Military Outreach: Giant Videogame Lures Recruits
Joseph De Avila has an interesting front page article in The Wall Street Journal this morning about Virtual Army Experience, a life size videogame the Army trucks out to state fairs and other events to give potential recruits a taste of military action.
There are four versions of the exhibit, which cost about $9 million to develop. Almost $10 million is spent each year setting up the exhibits at various venues around the country such as Six Flags Amusement Parks. The exhibits are huge, almost 20,000 square feet, and involve life size Humvees, helicopters, and “guns” that visitors can use to “shoot” bad guys on large video screens.
Participants enter a dark, inflatable dome. They climb into one of six modified Humvees or two Black Hawk helicopters. Each vehicle, mounted with fake M-249 Squad Automatic Weapons and M-4 rifles, faces three huge screens where the videogame is projected.
Players fire air-pressured guns, meant to mimic the recoil and kickback of real ones. The ethnicity of the bad guys they shoot at is ambiguous. The rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire blares from the game’s speakers and the Humvees shake from the simulated blasts of roadside bombs. Some participants hoot and holler. Despite the nature of the game, there is no blood or guts on screen.
Scores are higher if players only shoot people in uniform; they lose points for firing indiscriminately or at noncombatants.
After the videogame experience, players meet with real soldiers in a sort of “debriefing” that focuses on a positive military message. Participants fill out contact information before playing. Those meeting the Army’s criteria are contacted by recruitment personnel shortly after. About 55,000 people visited the exhibit last year, and about 2,200 met criteria and expressed an interest in volunteering for military service.
The military always faces criticism for its recruiting efforts, from being kicked off college campuses and in some places chased out of town. Naturally, the notion of using videogames for recruiting has faced sharp criticism, too. De Avila spoke with one young man who brushed it off, saying, “Beer companies have hot women. They have a videogame.” Due to complaints at a music festival in Wisconsin, the Army modified the game portion of the exhibit so players shot targets instead of the usual race-neutral terrorists.
References:
De Avila, J. (2008, July 28). War games: Army lures civilians by letting them play soldier. The Wall Street Journal. p.A1.
Tags: Joseph De Avila, Virtual Army Experience
Business Lit, Military Games, Virtual Reality, WSJ, Xbox | John Rice | 
July 28, 2008 11:53 am
