Military-Industrial-Entertainment Complex

While researching hyper reality I came across a woman who started a group called “Velvet Strike”. The idea behind Velvet Strike is to create awareness at the level of violence inherent in today's entertainment industry while at the same time denouncing war. This is achieved (or at least attempted) via the game Counter Strike, a Half Life modification that boasts a more military realistic form of game combat. This game features Counter Terrorist and Terrorist groups fighting against each other in small scale multiplayer action. Members, followers and fans of Velvet Strike will infiltrate Counter Strike matches and spray anti war propaganda onto the walls of the game environment. Other forms of protest include entering a game and refusing to fight. While following various links and articles relating to this movement I found that while most researchers weren't necessarily against video game violence they did acknowledge a dire need for the game consuming public to realise just what it is they are doing when playing these games. More than this there seems to be a growing need to confront the ever increasing military recruitment application on the entertainment industry. Reading on through various blogs, articles and papers on the subject it has come to my attention that not only do the military fully endorse the violent games industry but they also directly fund the creation of games titles with the intention to create interest and thus recruit players to the (in particular U.S.) military. This might not seem too disturbing at the heart of it, but until forms of 'entertainment' such as games reach a stage where the full horror of war can actually be portrayed to the player this form of recruitment is without a shadow of a doubt false advertisement and forcing of government doctrine on an impressionable youth through their misguided innocence. The prime example of this form of military recruitment is through the game “America's Army”. This first person shooter takes you as a player to the U.S. Military boot camp to get you ready for combat in a fictional country called Tazikhstan, situated between Afghanistan, Pakistan and China. In order to play this game you must register and visit frequently the official game site which is riddled with links to U.S. Military recruitment sites. You must be 17 to be officially recruited to the U.S. Military but this game is directly marketed at the 12 – 16 year old. The military has now a massive string of game projects both released and in development to increase the pressure put on those who would play these games. It seems strange to me that we wouldn't consciously let our children bare direct witness to physical forms of violence but the government find no issue with the imprinting of this culture of hatred and violence into the younger generations.