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AMERICA’S ARMY PC GAME FACT SHEET 

WHY: 
Recognizing computer games and the Internet as great mediums for educating while entertaining, the Army has produced an exciting game to allow civilians to virtually experience and learn about Soldiering in the U.S. Army. 

WHO: 
Released by the U.S. Army, America’s Army was conceived, and is managed by, the Army’s Office of Economic & Manpower Analysis (OEMA) at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs is the proponent for the game with the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Resources, as the Executive Agent, providing strategic direction to the project. Major commands and field units of the U.S. Army provide subject matter experts to support the development of game models and scenarios. 

WHAT: 
America’s Army is an innovative PC action game that provides civilians with an inside perspective and a virtual role in today’s modern Army. America’s Army provides players a virtual portal into the Army, from exploring the development of Soldiers in individual and collective training to their employment in simulated missions in the Global War on Terrorism. The first installment of the game, America’s Army: Operations, was released on July 4, 2002. The next chapter of the game, America’s Army: Special Forces, highlights the critical and specialized role of the Special Forces in the Global War on Terrorism. America’s Army: Special Forces builds upon the incredibly popular America’s Army: Operations game in terms of player progression, and expands gameplay from the original game to let players gain an inside view in the world of the Army’s elite Special Forces Soldier. 

America’s Army… 
• Blends first-person and persistent role-playing game genres to create a virtual world in which players explore Soldiering in the U.S. Army. This experience begins by immersing players in progressive individual and collective training environments that highlight key events within Army initial entry training, advanced individual training and adventure training. Building upon attributes gained during these game experiences, players progressively expand their capabilities and standing within the game by adhering to the Army’s set of noble values while serving as a member of small units in multiplayer missions that model operational units of the U.S. Army. As in the Army, player success is a function of adherence to norms of behavior, teamwork and progressive developmental assignments. 

• The game is available for download at www.americasarmy.com or on free DVDs distributed at Recruiting Offices or Army events. 

• Is rated “T” for Teen by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. 

• Achieves unparalleled military realism in depicting Soldier experiences due to its development as an Army R&D project, and due to the direct involvement of Army units modeled within the game. 

• Realistically depicts the values, units, equipment and career opportunities that make the Army the world’s premier land force. 

• Offers truly immersive Soldier experiences by allowing players to explore progressive training opportunities, ranging from parachuting (Airborne School) to Combat Medic training. In addition, they are able to explore the development of Special Forces Soldiers through Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS) and Special Forces Qualification Course (Q-Course). 

• Is unique due to the role that Army Values such as honor, integrity, duty and selfless service play in pacing player progression within the America’s Army, and the role these values play as a link between actions and outcomes or consequences within the game. 

• Is continually updated to incorporate new occupations, units, technologies and adventures that mirror the dynamic nature of Soldiering in the U.S. Army. 

• Features the Real Heroes program, which presents America’s Army Real Heroes in-game characters and stories of Soldiers decorated for valor throughout game. America’s Army Real Heroes uses in-game video to recount the circumstances and actions in which Army heroes were decorated for valor in the Global War on Terrorism. These Soldiers are presented as interactive characters in training missions throughout the game, as well as at the Virtual Recruiting Center. 

Game features include: 
• Small unit experiences that range from multiplayer missions that allow players to explore how the Army trains in peace, using laser tag or Multiple Integrated Laser Engagements Systems (MILES), to the employment of small units in the Global War on Terrorism. 

• Exploration of individual Soldier training to include basic and advanced training, as well as challenges akin to those Soldiers face in their first tour of duty. 

• Special Forces unit missions drawn from the Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS) process, which can be played as a team that simulates an operational detachment alpha (ODA) including an 18A–Team Leader, 18B–Weapons Specialist, 18D–Medic and 18C–Engineer. 

• Progressive gameplay that is governed by players’ adherence to the laws of land warfare, Army values and realistic rules of engagement (ROE). 

• Multiplayer missions with up to 26 players in opposing teams. These missions unfold on Army servers or public and private community servers established by players to host their favorite missions and sponsor online game competitions. 

• State-of-the-art graphics, sound and models powered by the latest version of Epic Games’ industry-leading “Unreal” engine. 

• Realistic in-game communications using different shouted and whispered commands, radio messages and genuine military hand and arm signals. 

• Standard Army force-on-force training practices so that players always perceive they are in the U.S. Army. Using this technique, a player’s comrades always appear to be in U.S. uniforms. The opposing force always appears to be in opposing force uniforms with appropriate equipment. 

• Expanded opportunities to explore Army training environments ranging from Combat Medic training at Brooke Army Medical Center to Special Forces Assessment and Selection at Fort Bragg. These missions allow players to virtually explore key entry level and advanced Army training opportunities. 

• Realistic equipment and military hardware such as Door Breacher, Bunker Defeat Munition, SPR rifle, parachutes, multiple laser engagement systems (MILES), automatic weapons (M249), assault rifles (M16A2), assault rifles with grenade launchers (M16A2/M203), rifles for long-range and anti-materiel fires (M24, M82) as well as grenades (M67 fragmentation grenade, M83 smoke grenade and flashbang), night vision goggles, thermite grenade, the C17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft and the Javelin Missile System. Other weapons include the M4 Carbine featuring the Picatinny rail mod system for attaching laser aiming devices and sighting systems; and the AT4, a shoulder-fired anti-tank rocket. 

• A unique development and distribution model designed to add new multiplayer missions and capabilities and extend coverage of Army career fields through regular content updates and downloads. 

• Overmatch missions drawn from the Global War on Terrorism in which small teams of elite Soldiers engage significantly larger armored forces, as well as operations with Indigenous forces as drawn from Operation Enduring Freedom. Other operations modeled within the game range from survival training to parachuting onto and seizing a tactical airfield, defeating terrorist organizations trafficking in Stinger Anti-Aircraft missiles, protecting the Alaskan pipeline, POW rescue and command post raids. 

• Unique and unpredictable gameplay with America’s Army’s signature combination of random spawns with random and dynamic objectives, together with carriable objectives, random extraction points and random NPCs. 

• A “record brief” for each player, mimicking the records maintained for each Soldier. Annotations in this virtual personnel file record player progression in America’s Army to include training and superior service, such as successful completion of Airborne School, Ranger School and Combat Medic School as well as accolades, service pins and player stats. 

• Parental controls that allow parents to tailor certain aspects of gameplay. For example, parents can disable all the blood in the game. They can also preclude their child from serving as an Advanced Marksman, and limit gameplay to only those missions that feature MILES (laser-tag) play.