A Virtual World Propaganda Machine?
Machinima-master Paul Marino sends along the news of a machinima piece that’s come under scrutiny by the U.S. House Intelligence Committee recently. “The machinima was held up by ‘experts’ as propaganda and recruiting material for terrorists,” Paul writes. (And there’s video here.) While that doesn’t seem to be what’s actually happening, it’s interesting to consider the possibilties. In fact, what’s far more likely is that virtual worlds would be used by the U.S. government for similar purposes. The government already has an armed forces recruiting tool in the multiplayer first-person shooter game America’s Army, so it’s actually a short step for someone to start trying to win gamers’ hearts and minds through similar means. A number of people involved in virtual worlds have recently been testifying before various congressional and government intelligence bodies, 3pointD hears, and there has even been talk of U.S. government institutions opening an island in the virtual world of Second Life. While I don’t know that any of these discussions have involved machinima, it does seem that there will eventually be a government presence of some sort of another in virtual worlds. That will certainly change the landscape a bit.
Feeds
Hm. Where’s this talk of the USG in SL come from?
I need to prepare a suitable response :)
Great story, thanks for the link. So funny to watch them chase it back to Team America World Police! One of the TAWP builders leads up our SL build team.
Guess I should keep an eye out for government spybots…..machinima is dangerous.
> there has even been talk of U.S. government institutions opening an island in the virtual world of Second Life.
Come on, you were making that up, weren’t you… well, there may have been “talk” of it, but people can talk about anything.
Let’s just say I’m pretty sure it’s already happened.