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US Spies Use Custom Video Games for Training

Posted by Soulskill on from the no-idkfa-allowed dept.

Wired reports that the US Defense Intelligence Agency has just acquired three PC-based video games which they will use to train the next wave of analysts. The games are short, but they have branching story lines that change depending on how a trainee reacts to various problems. Quoting: "'It is clear that our new workforce is very comfortable with this approach,' says Bruce Bennett, chief of the analysis-training branch at the DIA's Joint Military Intelligence Training Center. Wired.com had an opportunity to play all three games, Rapid Onset, Vital Passage and Sudden Thrust. The titles may conjure images of blitzkrieg, but the games themselves are actually a surprisingly clever and occasionally surreal blend of education, humor and intellectual challenge, aimed at teaching the player how to think."

15 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. And in these games... by i+kan+reed · · Score: 5, Funny

    It gets confusing because they all pretend to be medics.

  2. Names by Migraineman · · Score: 5, Funny

    >Rapid Onset, Vital Passage and Sudden Thrust. The titles may conjure images of blitzkrieg,
    >

    Sounds more like pr0n.

    Seriously, video games are a simulation environment. Makes sense to use them as training tools. This is news, why?

    1. Re:Names by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Funny

      Rapid Onset, Vital Passage and Sudden Thrust
      Actually, it sounds like my honeymoon.

      Didn't last very long. The honeymoon, I mean. The marriage is still going as of 7:38am, April 24, 2008. I have a feeling death is my only way out now, since my immigrant wife (Eastern Europe,now a citizen) found out about our Second Amendment and RFID technology.

      Now, what were we talking about?
      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re:Names by DrLex · · Score: 4, Funny

      >>Rapid Onset, Vital Passage and Sudden Thrust. The titles may conjure images of blitzkrieg,
      >>
      > Sounds more like pr0n.

      Or titles for upcoming Jean-Claude Van Damme or Steven Seagal movies.

  3. Start game by with+a+'c' · · Score: 5, Funny

    You wake up and the room is dark. _

    1. Re:Start game by karijne · · Score: 5, Funny

      You wake up and the room is dark. _ > Open eyes You can't see any eyes to open.
  4. Neat! by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 2, Funny

    The future of cloak and dagger involves an actual copy of Cloak and Dagger.

    --
    Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
  5. Torrent please? by khraz · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is there a version, y'know, packed conveniently in multiple 15/50 MB archives? For backup purposes?
    Because I don't suppose it's coming up on Steam anytime soon...

  6. Re:thinking about it... by Psmylie · · Score: 3, Funny

    That should be: Cogito cogitare, ergo cogito esse. You need to use the infinitive (cogitare, esse) in those cases, not the present active indicative.
    Centurion: Understand? Now, write it out a hundred times.
    Brian: Yes sir. Thank you, sir. Hail Caesar, sir!
    Centurion: Hail Caesar! And if it's not done by sunrise, I'll cut your balls off.
    --

    psmylie's dictionary: Godzillion (noun) Any number large enough to destroy Tokyo

  7. Next James Bond movie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    My Name is Bond... James "PWNAGE" Bond.

  8. Oh that's great... by argStyopa · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...our next national intelligence estimate will state that the #1 threat to the USA is a grue.

    --
    -Styopa
    1. Re:Oh that's great... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      ...our next national intelligence estimate will state that the #1 threat to the USA is a grue. You wake up in a room.
      >Go North
      It's very dark. You are in danger of being eaten by a grue.
      >Preemptive Strike
      In Soviet Russia, you eat a grue!

      I don't know, for just 400kilo-dollars more, they should just crank out a counter-intelligence mmo instead.
  9. Unimaginative Militarist Morons by Ralph+Spoilsport · · Score: 2, Funny
    The names of the games:

    Rapid Onset, Vital Passage and Sudden Thrust

    good Grief - they sound like titles to REALLY BAD MOVIES, the kind with some violent dork like Steven Seagal or Chuck Norris in it.

    Those kinds of titles are so lame, my friends and I no longer use them as they are utterly generic, so we call them "Adjective/Noun Movies".

    RS: "What did you do this weekend?"
    OldFriend: "Saw a movie."
    RS: "which one?"
    OF: "Adjective Noun with Steven Seagal."
    RS: "Oh. How bad was it?"
    OF: "OK. Lots of shit blowed up. The Ingenue had a really nice rack. Oh, and a bad guy's head exploded after he picked his nose. That was funny. And the ingenue had a REALLY nice rack."
    RS: sounds terrible.
    OF: It was. nice rack, though.

    Whenever I see a modifier noun title, I get VERY suspicious, and if the words suggest some kind of violence or suddeness, then it's sure to be a stinker. I mean, when would we EVER see some violent POS called "Fluffy Tufts"?

    RS

    --
    Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
  10. Re:2 games that make you a super spy: by Lobster+Quadrille · · Score: 2, Funny

    Though I suppose the old Spy vs. Spy game could be useful as supplemental material.

    --
    "The cup is in turn designed for holding hot or cold liquids, and has an open rim and closed base." --US Patent #5425497
  11. Re:How to Think by obervoid · · Score: 3, Funny

    Of course video games are used to teach us how to think. I can attribute much of my college dating career "knowledge" to what I learned from the Leisure Suit Larry games, or atleat LSL 1-3. Who says you can't learn anyhting from video games. Come to think of it, my college dating career was rather abreviated.