Not Your Parents' Video Games

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"To promote America's Army: Overmatch, a free game created by the Army as a recruitment tool, a group of Army Special Forces personnel staged an urban tactical assault exercise outside the [Los Angeles] convention center" hosting the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3. The "helicopters, machine guns and face-painted soldiers leaping off tall buildings" startled and even "panicked" passersby. One retired Army major with the game project said: "This game is what we do in reality. We're the real deal." The Australian Financial Review reports on another trend visible at E3: video game product placement. "Such games provide an alternative channel as entertainment habits change. Television networks have already christened the decline in hours watched by males aged 18 to 24 the 'testosterone tune-out'... But games sales seem set on an upward curve."