ECU Libraries Catalog

America's digital army : games at work and war / Robertson Allen.

Author/creator Allen, Robertson
Format Electronic and Book
Publication InfoLincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [2017]
Descriptionxii, 199 pages ; 24 cm.
Supplemental Content Full text available from Ebook Central - Academic Complete
Subject(s)
Series Anthropology of contemporary North America
Contents Machine generated contents note: List of Illustrations Acknowledgments 1. America's Digital Army 2. The Art of Persuasion and the Science of Manpower 3. The Artifice of the Virtual and the Real 4. The Full-Spectrum Soft Sell of the Army Experience 5. Complicating the Military Entertainment Complex 6. The Labor of Virtual Soldiers Notes Glossary References Index.
Abstract "America's Digital Army is an ethnographic study of the link between interactive entertainment and military power, drawing on Robertson Allen's fieldwork observing video game developers, military strategists, U.S. Army marketing agencies, and an array of defense contracting companies that worked to produce the official U.S. Army video game, America's Army. Allen uncovers the methods by which gaming technologies such as America's Army, with military funding and themes, engage in a militarization of American society that constructs everyone, even nonplayers of games, as virtual soldiers available for deployment. America's Digital Army examines the army's desire for "talented" soldiers capable of high-tech work; beliefs about America's enemies as reflected in the game's virtual combatants; tensions over best practices in military recruiting; and the sometimes overlapping cultures of gamers, game developers, and soldiers. Allen reveals how binary categorizations such as soldier versus civilian, war versus game, work versus play, and virtual versus real become blurred--if not broken down entirely--through games and interactive media that reflect the U.S. military's ludic imagination of future wars, enemies, and soldiers."-- Provided by publisher.
Abstract "An ethnographic study based on scholar Robertson Allen's years of behind-the-scenes ethnographic fieldwork within the work environments of the video game developers, military strategists, enlisted soldiers, and defense contractors who produced the official U.S. Army video game, "America's Army.""-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (pages 181-192) and index.
Access restrictionAvailable only to authorized users.
Technical detailsMode of access: World Wide Web
Genre/formElectronic books.
LCCN 2016050497
ISBN9780803285293 (hardback)
ISBN9781496201911 (paper)
ISBN9781496200617 (epub)

Available Items

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Electronic Resources Access Content Online ✔ Available