America's Army Returning To Linux?

[phoronix]

Phoronix: America's Army Returning To Linux?

Do you remember the days when we had America's Army for Linux? The first-person shooter game sponsored by the US government and uses Epic's Unreal Engine while being distributed freely? Well, it could come back to Linux! There were Linux server and client versions of America's Army up through v2.5 Direct Action. At that point, however, Ryan Gordon had abandoned his AA client porting work to Linux and Mac OS X...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=NjcxMA

[Extreme Coder]

How can they port it when UT3 is still not out?

I guess it will be soon.. :/

[TechMage89]

I've gone over those AA forum threads several times, and there doesn't seem to be any indication that they're seriously considering doing a Linux port. Where is that information from?

[Milyardo]

For some reason while the game developers friendly, there are a few trolls who think they represent the Army when they post(ie [MIA]KCToker), but for some reason the forum moderators seem to not care.

The only person with a ability represent the views of the Army is [Dev]Pye. The rest are just trolls and Windows Fan Boys.

[Svartalf]

Phoronix: America's Army Returning To Linux?

Do you remember the days when we had America's Army for Linux? The first-person shooter game sponsored by the US government and uses Epic's Unreal Engine while being distributed freely? Well, it could come back to Linux! There were Linux server and client versions of America's Army up through v2.5 Direct Action. At that point, however, Ryan Gordon had abandoned his AA client porting work to Linux and Mac OS X...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=NjcxMA

Did Lucifer ice-skate to work this morning? I didn't think they'd revisit the thing any time in the reasonable future from when they axed the support back ages ago.

It IS interesting that there's rumblings about this and that they're working at using the new UT engine for it. Food for thought, I'd say.

[Fixxer_Linux]

Eventhough it's nice to have another game natively running with linux, America's army is not exactly the game I like to play as I see some US government propaganda in this game.
After all, this is game is only made for US teens that could then change their mind upon enroling in US army and then going in Iraq or somewhere else to fight "against the bad axe".

I don't say it's good or bad to enrole in US army, I just say that I don't want that video games become a way of political propaganda.
Just for that, I don't want to play AA and rather play terrorist in CSS ! :D

[TechMage89]

I don't have a problem with America's Army being propaganda of sorts. It never pretends to be anything else, and nothing about it is blatantly false or misleading. I would like to see a new port for Linux. It sounds like that will only happen if one of the devs spends his spare time doing that, though, and it will depend on the next version being OpenGL-based.

[Dragonlord]

With Fixxer_Linux here. It's propaganda material of the worst. I would never touch it no matter what platform it's for. I've done my military service myself ( obligatory in my country ) so I do not need such propaganda ( maybe some understand now why I like Deus-Ex for providing me with means to "not kill" and still win ;) )

[xav1r]

I agree, stupid military propaganda tool, rather pathetic that the us army has to resort to these kind of gimmicks to get naive fools to enlist. :rolleyes::rolleyes: I thought the usa said patriotism was in an all time high! :p

[Extreme Coder]

Eventhough it's nice to have another game natively running with linux, America's army is not exactly the game I like to play as I see some US government propaganda in this game.
After all, this is game is only made for US teens that could then change their mind upon enroling in US army and then going in Iraq or somewhere else to fight "against the bad axe".

I don't say it's good or bad to enrole in US army, I just say that I don't want that video games become a way of political propaganda.
Just for that, I don't want to play AA and rather play terrorist in CSS ! :D
lol, so true here.. :P

[Forge]

I played AA regularly and enjoyed it from initial betas up to the last Linux 2.5 release and even a bit beyond.

If they come back, I'll probably renew my contact info and account and start playing again.

If not, whatever. I don't expect much from them, the Army targets the majority, they want conformists who will mindlessly follow orders, and Linux/OSX doesn't follow that philosophy well.

[reavertm]

Why do you care that much of possible propaganda there - it's just a game.

[Dragonlord]

It's not "just a game". This game has been made for propaganda purpose. And if you don't belief this go read the official statements. They say it themselves that this is done for said purpose.

[reavertm]

It's not "just a game". This game has been made for propaganda purpose. And if you don't belief this go read the official statements. They say it themselves that this is done for said purpose.

Agreed.
And you are free to call it propaganda tool (it is, what's the problem here?) or whatever you wish and refuse to enjoy it as a game just for that purpose - or (especially when you're not US citizen) you can just play the game - quite nice multiplayer 3D shooter with at least acceptable graphics and good replayability - your choice.
(I'm not referring to anyone particular here - 'you' = those who take more ideological approach - it's purely personal taste whether it's worthy to take it).

Besides, what's really that bad in advertising national military service? As long as you are free to decide for your own whether to join...

cheers

[Chris]

And you are free to call it propaganda tool (it is, what's the problem here?) or whatever you wish and refuse to enjoy it as a game just for that purpose - or (especially when you're not US citizen) you can just play the game
For me, it becomes a problem when the game becomes preachy and pushy. I don't know if America's Army is like this, but as it's usually what propaganda implies, it really destroys the enjoyment when they keep pulling you to the side to say how great something is, when you really don't care and just want them to shut up.

[Fixxer_Linux]

Agreed.
And you are free to call it propaganda tool (it is, what's the problem here?) or whatever you wish and refuse to enjoy it as a game just for that purpose - or (especially when you're not US citizen) you can just play the game - quite nice multiplayer 3D shooter with at least acceptable graphics and good replayability - your choice.
(I'm not referring to anyone particular here - 'you' = those who take more ideological approach - it's purely personal taste whether it's worthy to take it).

Besides, what's really that bad in advertising national military service? As long as you are free to decide for your own whether to join...

cheers


Beyond the propaganda, just to review the game, I found it boring as you need to do all the training stuff before playing. You must follow the orders. When I play a game, I want to shoot and kill, not to train myself before shooting. However, it's always nice to have a tutorial part in the game, just to learn the movement combination and the use of weapons, but in AA, this training part is far too much for my taste.
:D

[Dragonlord]

Besides, what's really that bad in advertising national military service? As long as you are free to decide for your own whether to join...
A couple of points here. First you do not join them "out of free will". If you know with what tricks they lure people in ( including things like looking for drunk students on beaches since they sign any crap ) then you would not think that high of said army. Second this army has caused more bad press than their commanding president did. For me this is simply a red flag since this is not an army but a human disrespecting tool to oppress whoever has a different opinion ( remember the line "who is not our friend is our enemy"? ). I'm in general against war games ( that is, those based on real world wars that happened or trying to glorify the "almighty" American army <.=.< ) so this is not against one particular game.

[me262]

While these are valid points, I have to make a comment on all of this.

This in a sense the elitism that's been pushing companies away. We're getting a game on the Linux platform (forgetting the fact that it WAS), for FREE*, and you all are talking about it's bad points. In all the crap that's been going on lately with Linux gaming (UT3 delay, Carmack's supposed drop of official support, etc), I see this as... well kind of hard to explain, so I'll use a quote from The Dark Knight, "because it's the game we need, but not the game we deserve." One just has to look past the propaganda.

I'll say this, if AA comes out on Linux before UT3 I'll be thoroughly angry at Epic.

[reavertm]

A couple of points here. First you do not join them "out of free will". If you know with what tricks they lure people in ( including things like looking for drunk students on beaches since they sign any crap ) then you would not think that high of said army.

You know, there are still countries, where military service is obligatory...
Those being drunk to loosing unconsciousness should blame only themselves - as they could have been as well used for sex, robbed or just beaten.

[Fixxer_Linux]

I'll say this, if AA comes out on Linux before UT3 I'll be thoroughly angry at Epic.

Oh yeah, same here, as if AA runs with UT engine, this will really really annoy me as we would all then imagine that the port of UT3 linux client could have been done much much faster.

Imagine AA running with linux before UT3 and both games using the same engine ?

[Dragonlord]

You know, there are still countries, where military service is obligatory...
Those being drunk to loosing unconsciousness should blame only themselves - as they could have been as well used for sex, robbed or just beaten.
Guess what, in my country it IS obligatory. Any questions left? That said I prefer the army in my country. At last they are not as retarded as the American army.

[kgroombr]

I agree, stupid military propaganda tool, rather pathetic that the us army has to resort to these kind of gimmicks to get naive fools to enlist. :rolleyes::rolleyes: I thought the usa said patriotism was in an all time high! :p

How about a draft and force you to go in?

Only somebody that hasn't been in the military would call somebody naive to enlist. I have been in over 21 years and plan to do 30. I have been to the desert, and would go again in a minute. I love what I do and wouldn't change the last 21 years at all.

Ken

[MamiyaOtaru]

Yeah, AA is unabashedly a propaganda tool. It also aims to be mildly educational. Fixxer_Linux, don't like training and taking orders? Hey the Army might not be for you! But yeah, there's a reason it's free. You can pay for a professional game, play a free game with questionable graphics built on a game engine charitably open sourced by a large company, or play a professional game supported some way other than you paying for it. This other way is usually advertising. If you don't like who it is advertising for, you can ignore it and play the game anyway or just ignore the game completely. Good for you.

Guess what, in my country it IS obligatory. Any questions left?
Yes. That being the case, how can you complain about a voluntary service? Vague insinuations about people being tricked into joining (citation needed) don't cut it. Fact: in your country you are forced to serve. Fact: in the USA you are not. Spin all you like, them's the beans.

That said, I totally agree with you about Deus Ex. I'm sick of shooting things being the only gaming experience in first person games. Mirror's Edge might be one to keen an eye on as well.

[Dragonlord]

Didn't hear about that title yet. Let's have a look on google later on.

About the army stuff. The army of America is anything else but "free to join". If you target people who are in deep shit live situations where mostly only the army "seems" to be the way out of the troubles ( without telling them though "what" they are supposed to sign up ) is not what I call "free to join". There has been a nice documentary over your army over there showing how it really looks like with this propagated "free to join" ( I can tell you, it's a fucking farce! ). In my country it's obligatory but you know what you get into. We are a pure defensive army since we simply lack in offense big deal. Therefore our army is mostly into peace making and catastrophe helping ( although all the required soldier stuff you have to get through too ). So I see a big difference between an obligatory army ( not a professionals army by the way ) you know exactly how it works and that is mostly transparent compared with a aggressive moloch type army which lies into the face of the people it is supposed to fight for and tricks them into doing things they would never have agreed to under normal circumstances.

[me262]

Do YOU have what it takes to be a citizen?
Do your part and sign up now! :D

... Would you like to know more?

[niniendowarrior]

Come on Michael. This smells like a speculative article hoping for something that isn't there.