, word is spreading that the studio responsible for AA3 has been closed, and all employees laid off.  I’m not kidding.  Really, I’m not.  Who’s gonna fix it now?

America&s Army 3 – RaceDepartment Forums

America&s Army, the Official US Army Game (AA), provides young Americans with a virtual web-based environment in which they can explore Army career opportunities within an entertaining setting that is tailored to their interests and aptitudes. … Well, you did 3 completely unrelated installations. You installed 2.0 deploy client to game version 2.8.5 you next installed an unsupported version with 3rd party software. You next tried to repair 2.8.5 …

… upload and download content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today! If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, …

… upload and download content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today! If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, …

America&s Army 3 Beta The America&s Army 3 Closed Beta is recruiting FilePlanet Subscriber&s for online combat testing. Beta test the Army&s all new game: America&s Army 3 and.

America&s Army, the Official US Army Game (AA), provides young Americans with a virtual web-based environment in which they can explore Army career opportunities within an entertaining setting that is tailored to their interests and aptitudes. … Well, you did 3 completely unrelated installations. You installed 2.0 deploy client to game version 2.8.5 you next installed an unsupported version with 3rd party software. You next tried to repair 2.8.5 …

Okay, so I’m annoyed. For months and months, I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of America’s Army 3, the official game from the United States Army. And when I heard that it was to be released on 17th June, I couldn’t control my excitement.

HOWEVER! I knew it wouldn’t be available dead on 20:00 GMT. I wouldn’t even have expected it to be ready at 20:30, but it is now gone 21:00 and I’ve only just managed to get the files decrypted. Great, so I can go play, right? No. I now have a 1.34gb patch to download before I can get into the game and play.

It’s not the lateness that bothers me. Like I said, I never expected the release time to be 100% accurate. What bothers me is that I spent hours downloading the “pre-load” so that when the game was eventually released, I’d be able to play. I don’t like the fact that I only have half the game.

If there was a patch that needed applying, why on earth could we not have had it over the past couple of days. For it to be ready for us to play. I’l ltell you why, because Steam are USELESS. Well and truly. Now, I could have got the game through the deploy client, but again, useless. It seems that no matter what, the release of this game was always doomed to problems.

So now, I’m downloading the patch. Well, that’s some good news, that I will, after this patch, be able to play. The question is though, when will the patch be fully downloaded? I, aswell as probably everyone else trying to download it right now, am sat here watching the download stop/start every 10 seconds. It’ll download a little bit, stop for a while to catch its breath, and then pick back up again.

Absolutely ridiculous. I just hope that the game lives up to what people expect, otherwise the trouble that people have had to go through just to play it will cause a lot of bad press for the developers.

It’s going to be a long night for those of us who are dedicated to getting to play the game as soon as possible. If my speech and typing are still coherent enough, I shall probably make another little post letting you know how I get on with the rest of my experiences with the game. I wouldn’t expect much praise though.