Answer:
... an accurate portrayal of Soldier experiences ..

The America's Army game provides civilians with an inside perspective and a virtual role in today's premier land force: the U.S. Army. The game is designed to provide an accurate portrayal of Soldier experiences across a number of occupations. In the game, players will explore progressive individual and collective training events within the game. Once they successfully complete these events they will advance to multiplayer operations in small units.

Answer:
… it provides young adults with virtual insights about the Army…

The game is designed to provide young adults and their influencers with virtual insights into entry level Soldier training, training in units and Army operations. As in the past, the Army's success in attracting high-potential young adults is essential to building the world's premier land force. The passage of time, elimination of the draft and reductions in the size of the Army have resulted in a marked decrease in the number of Americans who have served in the Army and from whom young adults can gain vicarious insights into the challenges and rewards of Soldiering and national service. Therefore, the game is designed to substitute virtual for vicarious experiences. It does this in an engaging format that takes advantage of young adults' broad use of the Internet for research and communication and their interest in games for entertainment and exploration.

Answer:
… we emphasize teamwork, values and responsibility as means to achieving goals.

In America's Army we emphasize teamwork, values and responsibility as means to achieving the goals. We believe that several factors make America's Army different from other games.

Training & Teamwork
First, the game mirrors the Army in terms of the progression of game play and experiences. Just as new Soldiers must complete basic and advanced training before joining Army units, gamers must complete training to advance to online multiplayer missions. Additionally, success in the Army is a team effort. Consequently, the game reinforces this emphasis on teamwork by creating online teams. The game provides realistic situations in which mission accomplishment becomes a function of team effort.

Responsible Play
Just as is the case with the Army, the game has a firm grounding in values. For example, the game establishes rules for engagement and imposes significant penalties for violations of these rules. Players who violate these rules or who engage in activities such as intentional friendly fire, can find themselves in a virtual representation of the Army's jail at Fort Leavenworth or thrown out of the game. People will also be able to play the role of a combat medic, and the team will be awarded points for completing the mission with everyone still alive versus other games that do not reward the preservation of life.

In addition, we've added Parental Controls. Parents are able to alter and control certain aspects of gameplay in America's Army. Parents can disable all the blood in the game, enable a language filter, disallow the ability to play as an Advanced Marksman, and limit gameplay to only those missions which feature the MILES laser-tag type play.

Missions
America's Army also incorporates the Army's unique force-on-force training techniques and Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement Systems (MILES) into game play. When we conduct training in units we often give units opposing missions so that each unit can be trained within an exercise on different aspects of their missions. In the game we have improved upon this technique so that members of a team always see themselves as being U.S. Army Soldiers. In contrast members of the opposing team look like hostile forces. Hence, in reality everyone playing the America's Army game is actually playing the role of a U.S. Soldier. By incorporating MILES into the game, America's Army also provides players with insights into how the Army trains in units.

Player and Army Privacy
Finally privacy is a big concern for us. Players register under a userid and gameplay information cannot be traced to an individual's real identity. Since America's Army is an online game, it tracks game play information to monitor players' progress through training and into units. For example,,this allows the game to open assignments to the 82d Airborne Division to players who have completed Airborne School. The game puts the player in the role of a Soldier but does not incorporate expert knowledge with regard to Army tactics, techniques or procedures. All game play is conducted using the player's own tactics and procedures so as to protect the security of Army operating procedures.

Answer:
… mission accomplishment, achieving game objectives and progressing in the game becomes a function of team effort.

The Army is a team effort, and the game reflects this team focus by structuring online play around teams in which mission accomplishment, achieving game objectives and progressing in the game becomes a function of team effort. The team play concept has been implemented in a strategic and innovative way as gamers always play in a team and are bound by the laws of land warfare, Army values and realistic Rules Of Engagement (ROE). In squad versus squad operations, where up to 26 players can join in the same mission, gamers will always perceive that they are on the U.S. Army team, regardless of which team they join. Therefore, a player's comrades are always in U.S. Army uniforms - but to the opposite team, the player and his teammates look like the enemy. This way no one can take on the role of an enemy during non-training missions. In some of the MILES laser tag missions, players become members of the professional OPFOR (opposing force) for training purposes, just as in the real Army. In order to emphasize the importance of teamwork and rules of engagement, players who engage in fratricide or who violate their rules of engagement incur significant penalty points. At a certain threshold, these penalty points result in a player being removed from gameplay to a virtual version of the Army Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth.

Answer:
… The America’s Army team built the game to provide entertainment and information without resorting to graphic violence and gore.

The America's Army game falls well within the parameters of a teen rating (age 13+) as established by the Entertainment Standards Rating Board. This rating provides parents with guidance as to the age appropriateness of the game and is based upon the game's portrayal of the use of force and the fact that game characters show a small puff of blood when injured. We built the game to provide entertainment and information without resorting to graphic violence and gore. When a Soldier is killed, that Soldier simply falls to the ground and is no longer part of the ongoing mission. And in the MILES laser tag mission, when a Soldier is hit, he just sits down and there is no puff of blood. A parental control option has been implemented whereby all of the game's missions are only playable in MILES laser tag mode, and therefore no one is killed. The game does not include any dismemberment or disfigurement.

Answer:
…if they fail to operate as a member of a team that is operating towards achievement of a U.S. Army objective, then they will not advance in the game.

Within the game, actions are linked to consequences. If players violate rules of engagement, if they fail to safeguard noncombatants, if they shoot friendly players, if they fail to operate as a member of a team that is operating towards achievement of a U.S. Army objective, then they will not advance in the game. Rather they will lose standing, or spend a round in a virtual jail cell at Fort Leavenworth. Your game character can be permanently banned from the game if you exhibit a pattern of conduct that is at odds with Army values.

Self Disciplined Play
The game establishes a "records jacket" for each player, much as the Army has a personnel record for each Soldier. This record will be the player's training and service record to include acts of fratricide, violations of Rules of Engagement and other information that attests to a game player's performance as a member of a team. Other team players will be less likely to choose you as a teammate if you have a history of friendly-fire violations or low standing in honor points.

In addition, a combat effectiveness meter gauges the player's ability to hit the target in different situations and also how responsible the player is in combat. This too will affect a player's ranking.

Answer:
…there is no way that manipulating a keyboard and mouse, as players do in the Army's game, can provide vital cues on key elements of marksmanship…

We included the rifle range because that is a basic and obvious part of military training - something a new recruit will immediately become familiar with. While the game introduces players to the look and procedures of marksmanship training, clicking a mouse is absolutely not applicable to actual marksmanship training.

When we qualify Soldiers as marksmen we send them to a rifle range. We put a rifle in their hands, not a keyboard and mouse. There are a lot of physical mechanisms entailed in mastering a firearm that cannot be replicated in a game. Indeed, there is no way that manipulating a keyboard and mouse, as players do in the Army's game, can provide vital cues on key elements of marksmanship such as trigger pressure, weapon cant and body position. In the Army, under the guidance of expert coaches, our Soldiers first learn how to align their sights. They then fire many rounds to become accustomed to the recoil of a rifle and to learn how to acquire a good sight picture.

Even today, in an age when computer games are ubiquitous, teaching rifle marksmanship is a major hurdle in basic training and a major element of Army refresher training for Soldiers in the force. If games taught Soldiers to become marksmen, Army training would be greatly simplified. However, games don't teach our Soldiers how to shoot so we train them with real weapons and ammo on real rifle ranges.

Games may simulate the real world but they do not recreate it. No one would believe that a child could master a racecar by playing a racing game. Likewise, clicking a mouse, as a player does in the Army game, will never teach a person how to shoot.

Answer:
…operations within the laws of land warfare and within mission specific rules of engagement (ROE) have been incorporated into the game. There is no dismemberment or glorification of violence…
The Army is an armed force and as such it is organized and sanctioned to employ force incident to combat operations on land. Therefore, any representation of the Army within a game will include representations of the use of armed force. In the game, multiplayer action is conducted in a force-on-force setting without the use of enemy artificial intelligence. Thus, the tactics employed by players are their own. Under the Army sanction to employ armed force, it trains Soldiers to conduct operations within the laws of land warfare and within mission specific rules of engagement (ROE) which have been incorporated into the game. Hence, players whose game conduct is at odds with these rules can experience a variety of penalties. These penalties range from being admonished by a drill sergeant during training for an ROE violation to sitting out a game round in a virtual representation of the Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth for more untoward acts. There is no dismemberment or glorification of violence and blood is depicted by a puff of red.

Answer:
The game CD will only be distributed to those individuals that can prove that they are over 13.

With the game on the Internet it is hard to control who is able to access it and we have to rely on parents being educated about how their children are spending time online. We have made a game that stresses values and does not condone bad behavior.

In addition, we've added Parental Controls. Parents are able to alter and control certain aspects of gameplay in the game. Parents can disable all the blood in the game, enable a language filter, disallow the ability to play as an Advanced Marksman, and limit gameplay to only those missions which features the MILES laser-tag type play.

Answer:
The game does not use cookies or other methods of accessing information from your computer through a Web browser.

The game was designed to protect user privacy. The game does not use cookies or other methods of accessing information from your computer through a Web browser. The only information retained on your computer is game state information such as your progress in the game or the special training you may have completed in the game. This information is exchanged with our web servers when you play online so that you obtain credit for progress you have made in your virtual Army career. When players log into our online game system, they do so by creating and using a userid or nickname and a password of their choosing. Our entry server then authenticates this information as well as the player's game state information. At log in, the player's Internet Protocol (IP) address is also checked against a list of banned addresses to screen out disruptive players or players that exhibit inappropriate behavior. After authentication, the IP address is disassociated from the nickname and game play data, such as statistics and the players' 'record jacket' of gameplay details, is only logged under this player moniker and password. Therefore, the Game is not designed to collect information on players' web browsing habits, nor will the Game be used for such a purpose.

Answer:
The Army will not be able to identify you individually unless you choose to reveal your personal information.

No. The Army will not be able to identify you individually unless you choose to reveal your personal information. Prior to any point at which you provide sufficient information for an association to be possible between your game data and your name, you will encounter an advisory dialog box from which you can back up. Players who request information AND reveal their nom-de-guerre to Recruiters may have their gaming records matched to their real-world identities for the purpose of facilitating career placement within the Army. Data collected within the game such as which roles and missions players spent the most time playing could be used to highlight Army career fields that map into these interest areas so as to provide the best possible match between the attributes and interests of potential Soldiers and the attributes of career fields and training opportunities.

Answer:
...players are learning some basics of lifesaving.

In the Combat Medic training, which takes place at Brook Army Medical Center, players sit through lectures in a classroom setting where they learn how to assess a medical situation, control bleeding, and treat shock. Players are then tested on the medical info. The information given is directly from an actual Army medical center and is medically accurate. So, in actuality players are learning some basics of lifesaving.

Answer:
No, there is one Official Army Game and America’s Army is that game.

Answer:
The America’s Army game was developed as an entertaining and informational way to educate civilians about opportunities in the Army. It exposes players to the main principles of teamwork, communication, Army values and how the Army trains.