The Chinese are setting their sights on American soldiers. Well, at least they are in a new virtual training program.

With the recent news that the Chinese Army has been using a video game training program that puts American soldiers on the wrong side of the cross-hairs (something that is very unheard of in video games), a large portion of the media is outraged at the fact that Americans are being targeted by the Chinese, even if it is only in virtual reality. The problem here is whether or not we as Americans should be upset about this or not. Many people in the media are seeming to have forgotten about almost every first-person shooter video game made in America, which target almost every nationality in the world as America’s fictional enemies.”Glorious Mission” is the recently released game that is causing such a stir of mixed opinions. Co-developed by the Nanjing branch of the People’s Liberation Army (China’s combined armed forces), it is being used a combat training simulator for soldiers preparing for active duty. Using video game simulations to train for armed combat is not a new trend however, as the United States has been doing this since 2002 with their “game” “America’s Army.” The difference here is that “America’s Army” has been used more as a recruitment method and features generic enemy soldiers of no specific nationality.

The larger issue here is whether we should really be upset that virtual depictions of American soldiers are being targeted by the Chinese army. Even though “Glorious Mission” is being used as a training simulator, it is still a video game, and American games have been targeting other countries as their virtual enemies for years. Take “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” for example, where you spend almost the entire game battling Russians as they invade the United States. I’m sure there are some Russians who are a bit sour about about their virtual counterparts being slaughtered by millions of gamers around the world, but I’m also sure they come to the quick realization that it is still simply a video game.

Lets face it, video games in today’s world are beginning to rival the artistic expression of many other mediums, and as time goes on more and more games are going to be considered controversial. I’m not saying that I am completely okay with “Glorious Mission” choosing American soldiers as their virtual enemies, but as long as the being enemies part stays in the virtual world, I really can’t complain. Besides, if people really started caring about who was being killed in video games, we’d be looking at an endless amount of World War II games because if there is one thing that history has shown us, it seems to be okay to kill Nazis.