Real Hero?
Loading ...Continuing on my previous post on exploring the game America’s Army and the way the experiences the players have in the game transfer to their real life I came upon an interesting news article:
- “AMERICA’S ARMY MEDIC TRAINING HELPS SAVE A LIFEâ€
 This article describes how a player of the game was a first responder to a car crash and used the combat medic training he received playing the game to evaluate and treat the victims of the car crash. I found this video on youtube which shows the news report and interview of the man Paxton Galvanek, who credited the game America’s Army for the help he was able to give the victims of the crash.Â
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The Project Director of America’s Army, Colonel Casey Wardynski said, “Because of the training he received in America’s Army’s virtual classroom, Mr. Galvanek had mastered the basics of first aid and had the confidence to take appropriate action when others might do nothing. He took the initiative to assess the situation, prioritize actions and apply the correct procedures. Paxton is a true hero. We are pleased to have played a role in providing the lifesaving training that he employed so successfully at the scene.”Â
- This article and video were very interesting to me because they portrayed the way the media/US Army can present things to promote the army as well as the game. The comments about the video described this controversy about how Paxton Galvanek responded to the crash. One person wrote, “When I was at CLS school at AIT they told us NOT TO USE our CLS training at a crash scene!It came down to liability on our part. Basically they said, “If you use this and screw up or hurt someone, you could be liable and they could sue you.”
To me this shows both the advantage and the danger of the ‘medical training’ the players get in the virtual classroom of America’s Army. The advantage is that Paxton was able to apply his knowledge and help, but what if he instead made the situation worse? He did not experience real life training, but he transferred what he learned in the virtual world to a real life situation. I think that this is what the US Army presumably desired from the game – the players become embedded in the environment to the point where they transfer their virtual experience to reality and try to join the US Army. Â
- I think it is interesting that a person can feel he learned as much from a virtual classroom as he would in real life and can take the virtual abilities he has online and apply them in the real world. It makes me wonder if this way of learning will replace the importance of training in real life and allow people to assume roles they have no training or abilities for outside of the virtual world.
Comments
Thanks, this was my second post - I was kind of impressed with myself for figuring out how to re-post it so that people would read it! I’m interested in your comments - haven’t decided where to go with it for my final entry, I emailed Alex Galloway and am going to actually play the game with Max tomorrow so hopefully I will get some more good stories for you about the controversy this game causes and how it trivializes war
Great! I would recommend you come to the game with no presumptions, as this might narrow your ability to give us your sincere experience. As anti-war lefties many of us often disconnect ourselves from the other side and by that doing a disservice to our ability to communicate with it. I think it will be interesting to learn not only what makes this game a cynical propaganda tool, but also what makes it ‘great’.
By the way, I was a (real) medic in the (real) army, and the liability issues of giving medical attention to a random person is something I heard in my days too. I am disgusted by this whole discussion. I think it can be traced back directly to ‘The Trap’ and to Game Theory. IMHO If someone is bleeding to death at the side of the road, and you think you can help him but are afraid of possible legal implications, then there’s something really fucked up about your priorities. In my view, any way you spin it, Paxton Galvanek was ‘a real hero’ in that incident, and deserves all the praises.
I definitely agree with you. I am intrigued about playing the game - i am more worried about whether I will be able to (not very apt at video games!) so I will keep an open mind an be objective in my report - even if i am biased in my own opinion 
It definitely does have some influence on learning knowledge of first aiding people in rea life. There’re many video games that really helps to develop intelletual knowledge into real life, such as some strategic game that allows you to think analytically and strategically.
One thing you mentioned above is that the experience the players have in this game encourages them to join US army. I may want to question how many percentage out of all players actually join the army. It’d be interesting to list some statistics.
I totally agree that it is messed up if you don’t help but here is a link to people who thought they were helping but clearly weren’t. It seems messed up to us but these people sincerely believed that they were every bit as much the hero as the guy in the above link.
sorry clearly you can’t imbed links in comments so here it is … http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3891626n
This a perfect example of how the virtual world can be applied to a real setting and can teach us valuable lifesaving techniques. While you are liable if you mess up its still a good thing that the game can teach you how to save lives.
Ok, briefly… just watched the video (haven’t read on yet, getting ready to my exhibition here at the moment) this seems fascinating! And insane!
I will read and comment some more later…