Sports games endeavor to include accurate player rosters and game adaptations of movies try to use real actor voices and likenesses whenever possible. So it should come as no surprise that the U.S. Army is using real soldiers as characters in its America's Army game.

"The America's Army Real Heroes program puts a face on some of the exceptional Soldiers who are at the forefront in defending our freedoms. With Real Heroes young adults can learn about the accomplishments of some of the heroic men and women that make the Army the world's premier land force," said Colonel Casey Wardynski, Project Director.

Players who download the latest version of the free online game will be able to interact with four such Heroes during training missions and while exploring an interactive Virtual Recruiting Center.
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As previously reported by GamePolitics, Joseph DeLappe has a unique way of protesting the war in Iraq - he employs the U.S. Army's own recruiting game, America's Army.

Using an avatar named "dead in iraq," DeLappe simply logs onto an America's Army server and begins entering the names and dates of death of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq. GP interviewed Joseph DeLappe recently to find out more about his political use of the online game space.


GP: You're a professor at the University of Nevada Reno. What is your academic specialty?

JDL: My field is digital media. I've been working with electronic media as an artist here since 1983.

GP: Tell us about the "dead in iraq" project.

JDL: It's essentially an online intervention, memorial and protest of the America's Army computer game. It's conceived as a way of going into America's Army and rather than playing the game, I go in as a neutral interloper. My avatar is named "dead in iraq." Instead of playing the game I use the text messaging system to input all the names of U.S. soldiers who have died to date in Iraq. I started out with the first one (killed) back in 2003 and moved chronologically up to the present.

GP: Is it a protest against the war or the America's Army game?

JDL: It's kind of both. The idea for the piece came about well over a year or so ago, in just thinking about the notion of the nature of memorials. In principal it means something that is usually after the fact, after a war is complete and we want to do something in tribute to those who died. In this instance it seemed to me that with the questionable nature of this conflict in Iraq that it would be appropriate, perhaps, to do a memorial while it is still happening. I'm not the only one doing that. There have been other instances of that, people lining up boots in public parks and things like that.
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A war game might seem like an odd place to stage an antiwar protest.

But that's exactly the venue chosen by Joseph DeLappe, an associate professor at the University of Nevada at Reno. DeLappe, who describes himself as a visual artist, has been logging into the popular online game America's Army under the screen name "dead in iraq."

America's Army is a first-person shooter with a modern military theme developed in the late 1990's by the U.S. Army as a recruiting tool. The PC version has been given away for free for several years and the game is quite popular among online gamers. There are almost certainly soldiers fighting in Iraq - and perhaps dying there - whose decision to volunteer was influenced in some way by America's Army.

In March of this year DeLappe began joining online matches. He doesn't play the game, however. He simply uses the game's chat interface to type in the name, rank and date of death of U.S. military personnel killed in the Iraq conflict. When his avatar is killed, he simply waits for the next round to begin and continues to enter the names of the dead.

DeLappe's goal is to eventually enter the name of every service member lost in the war. As of late April he had input more than 250 names. He has a long way to go. CNN listed the U.S. military death toll as 2,427 on May 12th.

DeLappe calls his project "essentially a fleeting, online memorial to those military personnel who have been killed in this ongoing conflict. My actions are also intended as a cautionary gesture."

Terra Nova has an excellent discussion of the dead in iraq project.

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It is sometimes controversial, but undeniably a smash hit among gamers. And now, America's Army has been nominated for Top 50 Government Innovations for 2006 by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Considered the "Oscars" of government, the Innovations in American Government Awards carry a $100,000 prize grant for the seven eventual winners. The 50 selected semi-finalists, including America's Army, were chosen from programs representing governments at the federal, tribal, state, county and city levels. Criteria include "novelty and creativity, effectiveness at addressing significant issues and problems and ability to be replicated by other jurisdictions. The programs represent governments' best efforts in the areas of education and training, criminal justice and public safety, economic and community development, housing, health and social services, management, transportation, public works and environment."

On May 4th, 18 finalists will be announced during Public Service Recognition Week. The seven winners will be announced in Washington, D.C. in July.