To help spin the good spin in its current stoush with Hamas, the Israeli Defence Force has launched a program called IDF Ranks. It’s essentially a game about being a mouthpiece for the Israeli Defence Force.
It’s aimed at young internet users, both inside Israel but especially internationally, who are told that by signing up they’ll be joining “the ultimate virtual army”, and be rewarded with promotions and medals for jumping on social media and spreading the good word about… well, war.
Enlisting the common man to do your dirty work is a trick as old as war itself, but this kind of candy-coloured “gamification” is certainly new. Regardless on your thoughts on the conflict at large, I’d hope most people could see the problems, or at least poor taste, in making a game out of “spreading the truth” about one side’s role in a war in which real people are dying.
IDF Ranks [IDF, via Game Politics]
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