It’s not often a student terrifies me with the social implications of new technologies.
From one of the essays on ‘new digital media segments’ by one of my students (reposted without permission, but I’m claiming fair use as it’s less than 10%), talking about the video game America’s Army as an example of ‘adver-gaming’:
By the end of the second month of its release, 2.5 million people had downloaded the free-to-the-public, state-of-the-art video-game, with another 120,000 people signing up to order the CD version by mail . Even more important than the enormous amount of exposure the US Army garnished for their message through the adver-game’s success, however, is its success in facilitating the enlistment of raw recruits: 28% of the hits at the Army’s recruitment website, www.goarmy.com, originate at websites that host America’s Army, a significant figure when you consider that the majority of visitors to www.goarmy.com actually enlist [1].
— Mat Ward
I knew about the game, but I had no idea it had had such directly measurable results.
[1] Gegax, TT, ”Full Metal Joystick: ENTREPRENEURS: The U.S. Army’s new recruiting videogame is an online phenomenon” Newsweek, Oct 14, 2002 p38