Gamespy and several others have picked up on an interesting protest by Joseph DeLappe, an associate professor at the University of Nevada Reno. He logs into servers running the FPS America's Army, and instead of taking part, simply hits the chat button and types in the names of American soldiers killed during the Iraq conflict.
DeLappe tells GameSpy that his Dead-In-Iraq project has targeted this particular game because it represents, "a tax-payer funded propaganda and recruiting and advertising tool for the Army."
"you have a fantasy about killing and being in the military, but nobody dies, there are no consequences. It's a complete fabrication... it's free, it's fun to play, it's seductive, it presents a fantasy portrait of what war is like."
The protest has provoked strong opinions in game forums, and the immediate reactions of fellow players on the same server as DeLappe are often colourful to say the least. So is this a legitimate new form of protest in what is essentially a public space, or just another type of juvenile subversion akin to team-killing?
