I don’t play video games, and prior to reading this (along with the Edge of Art chapter on Deep Play) I did not know that the US Army actually has official video games. I can see how they are used as recruitment tools, and they must be effective, because I know how popular many of these games are. It is a little strange to see a medium that is usually meant for entertainment and escapist purposes being used as a recruitment tool.
I also interested in the passage that dealt with how “story-telling (and fear) can lead people to support things they otherwise would not.” I can see how this is very true. Often times we will forgive a major character for evil deeds when they are done for the “greater good,” or when the character is shown as ultimately a hero, as the article points out. I think that many examples of this can be found in modern television. In the show “Breaking Bad,” the main character is struggling high school chemistry who resorts to cooking and dealing meth in order to secure his family’s financial future when he is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Throughout the course of the series, he does all sorts of things of terrible things, including murder. However, through the way the story is told, we still forgive him and empathize with him. Like no quarter states, “Despite his character flaws, readers tend to want him to get away with murder. In the end, forms of redemption operate in both stories that deemphasize the violent acts committed by the central characters.”