Would video games get you to join the Army?

The Army Experience Center in Philly: Recruitment tool or fun?

(Credit: U.S. Army)

The U.S. Army has spent $12 million on a new facility in Philadelphia that abandons the use of recruiters selling the Army life in favor of video games and loud rock music, according to a Reuters report.

Dubbed the U.S. Army Experience Center, the facility at the Franklin Mills shopping mall in Philadelphia sports 60 computers preloaded with military video games, 19 Xbox 360 controllers, and video displays that "describe military bases and career options in great detail," Reuters reports.

Visitors to the center can play games that allow them to fire on enemy combatants from a Humvee or engage in helicopter missions where the player is firing on the enemy from an Apache or Black Hawk helicopter.

The center first opened in August as the first step in what is a two-year experiment on the part of the Army to recruit more service people. So far, the experiment has proven successful: Reuters reports that 33 full-time soldiers and 5 reservists have have joined the U.S. Army since its inception. More importantly, that recruitment tally bests the five "traditional" recruiting centers it replaced.

For its part, the Army says it's not necessarily trying to recruit young soldiers. Instead, it says the Experience Center is being used as a way to inform the public.

"What we are doing here is reaching out to Americans, giving them the opportunity to understand their Army," Maj. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick, head of the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, said in a statement. "Oftentimes, people have a negative perception of the Army, but the negatives are a very small part. Our soldiers are well-trained, well-equipped, and serving a great mission."

That's an interesting take, but one that deserves some more contemplation. Is the U.S. Army Experience Center really just a place to teach people about the "real" Army? Or is it a place to coax people into joining through video games?

Perhaps the answer to that question isn't so simple. Undoubtedly, people join the service for a number of reasons: stability, financial aid, patriotism, and education. But it's no secret that the Armed Forces have had trouble recruiting people in recent years, and although the military contends that it has met its quota for 2008, finding people to join isn't as easy as it once was.

Maybe that's why it has turned to video games to recruit new soldiers. After all, most of the people joining have grown up in an environment where first-person war games are the norm. Shooting a virtual character on-screen in Call of Duty has become second-nature.

Retired Lt. Col. David Grossman has written extensively on the impact that video games and U.S. Army simulators can have on the lives of children. He claims that video games and similar programs like the U.S. Army Experience Center "condition" soldiers to be "desensitized" to killing, and he even goes so far as to call some violent video games "murder simulators."

But an equally compelling argument can be made in proving that violent video games do not cause children to become desensitized and that the U.S. Army Experience isn't the first step in training potential recruits to kill.

But I digress. Based on the Center's recruitment figures so far, it's not a stretch to say the "experience" is working quite well for the Army. After all, if one game-equipped facility can replace five traditional recruitment offices, it certainly suggests that people are warming to the idea of joining the Army through video games.

Is it right to use video games as a means of recruiting soldiers? That's debatable. On one hand, the U.S. Army should have every right to recruit individuals as effectively (and honestly) as possible. But on the other hand, its use of video games suggests that it may be trying to glorify the real business of the Armed Forces.

In the end, compelling arguments can be made on both sides. Still, the question remains: would video games get you to join the Army?

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[pair_o_dimes]

I wonder if they have simulations for standing at attention for long ceremonies, conducting drills, cleaning toilets, and prepping uniforms for grueling inspections? XD

[MSSlayer]

Exactly, the professional liars known as military recruiters need to show everything about military life.

[rom-calgary]

All that is part of the process of training an officer. Just like Mr Miyagi telling Daniel to "Wax on, Wax off".

[D3vildog699]

"All that is part of the process of training an officer." <br /><br />Uh try again... i spent many an hour cleaning my blues and alphas for inspection, even my greens and dessert cammis, i was just enlisted as well. <br /><br />Long Ceremonies - Check<br />Conducting Drills - Check<br />Cleaning Toilets - Try porta potties with my hands and garbage bags for gloves. They called my team Smurfs.

[myles taylor]

I think that it's will work. That's what the generation they are trying to attract appeals to these days.

[ghostofitpast]

I am reminded of Evan Wright's book, GENERATION KILL. I used Amazon search to find the following sentence about Marine Lance Corporal Harold Trombley: "It's his first time on the Mark-19, and he's eager for the chance to blow stuff up with it." The Army is basically appealing to those who are similarly "eager for the chance to blow stuff up."

[sanenazok]

Noooo waaaayyyy....when in the history of the world have the armed forces appealed to the introvert artist? C'mon blowing things up is why people join the army just like people become cops to beat up hippies.

[MSSlayer]

Actually the Army targets the poor. Just like they drafted the poor during the Vietnam war.<br /><br />The rich join to blow stuff up. The middle class joins for a really crappy educational program and sometimes to blow up stuff.

[Pishkado]

Part of Army training is to desensitize people to killing. People in the Army, those who conceived and managed this, are part of that picture.<br /><br />One problem we face as a society is that the Army doesn't spend anything like the same resources on resensitizing them when they're discharged. Given the centuries of experience that have teaching normal people to be killers, and their lack of experience teaching trained killers to be normal people, that's not surprising - but it's something they ought to look at, given the number of trained killers who will be released onto our streets over the coming years. It's a tribute to the average soldier's common decency that there aren't more problems than there are.

[karpenterskids]

My answer to you, Don:<br />HELL NO.<br /><br /><br />Anyone who enlists in the army simply because they happen to enjoy video games is a MORON.<br />Seriously.<br />And personally, I'd rather have 50 smart, devoted recruits in my army than 100 half-hearted morons.<br />But maybe that's just me?

[D3vildog699]

Thats why you send in the Marines, Oorah

[fleurya]

It's just you. The armed forces will take any idiot they can get their hands on right now, and use any means to get them since the drafting notion got quickly shot down a little over a year ago.

[oldmanangry]

Since a soldier has some legal authority to take life for his or her country, it's killing, not murder. Thus, killing simulator would probably be the preferred nomenclature. What would be cool would be having to play the simulator for ten hours in 110 degree heat with 80 pounds of equipment on.

[you_used2b_good]

I couldn't have said it better!!! Right on....angryo'lman!!!

[karpenterskids]

haha...good idea.<br />hey, if they're aiming for realistic...you can't argue with that. =P

[MSSlayer]

So if some legal authority decided to kill you, it wouldn't be murder?

[brandonh33]

@MSSlayer, you have proven through your multiple posts here that you are not mature enough to come up with the slightest reasonable debate or add to a conversation. It is fairly easy to get what he means by having legal athority to take life for his or her country. If you cant figure it out I suggest you do not comment again to avoid further embarrasment.

[sythara]

Can you imagine the pitch line for this: "Hey man its just like CoD4 but with better graphics!"

[ChicagoZ]

I am laughing, but somehow, I think that's hitting really close to how the Army envisions the way games work to "get" people to join up.

[ChicagoZ]

To answer the question, a big fat no. I agree with KarpentersKids about morons joining up because of video games.<br /><br />I don't care what anybody says: Video games do NOT desensitize anyone to violence. Watching the 10 o'clock news or any of those reality TV shows like, Most Insane Accidents Ever, do more to desensitize than any video game. Why you might ask? Because video games, are not real, and never will be. End of story.

[karpenterskids]

*hi-five*<br />:)<br /><br />And to add to what you just said...I've played video games for years, mostly games that involve violence and some sort of shooting, and I can tell you myself, if it de-sensitizes at all, it's not much.<br /><br />In 2007, I got held up at gunpoint by some robbers in a foreign country.<br />The feeling of not knowing if the trigger is going to be pulled is TORTURE.<br />And the tingling that starts in the upper neck and paralyzes the entire body is something no video game will ever be able to recreate.<br />No matter how good the graphics or intensity of the game.

[mattharms]

Do they also simulate what it feels like to be caught in a road side bomb or IED?

[George_Marenco]

No because playing video games and being in a actual war zone are two different things.

[MSSlayer]

"On one hand, the U.S. Army should have every right to recruit individuals as effectively (and honestly) as possible."<br /><br />1. They aren't honest about it, ever<br /><br />2. They should not be allowed to recruit. Especially not in high schools, like drugs and weapons, military recruiters should be banned from all public campuses. If someone is interested enough, they will approach them. Someone tricked into it by lies is going to be a crappy soldier, airmen, sailor, or marine. When reality sets in, they became a hindrance. As a disabled vet, I have seen it time and again. People bought the line that it would be exciting join up and get a dose of reality. Then the real problems start. If they can not get enough to sign up based on desire to join, then that should tell them and the politicians something.

[fleurya]

Exactly, when the goal is clear, honest, and agreed-upon by the general population of the nation, people will be willing and eager to join and support the cause. That is not the case in this situation, which is why they are having so much trouble getting recruits. <br /><br />I can't say I 100% agree with the banning of recruiters from schools. The military is a viable career option, but I do agree that the recruiters are deceitful in their recruiting efforts. They need to approach it as business recruiters do. But the difference is that unlike business recruiters who have people knocking down their door, the military can't get people to even get people to give them a look with the truth. And that makes the military recruiters more akin to carnival game barkers trying to entice people with false hopes and claims.

[fleurya]

I forgot to mention the most important difference between regular recruiters and army recruiters: if you get a job that sucks because the company recruiter lied, you can just quit, so they can't really lie. Whereas an army recruiter can l lie through their teeth and tell you whatever they want because they know once you sign up the only way to get out whenever you want is through a prison cell.

[you_used2b_good]

I can understand where you guys are coming from, but for how long are we supposed to shelter these poor naive high schoolers from the big bad recruiters? These young men and women are inevitably going to have to make their own decisions sometime. If we as parents, have established strong communication lines with our kids, they should be able to look to us for answers. Think of all the Vets who DID lose their lives. 57,000+ in Vietnam alone!! They had no choice! C'mon, just think, guns, drugs, murder, teen pregnancyand sexual assault are common factors in our nations schools nowadays and now some are viewing military recruiters as the Big Bad Wolves? These are our heroes! All in favor of going and fighting on the front lines of Afghanistan when the troops grow thin, RAISE YOUR HANDS. I love my kids all the same as any parent, but you got to let them break out of their shell sometime. The recruiters are just doing their jobs.

[MSSlayer]

You throw around the term hero too much, it has lost all meaning.<br /><br />There are heroes in the military, but not all military members are heroes.<br /><br />Lying to kids so they can die in Iraq, for nothing, is not heroic. It is evil.

[brandonh33]

@you_used2b_good, I agree with you to the fullest extent and am happy to see that the media hasn?t desensitized everybody here. Wait what did I say? Yes that?s right. All of you are watching news run by far left liberals what do you expect? They make you all think that the United States is the worst country in the world, we should pull all our troops home and there will be no consequences. We should just talk everything over with terrorists. Well that?s not how it works. And you think some video game is desensitizing you? Think again. @msslayer/other non-patriots here, I can personally guarantee you that every single one of those soldiers in Iraq is more of a hero then you will ever be. They are over there fighting for your safety and all you do is mock them. Just because they are not fighting for your safety directly at this moment makes you think their cause is pointless? Do you not understand how selfish that is? Nobody is denying that being a soldier is a tough job. It will be grueling and humiliating at times. They prepare you for that in training. Do you think that they keep recruits in training against their will? Do you think they kept me there against my will? No. I had the right to hop on the next flight home from my training base any time I wanted to. These men know what they are getting into. You act as though the army just puts them in a videogame and when they like it, the army ships them over directly to the front lines. Going back to MSSlayer: You say recruiters are Lying to our kids so they can die in Iraq for nothing? The death count for the war is now just over 4000 people. Don?t get me wrong every single life in that list is a terrible loss and I wish their families well. But for a war, a casualty number that low is unheard of. The people who organized the attack against the United States on Sept. 11 killed 2,752 innocent people in a matter of seconds and 8 years later our troop casualty count is only 4000? You do not understand what kind of success that number is for the Army. This is the safest war fought ever, and it?s for a great cause.

[faith_1]

Ok, maybe there is something wrong with me, but would anyone else get an irresitable urge rage and TK everyone else on the simulator with me? Either turn my rifle on them or drop a VR 'nade in the humvee or helio cockpit and just LOL all the way to VR hell?

[fleurya]

LOL! Thanks, we needed a humorous break.

[you_used2b_good]

SANENAZOK......what kind of comment was that , that you made this morning? Maybe it's just me, but I perceived your comment to be degrading to say the least. I will agree that there are a few enlistees who may have joined just to "blow things up" or to "kill"....but we should be proud of who they are and thankful that they put their lives out there on the front lines(where most of us would rather not be) to blow all them bastards up before they are the targets! Because of them, our heroes, we live the lives we do in our safe haven, The United States of America, away from the bloody war that they are fighting on our behalf right now. Whether they kill for our country, as a hobby or as a moral obligation, they are our heroes!!!! Thank You Vets and Active Members!!!

[MSSlayer]

Very, very few people join because they are patriotic.<br /><br />Stop diluting the word hero.

[eumaios]

ridiculous, that's the kind of arrogant, insensitive, and ignorant u..s..a ******** that has most of the world hating americans. your use of the word "bastards" is particularly offensive; do you realise how many iraqi women and children have been killed by the indescriminate nature of "precision bombing", sure you'll blow up a building with some of your enemy in it, but what about a families that lived in that building, or children playing in the street beside it? don't forget that bush made up a reason to go to war in iraq, so if half the country is turning against u.s. forces, they're only doing what they think patriotic, something which you seem to be very familiar with...

[Notoapplefanbois]

Just to add to eumaios, go on google.co.uk and search America Friendly Fire. and make sure it's .co.uk.

[mikego13]

Has anyone seen what game that they use. The best info I could find anywhere said that the army uses call to duty 4 <br />The rating for that game is M for mature which means 18 and older. If that is the case are they allowing teenagers and minors to play this game.

[D3vildog699]

I don't think the army would use CoD4 with that particular game. my guess is that they had one custom built for that interface

[D3vildog699]

I don't think the army would use CoD4 with that particular game. my guess is that they had one custom built for that interface... never mind... looked at the pic again and that is from COD4....

[Notoapplefanbois]

They don't use COD4, they use America's Army: Special Forces, which is a game developed by the U.S. army. Graphics aren't great but at least they can play it on old pc's/360's.

[D3vildog699]

That pic is from COD4, level with sergeant Jackson. at that part a truck comes around... its annoying as hell on Veteran mode

[Inconnux]

Army recruiters have Never been honest. I still can remember the screaming sound of artillery while in training and the 'crack thump' of the sound of gunfire faced in my direction. I love FPS games but I would rather go to jail than to war. Army life isn't sexy

[benjwah]

Sounds great. Where's the game where the army sends you to attack a country that poses no threat to you? <br />Then a dialog box comes up with "Will you follow these questionably legal orders?" and then gives you two options: "Yes" or alternately, "Spend Time in Jail".

[cmc279]

They had one of these set up at Six Flags St. Louis when I was there once. My brother and I "played" the sim. It was pretty fun. The computers that you were on before you go embark on your "mission" had America's Army on them, not CoD4. Then the mission with the humvee's was you were in a convoy going into this town and you get ambushed. I'm assuming it was something they either pulled out of America's Army or created specifically for this experience. (although I just saw that someone recognized the scene from CoD4)

[dctech08]

sad but true, but very indirectly. remember the game Americas Army. it is actually fun. i always wondered why the army would make a game for people to play. i thought it might have something to do with testing your hand and eye coordination. a game for people interested in military affairs.

[zoodeht]

Would I join the military after playing a video game?? Answer: No. Not because I think its stupid or not real enough, its because I know there is more to the military than shooting someone. Their using this video game because of the fact you get to shoot people, which is the most discussed part of war and it appeals to the younger generations. Everyone thinks the military is about shooting people, its not even close. Sure if you are in infantry, then your chances of being in a firefight are higher. Bu what about being a navigator, mechanic, or a medical doctor. We never hear anything good about the war, especially from the news, they show the bad stuff because people are drawn to that. I personally don't watch the news, because its depressing. Now personally I was going to join the military (marines) but an opportunity opened and I took it. The reasons I was going to join the military are: serve my country, family members in WWII, and a new experience. I probably detoured from the main question but I wanted to get something off my chest. To end; I would like to know if anyone who commented or read the article has been in the military and what they think about the subject??