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Army Discusses MMO Troop Training Sim
An anonymous reader writes "Over at GameSpot, there's an interview with Dr. Michael Macedonia of the U.S. Army about the AWE training sim, a 'massively multiplayer simulation [based on the There 'virtual world' game engine] that will be used by military personnel to train troops in urban situations before they are airlifted to a battle zone.' Macedonia says 'We built downtown Baghdad in this environment', and also says 'we call our games tactical decision aids. Our thing is not making people shoot better; it's making people think better.'" We previously featured an initial announcement of this project in January.
Nothing like useing the latest toy to kill..
Makes me wonder why the hell I should care.
hi
We, the USA, and the rest of the world spend far too much money on military affairs. Every year it just gets worse.
... is simply bad for business.
The purpose of the military is to protect the local country from invasion from other countries and their armies.
The Americans have 20000 nuclear bombs, no one is going to invade them, no one is even going to get close to invading and occupying them.
They don't need a military any more!! Yet they spend tons of their money on this unnecessary endeavor. It is really warping their minds and is making both their neighbors and the rest of the civilized world uncomfortable.
There is some twisted little defect in the American culture that makes their young people actually want to go into dangerous combat situations on the other side of the world and expose themselves to discomfort, death, and dismemberment against people that they have never even heard of. No one else seriously wants to do this.
But since they have so much powerful weaponry, no one wants to just take them aside for a little chat and suggest that they should just 'chill' because they don't have any real enemies that are dangerous enough for them to require this kind of behavior.
Creating an artifical environment where the young Americans can get their 'gook-killing' urges satisified is really money well spent, as long as the simulation is so good that they want to spend more time in it than in the real world.
Because, frankly, in this increasingly networked world of global corporations, having lots of young trigger-happy running amok with no idea of what they're doing, or who they're doing it to, or why they're doing it
Battlefield confusion when the commander dies? Their own death? A commander in chief willing to sacrifice American lives for a people who would be better off left to their own devices?
I have been pwned because my
any one tried the www.warioware.biz games? they are small but how do u access those games in that site!
Why does yahoo do this
Finally... I can get rich by selling my hand crafted virtual weapons of mass destruction on ebay!
Any takers, they are rarer than the admins would lead you to believe!
OS X is closed source. This means that it is the work of the devil - its purpose is to make the end users eat babies.
Linux is the only free OS. Yes the BSD lincenses may appear more free, but as they have no restrictions, they are actually less free than the GPL. You see, restricting the end user more actually makes them more free than not putting restrictions on them. You must be a dumb luser for not understanding this.
And you obviously dont have a real job. A real job involves being a student or professional academic. You see, academics are the ones who know all about productivity - if you work for a commercial organisation you obviously do not know anything about computers. Usability is stupid. Whats wrong with the command line? If you cant use the command line then you shouldnt be using a computer. vi should be the standard word processor - you are such a luser if you want to use Word. Installing software should have to involve recompiling the kernel of the OS. If you dont know how to do this, you are a stupid luser who should RTFM. Or go to a Linux irc channel or newsgroup. After all, they are soooo friendly. If you dont know how the latest 2.6 kernel scheduling algorithm works then they will tell you to stop wasting their time, but they really are quite supportive.
Oh, and M$ is just as evil as Apple. Take LookOUT for instance. You could just as easily use Eudora. Who needs groupware anyway, a simple email client should be all we use (thats all we use as academics, why cant businesses be any different).
And trend setters - Linux is the trend setter. It may appear KDE is a ripoff from XP, but thats because M$ stole the KDE code. We all know they have GPL'ed code hidden in there somewhere (but not the things that dont work, only the things that work could possibly have GPL'ed code in it).
And Apple is the suxor because they charge people for their product. We all know that its a much better business model to give all your products away for free. If you charge for anything, then you are allied with M$ and will burn in hell.
How long before war game training/simulation slides into becoming real-time tactical control of the battlefield?
It's probably already technically possible, and just requires a generational change for the generals to accept it.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
...because I am Stupid American
"Newb" will now be an official military term.
Anyone thinking Harsh Realm? And why do they cancel all the good shows?
Why worry that we now have a "new toy" to train soldiers?
Humanity has been using war games to train soldiers since the time of sparta. Then, as now, the aim was not to sharpen the fighting skills, but the thinking skills.
My feelings on the war in Baghdad aside, I feel happier that the soldiers being sent into the streets of baghdad will feel less nervous, and therefore less trigger happy
A well trained Army is not a more blood-thirsty army, as a matter of fact, the opposite is porbably true.
Johns: Well, how does it look now? Riddick: Looks clear.
When did it become more expensive to outift our troops with the testing gear they use then to create virtual worlds?? If a movie can put together insane sets that look like 1950's new york, just for example, why can't the US Army put up a mock up of Babhdad and let the grunts try it out for REAL. With REAL guns firing paint rounds, REAL backpacks on loaded with REAL survival supplies, and the REAL screams of your men around you. Not a glorified video game. I don't want this to be labelled troll, but it almost seems like by giving them such shit training they are sending the soldiers to die, cause there is no way possible that "virtual" training is anywhere near as helpful to a green soldier as "real" training. If it was the ARMY would have a clue and be heavily recruiting FPS clans around the world....
Where can I sign up for Beta?
Battlefield confusion when the commander dies? Their own death? A commander in chief willing to sacrifice American lives for a people who would be better off left to their own devices?
Battlefield confusion when the commander dies? Their own death? A commander in chief willing to sacrifice American lives for a people who would be better off left to their own devices?
Where do I sign up for beta?
Will this also be available to the general public (possibly in a dumbed down version)?
If so, will "terrorists" be able to learn from this as well, to see how the US soldier gets trained?
Personally, I'm interested, could be a fun game, IMHO there's nothing wrong with virtual killing (in RL I'm kind of a pacifist)
This is the sig that says NI (again)
Forget about the $600 toilet seat...we're talking about the multi-million dollar petting zoo for guys!
Boy are they going to be pissed when they discover that god mode doesn't work in the real world.
Beep beep.
It's all fine & dandy the US Gov't wants to prepare the troops in advance so they're better experienced (and likely safer) actually seeing action. We've been kept abreast of this project througout its project lifecycle (and it seems to have reasonable milestones.
That said, why have things been thrown away? (or have they? We've already seen "America's Army", which was widely distributed, both online and via magazine CD inserts. Now, we've got another one.
Before America's Army was was anything but a few spare electrons in the public's eye, it was said there would be not just one, but two games. Is this the 2nd game?
Why do I get the strange feeling that he slips into something a little less comfortable at night and becomes Captain America or something?
'we call our games tactical decision aids. Our thing is not making people shoot better; it's making people think better'
... if only they could build a game to help the leaders think better rather than shooting their mouths off!
hmmm
In any case, these games will only take the soldiers upto one point. After that, comes the most important aspect of urban warfare... the mind of the enemy. That is where the battles are won or lost. And every adversary is prone to thinking differently in a given situation!
My vote is for this one from choppingblock
What's everyone elses? and no FUCKING userfriendly, which became very unfunny about 25 years ago.
The story claims that the sim will help troops think better, and therefore, by extension, survive in urban combat zones.
I think they are wasting their time. The American military already has a huge advantage in firepower, equipment and training over insurgents in Iraq, and regularly has a kill ratio of over 10:1. Yet the insurgents don't stop, obviously, and the killing breeds ever more hatred against you Americans.
Perhaps building a sim where the idea is to think about what you are doing before you kill thousands of civillians would be a good idea. You Americans are so obsessed with your toys and you wonder then why some third world lunatic with a grudge plans attacks against you.
Can't wait for the hell to break loose when someone perfects their wallhack and aimbot. "omg u cheater, you just killed the whole US army!"
Business Voyeur
Thinking soldiers ? Wonder will never cease.
Reminds me of the strange artifacts reported when using Massive IA system in rendering battles scenes for LOTR
The soldiers ran for the hills. That's what's happening when you think
This is not a rant against the military, but again orwelian newspeak. they dont want soldiers who think better, they want soldier with better reflexes (as opposed to consciousness) and who think they are in a videogame.
Definitively NOT thinking better
--- Back to the trees, back to the trees !
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Why worry that we now have a "new toy" to train soldiers?
Humanity has been using war games to train soldiers since the time of sparta. Then, as now, the aim was not to sharpen the fighting skills, but the thinking skills.
My feelings on the war in Baghdad aside, I feel happier that the soldiers being sent into the streets of baghdad will feel less nervous, and therefore less trigger happy
A well trained Army is not a more blood-thirsty army, as a matter of fact, the opposite is porbably true.
Well... I strongly agree on the need for soldiers better trained to handle conflicts like the one in Iraq, but I wonder if the very American approach of using new technology for that is the best. While there is no doubt that for the war itself the US army's hi-tech approach has worked extremely well as the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns have clearly shown, when it comes to maintaining order on the ground and fighting militias it has its limits. British troops in Iraq have globally been better able to pacify the cities they are in charge of than US soldiers, and the reason behind their relative success is not more high tech, geeky new technology but on-the-ground experience in similar missions acquired in Northern Ireland and Bosnia. I can't see a simulator replacing real experience in dealing with the population; it's not something you can simulate like an air battle.
What do you know about World Politic? Find out in this quiz
Have you considered moving to Europe? Then you could call yourself Smart European.
Did you ever notice European sounds like you're a peon?
Then again there are us "Yurpeons" who think our governments are traitors to Western civilisation, whoring our lives, security, future and our ideals out for some cheap political correctness.
Don't assume you know people's opinions solely based on which continent we happen to live in.
What we need is a MMO Peace sim for the Neo-Con so-called think tanks (think? tanks!). A complete political / economical earth simulation.
So they can find out that their first-strike / secure-the-oil - global strategies will end up having the whole world against them while not really achieving any of their original goals.
As it is, they play it out in real life. To the detriment of the U.S.A. and it's citizens, as in: Terrorist attacks are ever more likely, Americans are coming home in body bags, the economy is severely damaged, a few profiteers run with the money. It's a disaster.
That's why we need an MMO for political leadership. The best army in the world cannot make a flawed strategy work. Just think what they could do with good leadership!
How about training on the difference between Friend and foe. I'd feel happier thinking US troops had a couple of hours training showing them the equipment used by allied and enemy troops, than a frag fest, before going into combat.
Americas Army has been around a while now training soldiers of all ages in basic combat. Puts you through basic training and keeps a database on your skills. It is run by the U.S. Army and when you join, they look up your skills in the database to help direct your training. It's a totally free game developed by the Army for your training pleasure.
It scares me somewhat the the U.S. Army is spending $$$ to train 12 yr old kids how to navigate battlefields.
If you really wanted a good sim, why not just use Paintball? It's probually as close as you can get without killing each other.
Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what's right. --Isaac Asimov
As a Republican and true patriot, I cannot describe how FUCKING HARD my cock gets when someone talks about how great the US military is. Usually I just can't help it and immediately have to blow my load on some pictures of the greatest President and Texan of all time, his excellency GEORGE WALKER BUSH and that nigger general who commanded the Iraq campaign. Needless to say, I printed those out myself, using my AMERICAN PC and my AMERICAN printer! God, it feels so good to live in this country. Those Eurofags have no clue how fantastic it is to be an AMERICAN!
Better get a real democracy, Eurofags, so you can drive nice SUVs and be proud of your armed forces too. Even though you'll never be as great as the good old US of A!
But since the Americunts don't really act in our best interest, smart Europeans don't support them.
(Connected to #washington at awe.af.mil)
[jim521] how do i heal?
[Gunner^USF] selling flak armour
[Gunner^USF] selling flak armour
[Gunner^USF] selling flak armour
[TYLeR] stfu n00b
[jim521] i cant see anythin
[Sgt_Bilko] *Your skill in Ammunition Conservation has increased by 0.1*
[Sgt_Bilko] whoo
[ARMYGIRL] try hitting yourself in the face a few times jim
[ARMYGIRL] maybe *that* would help
[982189] Y DO AIRSTRIKE NOT COME WHEN I KLICK
[982189] >:(
*You see gi-jane healing n00b22*
[_COMMANDER DEATH] OMFG LAG
Thats cause we killed 'em all before this generation got a chance
hey guys! cant we comment anything against the moderators? will it be removed/. ....
any way who are these mods giving scores to the posts?
Why does yahoo do this
it gives realistic death results. as in, when you get 'shot' you have to lie down, stop playing, and watch footage of funerals until the entire simulation run is over...
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
FACT:
The Americans have killed more civilians in one month in Falluja than all the terrorist bombings of the past year, yesterday's included.
Graphics looks crappy, the eviroments are empty, textures washed-out... I think I'm gonna skip tis one. :-)
BTW should US Army shift their world-liberating activities into virtual environment, there is a chance of less countries plunged into chaos and anarchy (Yugoslavia, Iraq), so thumbs up! Give'em better toys to play with!
Many of them spawned facing away from the battle, therefore wouldn't see an enemy, hence they ran.
Commander: Soldier! Why did you skedaddled in the mist of battle?!
Soldier: Sir, I didn't see the enemy so I ran, sir!
Little Bricklets
You want to join the Airforce, they get to play with the Stargate!!
America's response? Barring some miracle in the Fallujah talks, it is to do precisely what the British attempted and failed in Iraq eighty years ago -- shoot and bomb Iraqis into accepting the occupation.
From the film, it didn't seem that the US soldiers - skilled as they may be at killing efficiently - had any talent/inclination/direction to try and win over the locals. They have anyone with language skills so the patrols are limited to hand gestures to "talk" to people, and there is no cultural interaction. As a bizarre contrast, down in Basra, a couple of clowns had shipped out to provide entertainment to the local kids. US patrols are all vehicular, whereas UK troops do (at least some of) theirs on foot, paired up with local police.
End result, US troops need training in fostering local goodwill, not how to shoot (although various ironic statements about how not to shoot friendlies spring to mind).
-- Intelligence is soluble in alcohol
...teaching soldiers that once they are shot in the head, they can just respawn. Or if they see a rocket coming, they can just strafe left or right using the key pad.
Cool.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
It will enhance the effectiveness of america's fighting force. By effectiveness I mean not only their ability to Kill Stuff(tm) but also their ability to not kill stuff. Maybe this will be the difference between soldiers bursting into rooms and spraying the slightest flash of movement and soldiers developing better room-clearance techniques which minimise collateral damage.
I'm not entirely sure why you think the only reason the U.S. army might fight in urban areas is "for strategic control over the resources of the country involved". Also, I'm not sure I know what you mean by that anyway??? Strategic control? Surely an element of that is minimising damage to infrastructure and essential services. Which is what they should be trying to do anyway...I believe this is in the Rules of Engagement and possibly the geneva convention as well. How is it a bad thing for them to try to do this better??
The reason this war has been so protracted is that the army is obviously not all that well equipped to fight in these situations, against a guerilla army, on their home-turf, in an urban environment. Training soldiers to "think better" is the best thing for all concerned.
A well trained army is not a problem, but it may look like a problem if your elected representatives are perceived as using them as a tool of oppression I guess.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/page/0,12438,115102 1,00.html
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Yet the insurgents don't stop, obviously, and the killing breeds ever more hatred against you Americans.
Yeah, just like in that book, where the DESERT POWER nomads were willing to sacrifice themselves against the evil Sardaukar terror troops!
Except that the lines in this situation are a little less black-and-white than your oversimplified spin of things would imply. Get a grip.
We can neither love nor pity nor forgive. If you make a slip in handling us you die!
That;s it. I'm moving to France.
What can really give you an advantage is knowing a 'map' if soldiers could run around in a virtual mockup of a real city they would naturally learn the map before they fight in it for real, it would be a big advantage knowing where to find cover and tactical positions, not to mention where all the power-ups are! Im guessing one of the reasons the forces in iraq arnt doing so well is that the other side (lets not get into who they are and weather they're right or wrong) knows the terrain and all the allys and connections between buildings much better than any foreign force, but how do you map out things like that?
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Just goes to show you not the mess with the US.
I think this crosses the line. Here we are telling kids that the games are not real life, and then the military comes in and says "hey you can kill people in a game, and then kill them in real life!!" Someone's probably going to build one of a school or US building and then think it's ok to go shoot people there. I'm not saying all people are unintelligent, but there are some people out there who will take this game the wrong way.
Austin Meyer, the author of X-Plane has been working with some military and implemented some functions for them so that they could turn X-Plane into a UCAV pilot training program. The details can be read in the Beta new features announcement.
Maybe we deserve this world ?
There's still some hope left here after all.
Totally agree with this point. Read Starship troopers (not the movie) to get a better grip on this.
The point about training your tactical force is to teach them to apply the amount of force needed the situation.
Ongoing training of this nature is what the armed forces doing when they are not on Operations. They are called Exercises.
Now for operational purposes the preparation phase becomes even more important. The more important the objective, the better the model. I know when the SAS were training to pull hostages out of Lebanon, they used floorplans and real buildings.
Doing this training virtually is just another way to do this. IMHO it would only augment existing training.
The simulation MMO isn't very realistic at all if you ask me.
There are no rocket jumps, no teleporters, no rail guns, no quad damage...you can't even capture the enemy flag for god's sake!
Doesn't sound very real to me...
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
1. We have lost more than that, last I heard, we just broke 700 coalition troops...
2 (the main point). Kill ratios don't mean shit. It is all about who can suffer the kills most effectivly. We had a kill ratio well over 10 to 1 in Vietnam, but the enemy did not mind losing half a million nearly as much as we minded losing 50,000, that is why we lost. They simply wanted victory more than we did. I think the same thing will happen in Iraq (I hope I am wrong). Also, we have already lost more troops in Iraq than we lost in the first 5 years we had troops on the ground in Vietnam... we had smaller numbers there until about '68 then the troops built up, and along with them, the casualties.
3. (About Islam) If all Islam teaches is to be a power hungry, mentally challgened idiot than i am glad I am not Muslim. I thought bush was a "Christian" (sorry couldn't resist) Seriously, there are members of just about every group who are power hungary ass holes, it has little to do with the particular group and a lot more to do the the human condition. It you think that is what Islam is about, spend some time around engineering graduate students, you will meet a lot of foriegn muslims, and you will see that they are clearly not power hungary, or mentally challenged...
"I'll have a Guinness, no wait, make that a Coors Light" -Grad student I work with, who shall remain anonymous...
Bought -as opposed to earned- as in "being admitted to the 'champagne squad' of jet pilots in the local reserve (even though his test scores wer in the lower 25%)"?
At the very least, he's smarter and more knowledgeable than the average person.
So thats why his own staff nicknamed him "Advisee-in-Chief" and he still needs to sit in Dick Cheneys lap to testify before the 9/11 comission?
Say what you like, but you know you're lying
You, Mr. Anonymous Coward, are certainly free to believe that your president is smart, knowlegeable (and honest, and ...).
The question is, does that belief (a.k.a. The Fuehrer is always right!) justify calling those who dissent liars?
Well, if the army uses these, I don't see why pacifists couldn't.
:)
:)
Peace protesters have long used role-playing to practice strategy, from hassle-lines to multi-actor games. In fact, one author has cataloged 198 forms of non-violent action. The oldest one on record is known as Lysistratic nonaction, where the women refused to sleep with their husbands until they agreed to stop fighting. The play Lysistrata depicts men with huge erections desperate to sign a deal
Some of the strategies that have been used historically include:
-fraternization with the soldiers (including outright seduction, playing sports together, etc...)
-non-cooperation (refusal to hand over information, "losing" municipal records for jews during WW2)
-demonstrations from standing in front of tanks to vigils
-strikes
-sabotage
It would be quite interesting to use these same tools to figure out which methods are most effective and result in the fewest deaths for all parties, and MMORPG would be a very good tool.
If we can't get non-violent means to work better, I'll stop protesting paying for war preparations and our militaries. If they work better however, I ask you to consider what you can do to stop this
Information: "I want to be anthropomorphized"
This isn't going for skills it's going for battlefield intelligence training. Obviously there are better ways to train a soldier to point a gun than to hand them a mouse. This is entertaining, cheap training that all of the soldiers can use when they aren't on duty. Think checkpoint training...
I can count to 1023 on my hands. Ask me about #132.
I see this as an excellent opportunity to make use of the millitary's super-secret robot project the "AWESOM-O 4000." These robots are just amazing... from the re-inforced rugged paper-based shell to the numerous spare-battery holders on the unit.
I can count to 1023 on my hands. Ask me about #132.
How many Therebucks for a Weapon of Mass Destruction?
"Snipers" will now be known as "camping whores"
Then network them together and they can do the whole war over the internet.
Synergies are basically awesome, and they're even better when you leverage them. -PA
Sorry, IE only, go jump in a lake, a cold one preferably.
I am the Barber of Seville.
We were explicitly told not to ever drive off the map. Doing so reset your height variable to 0. Driving back onto the map didn't change this, so you became a "submarine tank", able to see (and kill) everyone but nobody else could see you. They'd had several simulations ruined by people doing this, and SIMNET was very, very expensive to run in terms of time, money and personnel. It was cause for serious disciplinary action.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
Lets hope so. Since both sides are able to train this way. Or will they only allow connections from within the US? That would seem to be a wise idea. We really don't need to train all the worlds armies and terrorists in urban warfare, that would be stupid beyond belief.
They could. But how long would it take for the whole army to rotate through it? Simulations allow a few guys to practice squad-level drills with simulated buddies, perhaps every afternoon in their own barracks. As it happens, there are some facilities where they do physical practice as you suggest - although they use lasers rather than paintball. Once the trainees have got their act together in the virtual worlds, then they can be let loose on the physical trainers without wasting everyone's time.
A good virtual world also supports mission rehearsal, if it can be configured to look like the street they will go down tomorrow. This simply can't be done with the physical Baghdad film set approach, where one size fits all cities.
are there any military sim games like this now, but available to regular civillian consumers?
after reading ender's game, starship troopers and a couple other military sci-fi books a while back, the idea of having a closer military sim started to appeal, but even on a higher level- we're talking about a whole army, a thousand people strong. and all of them humans, with a command chain like the regular military. perhaps with a sci-fi flavor and fun sci-fi toys- ansibles, armour suits or something like that, to aid in the game and possibly story.
i see two big virtual armies going at it. or navies, on sea or in space. you get the idea. you gain rank by doing well, etc etc. that would rule. i don't game much, esp on the PC- but are there games like this now or planned for the near future?
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
A virtual enviroment for training! This will make US soldiers as dumb as a brick! The rest of the world will be able to trivially infiltrate and take possesion of the government!
Remember MGS?
the US has only used nukes once since they were created, the deterent was to other countries with the same capabilities (those countries have since become our allies, tho the theoretical deterent still exists)
the guy with bombs strapped to his chest is going to kill people, as many as he can. not since the 1800's has the US purposely killed as many people as it could just for the sake of killing them. (arguably, but I contend that there has since always been a larger reason for the force used, if miscalculated) terrorists do this to undermine social stability and simply kill those who disagree with them. (note: by being of a different nationallity, you are instantly labelled as disagreeing with them, it's not a choice thing)
it's an apple and oranges thing... when was the last time Bush threatened to nuke france if they didn't do what we wanted them to? in spite thier differences, the US allowed france to make its own choice.
my fear would be that we get a terrorist regime in charge of the US's or another countries nukes... then the deterent is of no value, destruction of the world may well be thier desired end...
"...and I am _not_ intoxicated... YET!" --John Wayne
Man I would love to have a sim where the punishment for TKing and PKing is that the idiot gets a real court marshall!
You have completely misunderstood what is going on here. The military is not replacing field exercises in their various urban mockups. Sims like this can replace the old sand tables with a model of terrain, building, etc. to be assaulted. This is an improvement since the troops do not only get the birds eye view they also get the boots on the ground perspective as they maneuver the virtual streets.
This is not unlike flight simulators. Before a mission flight sims have been loaded with a model of the approach terrain and target and pilots have flown the simulated mission a few times to get familiar with waypoints, references, terrain, hazards, target, etc. Pilots have said this can be helpful before flying the real mission. Again, its better than only looking at photos
Interesting Theory. Except the sunni triangle is not Basra or Northern Ireland.
... can it be too far behind?
"Medic! Medic"
"Inaminute, I'm almost to the 15th level!"
feloneous
IANAL, but I've seen actors play them on TV
Thank you, you've shown me a new level of stupidity.
How about we get the soldiers to play a MMO game, then we elect a president that isn't a warmonger (not that we elected this one in the first place), stop using 9/11 to advocate perpetual fear and justify power grabs and stomp on civil liberties, respect Kyoto and ballistic missile treaties, and not use the Constitution for toilet paper.
Overall I like the video game idea. It'd be neat to simulate urban ground assaults.
Full Spectrum Warrior is where its at june 9th i believe it comes out.
np, you bloody piece of shite
the "benevolent dictator" the US installed so as to get a nice, compliant secular regime in the area?
Mmmmmm..... MMOTTS.....
And this is the point, the more time kids spend infront of the computer, the fatter and lazyer their ass will become. And as far as I know, mouse movement speed and precision are not critical for handling an M16. Not to mention the effect of long hours of gamming will bring to the player's eyes. I mean, would you like your l337 sniper unable to see more than 3 meters without his glasses?
I konw it's good for training navigation and stuffs like that, but isn't it better to just send people to a huge shopping mall?
More like the current crop of FPS teaches you that, unlike what the military thinks:
1. Weapons have some ludicrious spread, so you have to go point blank to use them. (E.g., if a squad support weapon had the idiotic spread from CS, it would be f***ing useless at its rated effective range. Noone takes cover if the probability to get hit is once in half an hour of full auto firing.)
2. Which is ok, because all battles happen at 100 ft ranges. Any battlefield will be small and surrounded by conveniently placed fences, barriers, small twigs, and other unpassable obstacles.
3. Suppression never works. Not on NPCs, not on players, never.
4. The enemy always wears clearly identifiable uniforms or outfits, and you know exactly where they spawned.
5. For that matter, you know where everything is on the map.
6. There are no surprise attacks, and no standing guard for 3 hours in the rain. You know when they attack, because the round just started.
7. Jumping is always better than running. Experienced veteran troops bunny-hop their way to the enemy lines.
8. Just as good that you can jump, because you can't _climb_ over any obstacles. Ever. Even if it's a small chair or a low chainlink fence, you just have to jump over.
9. If it's too tall, you can always grenade/rocket jump. Shooting a grenade at your own feet won't hurt you much.
10. For that matter, they don't hurt the enemy too much either.
11. Everything is solvable by camping in... erm... sniping from a hidden corner. Even attack missions. Heck, _especially_ attack missions. Even if nothing comes in front of your sniper scope, at least you didn't get fragged in that round.
Etc, etc, etc.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Perhaps building a sim where the idea is to think about what you are doing before you kill thousands of civillians would be a good idea.
Check out September 12th, this is precisely the sim you are talking about!
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.