A recruiting computer game “America's Army” is proving too realistic for some people.

The free online war game, which was created as a recruiting tool by the the US Army, allows gamers to take on the roles of real-life American war heroes and replay their exploits across Iraq and Afghanistan. But Peter Mantello, a video game analyst and media studies lecturer at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan, said the game perpetuates cliches about perceived threats to the West and tend to “protect and justify America's interests”.

He said the game flattens the adversary and reinforces stereotypes about enemies and threats. One of the common stereotypes is that the Middle East is a place of perpetual warfare. (Actually it's more like Disney World. sub.ed.) There is an absence of modern buildings and there is no sign of ordinary life. Special ops soldier or forces pose as the necessary solution, the civilising instrument of modernisation, the democratic equaliser who through superior technological hardware and gutsy marine bravado will vanquish pre-modern evil, he said.

He said it was possible to show games that depicted collateral damage, but for some reason the Industry and the American Army do not want this seen, Professor Mantello said.