Are Gamers Soldiers of the Future?

I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right forum but here it goes anyway.

I believe, as video games increase their ability to become "real", humans are inadvertently enhancing brain function. I will solely focus on first person shooters at the moment.

If anyone has ever played a FPS you already know that moving your mouse and using your keyboard to move a virtual avatar around a battlefield, takes skill and fine hand-eye coordination. Would this enhance reaction time?

Playing a multiplayer game such as Battlefield or Counterstrike requires teamwork and real time tactics. In order to win or gain skill you must work together, this would allow areas of the brain that form strategic thoughts to be exercised, thus, progressively making a perfect digital solder.

Now, are video games being monitored by the government? Wouldn't this make sense if games are already saving in-game stats like player accuracy, wins, losses, ability to take your enemy out in a split second. This information could be gathered with intent to create a perfect soldier for a digital future battlefield, except this time the game is real and the soldier is a robot controlled by a human super gamer!

Just something I wanted to type out before I forgot what I was thinking about.

Thanks for reading!

reply to post by IMAdamnALIEN


I've heard that video games are being used to train soldiers. K... just googled and sure enough... a whole bunch of links came back.

Virtual Reality Prepares Soliders For War

Video Games help Soliders Learn their Craft

So yes, I think that being a gamer is the next soliders. Specially now when a fair amount of things are done with remote controls or computer monitoring systems. What's next, being able to fight through the games on the actual battlefield?

And then there's the old Sci-Fi novel "Enders Game"

interesting me and a man from boeing were talking about a month ago they look for people who are good at video games to get the training to be instructors on UAV atleast its a question during there interviews they said its easier to get someone who can pick up a controller and figure stuff out then get someone who would have to be told all of the controls and wat not but of course before you get to fly the real thing you use a simulator thats basically a video game your taught how to fly like a tutorial level and then later you learn to land and it gradually steps you up to hitting buldings with missiles and targets....it would of been a cool job to bad im a felon

Thanks for the replies!

Looks like more people have had this same thought. This seems more like reality than an idea cloud.

I would love to be picked for my MAD SKILLS as a squad leader.

Eventually the human equation will fade out, but in the meantime the 20-50 year future ahead of us looks like a digital battleground.

America's Army: Operations may very well be one of the most ironic games ever. More than a few American politicians have bolstered their careers by condemning violence in popular entertainment, particularly in video games. Now the US government, by way of the Army, has produced a computer game that's all about realistic, deadly combat. While this odd turn of events raises interesting ethical and political issues, many gamers probably just want to know one thing about this online shooter: Is it any good?

Right off the bat, America's Army has one thing going for it that retail games don't: It's free, assuming you don't count the purported millions of US tax dollars spent on the game's development.

www.gamespot.com...

What do you think of this than ?

I've messed a little with America's Army.
It's genuinely a well made interesting game.

What it does do a bit is dehumanise war. It's fairly bloodless, and tragedy and emotion free. All skill and tactics. Which I assume is what the Army wants from it's soldiers. Do the job well without considering too much just what you are doing.

It's obvious when you look at drone aircraft and cruse missiles that we are making to first baby steps towards a remote, bloodless (for us) battlefield.

reply to post by jaamaan


I played that game when it first came out. It was in the back of my mind the whole time playing the must-do tutorial. They were timing me the whole time on everything. Almost like they were trying to weed-out the worst players. That makes perfect sense when trying to find elite hardcore super gamers of the future. Playing good players against good players only builds the reaction time and tactics used by both teams.

Peace

I believe the games are evolving well continuously.

Yes I do agree with the OP. I play Call of Duty, Call of Duty United Offensive, and Call of Duty2.

As these games evolve they will be used as training IMHO. Perhaps one day a person could control a robot on the other side of the globe to wreak war and devastation, upon our fellow man. Sad but true.

If you guys watch the show called Future Weapons they use something similar to America's Army on a big screen with a sniper rifle that is plugged into the computer. I have always thought that they are using it to train tomorrows soldiers, I have heard that in 20 years America plans for a large percentage of its army to be autonomous

I watched an episode of future weapons that had a remote controlled land vehicle with weapons and cameras. He held up the remote control device and low and behold, it looked like an X-box control. Now I am a playstation girl from way way back but I have played x-box and even I could rampage in that vehicle.

I remember in the interview that they said they had made the control of the vehicle look like that because "everyone was already familiar with it". I don't know about you guys, but the thought of an 18 year old hormonally raging soldier remotely operating that thing in my neighborhood scares the bejeezus out of me.

"Coming soon to a third world country near You"

I learned better strategies from Rome total war, Empire Earth, Battlefield 2, and etc, then any general's school could hope to teach me. I think this is because you don't learn strategies, you make them.

www.DOD.com

Declassified material on America Army video game study complete with graphs and phsycho analises.

Descriptors:
*COMPUTER PROGRAMS, *COMMERCIAL EQUIPMENT, *MILITARY TRAINING, *WAR GAMES, LEADERSHIP, SKILLS, TRAINING, RECREATION, LAND AREAS, SQUAD LEVEL ORGANIZATIONS, GAME THEORY, INFANTRY, RESOURCES, BRIGADE LEVEL ORGANIZATIONS, OFF THE SHELF EQUIPMENT, MISSIONS, LOGISTICS.ZCOMPUTER PROGRAMS, *COMMERCIAL EQUIPMENT, *MILITARY TRAINING, *WAR GAMES, LEADERSHIP, SKILLS, TRAINING, RECREATION, LAND AREAS, SQUAD LEVEL ORGANIZATIONS, GAME THEORY, INFANTRY, RESOURCES, BRIGADE LEVEL ORGANIZATIONS, OFF THE SHELF EQUIPMENT, MISSIONS, LOGISTICS.Z

Identifiers:
*COMPUTER GAMES, *MULTIPLAYER GAMES, COTS SOFTWARE, SQUAD TRAINING, VIDEO GAMES

Abstract:
Combat arms units (both Marine and Army) often do not have enough people, time and resources to properly train collective tasks at the squad level. Resources are often retained by higher headquarters due to tight deployment schedules, land restrictions, logistics constraints and a myriad of other reasons. Due to the current operational demands of combat arms brigades and regiments, the reality of limited resources is often a contributing factor in poor performance at the squad level. Leaders at all levels will need to look for innovative ways to sustain training levels at the small unit level. The scope of this study examined the collective and leader tasks that are required for successful execution of Infantry squad missions (using the Army Training and Evaluation Plan ARTEP 7-8 Drill), and how those tasks could be trained with the use of commercial off-the-shelf multiplayer gaming software. The end-state of this research study is to provide initial analysis on what collective skills games can be used to train at the Infantry squad level, and develop a training model recommendation for the integration of this tool into existing unit plans. :

stinet.dtic.mil... &Custom=&querytext=video+games&AD=ADA439424&TI=Games+for+Training%3A+Leveraging+Commercial+Off+the+Shelf+Multiplayer+Gaming+Software+for+Infantry+Squa d+Collective+Training&RD=September+01%2C+2005&DC=%26nbsp%3B+%26nbsp%3B+%26nbsp%3B+%26nbsp%3B+%26nbsp%3B+01+-+APPROVED+FOR+PUBLIC+RELEASE+%26nbsp%3B+%2 6nbsp%3B+%26nbsp%3B+%26nbsp%3B+%26nbsp%3B+26+-+NOT+AVAILABLE+IN+MICROFICHE&XPC=&PAG=179+Pages%28s%29&MC=&PE=

Descriptors:
*ARMY PERSONNEL, *VIRTUAL REALITY, *COMBAT SIMULATION, MILITARY OPERATIONS, DECISION MAKING, SKILLS, PERFORMANCE(HUMAN), COGNITION, OPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS, MILITARY EXERCISES.ZARMY PERSONNEL, *VIRTUAL REALITY, *COMBAT SIMULATION, MILITARY OPERATIONS, DECISION MAKING, SKILLS, PERFORMANCE(HUMAN), COGNITION, OPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS, MILITARY EXERCISES.Z

Identifiers:
PE62785A

Abstract:
Fifty-four officers in the Infantry Captains Career Course at Fort Benning, Georgia, participated in a training effectiveness evaluation of a video game named Full Spectrum Command (FSC). Half were assigned to play FSC and participate in normal course work for commanding a light Infantry company in urban offensive operations; the other half did only the normal course work. Pre-FSC measures were for military experience, general cognitive ability, and decision-making style. A questionnaire administered to officers who played FSC documented their sense of personal involvement in the FSC environment, their perception of the training value of the game, and their opinions of FSC strengths and weaknesses. Officers in both groups were assessed individually for the adaptiveness of their decision-making behavior as the commander of a light Infantry company during a tactical exercise using the Janus simulation. Shortcomings in experimental procedures confounded between-groups comparisons for adaptive decision-making behaviors, but other results suggest FSC can provide tactical experiences with potential training value. Prior military experience was related to personal involvement with FSC, perceived training value of FSC, adaptive decision-making behavior in Janus, and decision-making style. Officers who played FSC identified its strengths and changes desired in future versions of the game.

Distribution Limitation(s):

stinet.dtic.mil... tom=&querytext=video+games&AD=ADA419670&TI=Training+Effectiveness+Evaluation+of+the+Full+Spectrum+Command+Game&RD=January+01%2C+2004&DC=%26nbsp%3B+%26 nbsp%3B+%26nbsp%3B+%26nbsp%3B+%26nbsp%3B+01+-+APPROVED+FOR+PUBLIC+RELEASE&XPC=&PAG=70+Pages%28s%29&MC=&PE=

lol, heck no!

i play violent video games 30 minutes average, daily

i also consider myself a full blown pacifist

i would probably even go as far as moving out the country it here was some sort of draft.

war-no thank you
shoot 'em up video games-yes please

Games normalize you to violence, thus you wont even know you've been mentally changed to war until it happens. Like me for instance. I thought I was a complete nerd. I played paint ball for the first time, and suddenly realized that I was a soldier, and didn't even know it. It's that shock of real life combat for the first time that makes you realize what your mentality is. (ok, so rubber bullets aren't real life)

Thanks for the thoughtful replies!

There is a new game coming out called Crysis

www.ea.com...

Take the time to view some of their trailers for the game. The futuristic theme of this game goes nicely with this thread.

I fully intend to purchase this game when I upgrade my computer. This is going to be the most played game ever IMO, aside from World of Warcraft with their 9 million fully cracked out hardcore super nerds.

I would like to see an article with a gamer turned government robot controller.

Anyone ever seen one on the net?

Thanks

reply to post by Gorman91


Nice!
I haven't played paintball yet but, it sounds like it would be like a real life FPS without all the blood and bullets.

Now, isn't the government supposed to have technology 30 years ahead of the general public? What if the government already possesses a robot thats controlled by a human, maybe even via mouse and keyboard as it is extremely effective. If so that would pretty much kick ass!

reply to post by IMAdamnALIEN

I highly recommend paintball. I played for years before a hip injury took me out (didn't happen on the field tho). Anyway, I had the same thoughts about how FPS' could be training us in the fine art of "snap-shooting" (kinda like a gut reflex to identify a target as friendly or enemy, then instantly react with shooting or not), and basic strategies (like hugging corners, cover fire, etc...

Also with pseudo-realistic shooters like CS it also teaches (or at least used to teach) weapon names and basic characteristics like accurate range, damage, etc... It wasn't super realistic, but it gives the younger crowd an idea of what to expect from weapons

this is weird i was having a talk with a coworker about this earlier tonight. both of us are former army. i think so. the skills that gamers are developing are perfict fits with drones and robots...