Gamertell

A US Army press release sent out earlier this week (January 17, 2008)  is crediting Paxton Galvanek, twenty-eight, with saving a life last year because of skills he received while playing America’s Army, a first-person shooter based on and funded by the US military.

On November 23, 2007, Galvanek witnessed a sports utility vehicle loose control while driving west on I-40 in North Carolina with his family. Galvanek was able to remove two men from the wreckage and administer first aid to one of the passengers who had lost two fingers. America’s Army project director Colonel Casey Wardynski had this to say ((IN THE PRESS RELEASE?)) regarding Galvanek’s actions that day:

Because of the training he received in [the] America’s Amry virtual classroom, Mr. Galvanek had mastered the basics of first aid and had the confidence to take appropriate action when others might do nothing. He took the initiative to assess the situation, prioritize actions and apply the correct procedures…Paxton is a true hero. We are pleased to have played a role in providing the lifesaving training that he employed so successfully at the scene.

This causes a few interesting conjectures to drift through the brain, should the parties in thought be willing:

1.) The military has a vested interest in promoting stories like theses to increase enrollment and troop numbers during a time when people wouldn’t normally decide to join the army.

2.) This is nothing new. Anyone who has seen an action movie in the last year will remember the extremely well produced National Guard commercials audience members were forced to watch if they arrived to the theatre on time.

3.) Some people might not agree with these PR tactics. Nevertheless, a person learned skills in a video game and applied them to a real life situation, helping to prevent the loss of life. Clearly this is a good thing, even though it’s rooted in the military-industrial complex.

4.) Even though Paxton Galvanek helped to save a life, the primary purpose of both the game America’s Army and America’s actual Army is to train people (mostly young men) to take lives, not save them.

5.) This is true of pretty much every first-person shooter ever made, government sponsored or not. And let’s not forget that without military funding much of the technology and research modern video games rely on might not have been invented.

A lot of contradictory stuff in there. It’s a bit of a salad, to be sure. You could even take this one straight into the messy arena of videogame violence as a sort of massive shield against any sort of Jack Thompson-esque attack, which will henceforth be called Jack Attacks. Yes sir, a big ol’ shield with the Army’s name on it and a picture of a guy with three fingers smiling as big as the sun. Nobody would dare.

Read [America’s Army] Also Read [ABC]

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