War Play Read online

  Sniper School, [>]

  Snyder, Dan, [>], [>]

  Software Engineering Directorate (SED), [>]

  Somali pirates, [>]

  Soviet Union

  collapse effects on U.S. military, [>]

  See also Cold War

  space exploration and video games, [>], [>]

  Spacewar!

  commercialization/popularity and, [>]

  description, [>]

  development/developers, [>]–[>]

  navigation/display importance, [>]

  new thinking with, [>], [>]

  Programmed Data Processor-[>] (PDP-1), [>]–[>]

  Special Force series (Hezbollah video game), [>]

  Special Operation 85: Hostage Rescue (Iran video game), [>]

  Sputnik/effects, [>], [>]

  standardized testing

  eugenics and, [>]–[>], [>]

  military and, [>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>]

  racism and, [>]–[>], [>]

  Star Trek, [>]

  Starr, Paul, [>]

  Starry, Donn, [>]

  Steinkuehler, Constance, [>], [>], [>]

  STEM skills

  army/Project Lead the Way and, [>]

  description, [>]

  Heritage Foundation and, [>]–[>]

  National STEM Video Game Challenge, [>]

  Obama administration and, [>], [>]

  Sterling, Bruce, [>]

  Steuben, Baron Friedrich Wilhelm, [>]

  Sticht, Thomas, [>]

  STRICOM, [>], [>], [>]

  See also PEO STRI

  Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, [>]

  Stuxnet computer virus, [>], [>]

  Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS), [>]–[>]

  suicide risk/prevention

  Beyond the Front (video game) and, [>], [>]–[>]

  Home Front, The (video game), [>]

  suicide rate (2006), [>]

  WILL’s games and, [>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>]

  Summers, Catherine, [>]

  Syria video game Under Siege, [>]

  Tactical Iraqi (video game), [>]

  Tactical Language and Culture Training Systems program, [>], [>]

  TAG (video game), [>]

  See also America’s Army (video game)

  Tailhook scandal, [>]

  Talbot, Thomas “Brett,” [>], [>], [>], [>]

  “teaching machines,” [>]

  technology development

  COTS and, [>]

  military budget cuts and, [>]–[>]

  military subsidies/companies (1960s), [>]–[>]

  See also specific developments

  Tempest (video game), [>]

  Tetris (video game), [>]

  Thompson, Jack, [>]

  Thorpe, Jack A.

  background, [>]

  simulators/SIMNET and, [>]–[>]

  “three-block war,” [>]–[>]

  TRADOC (Training and Doctrine Command), [>]

  “Training for Future Conflicts” (Pentagon 2003 study), [>]

  “transformation” of military (Rumsfeld), [>]

  Tribble, Bud, [>]

  Tversky, Amos, [>]

  Ubisoft, [>]

  Under Siege (Syria video game), [>]

  United States Armed Forces Institute (USAFI), [>], [>]

  Unreal Engine, [>]–[>]

  UrbanSim (video game), [>]

  Valley Forge, Revolutionary War, [>]–[>], [>]

  van Creveld, Martin, [>]

  VBS2 (Virtual Battlespace [>])

  “after-action reviews” (AARs), [>]–[>], [>]

  Army Research Institute study on, [>]–[>]

  avatar’s breathing and, [>]

  benefits to soldiers, [>]–[>]

  comparison to DARWARS, [>]

  description, [>], [>], [>]

  flexibility, [>], [>]

  geospecific databases, [>]

  keyboard-use training, [>]–[>]

  leader identification and, [>]

  open platform, [>]

  PEO STRI and, [>], [>], [>]

  as program of record, [>]

  reactions of trainees, [>], [>]

  second-/third-order effects, [>]

  software problems, [>]

  training areas, [>]

  use, [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>]

  veterans from Afghanistan/Iraq and, [>]

  Virtual Training Facility, Fort Campbell, Kentucky, [>]–[>]

  VBS3 (Virtual Battlespace [>]), [>]

  video games

  cognitive abilities and, [>]–[>]

  criticism/critics of, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  first-person shooter games, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  global examples, [>]

  learning principles overview, [>]–[>]

  literacy skills and, [>]–[>], [>]–[>]

  skill and drill exercises vs. cognitive VIEs, [>]–[>]

  skills identified (MacArthur Foundation), [>]–[>]

  social issues and, [>]

  See also “serious games”; specific games

  video games and military

  Afghanistan and, [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  all-volunteer force and, [>]–[>], [>]–[>]

  applications overview, [>]–[>], [>]

  benefits summary, [>], [>], [>]–[>]

  budget cuts and, [>]–[>]

  chain of command and, [>]

  chaos and, [>]

  cognitive abilities and, [>]–[>]

  collaborative teams importance, [>]

  costs and, [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]

  crowdsourcing to debug software code, [>]

  cultural-differences training, [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>]

  data from used video game consoles, [>]

  emotion and, [>]

  first-person element and, [>]

  future and, [>], [>]–[>]

  generation shifts and, [>]

  history overview, [>]–[>]

  human memories and, [>]

  individualized avatars, [>]–[>]

  information processing/reaction, [>], [>]–[>], [>]

  Iraq and, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  late 1990s, [>]–[>]

  learn by doing and, [>]–[>]

  literacy definition changes and, [>]–[>], [>], [>]

  military leaders’ training and, [>]

  military taking lead, [>]–[>]

  MMOG (massively multiplayer online video-game) world, [>]–[>]

  National Guard/reservists, [>]

  new challenges and, [>]

  9/11 attacks and, [>]

  nonverbal messages and, [>]

  “serious games,” [>]

  soldiers’ diversity in skills and, [>]–[>]

  stories/symbols tradition and, [>], [>]

  strategy and, [>]–[>], [>]

  teenagers’ skills and, [>]–[>]

  time constraints and, [>], [>]

  training grounds and, [>]

  See also simulators/simulations and military; specific games; specific individuals

  VIEs, cognitive (Virtual Interactive Environments), [>]

  Vietnam War, [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]

  Virtual Vietnam, [>]

  VIRS money, [>]

  Virtual Afghanistan

  funding and, [>]

  settings/background, [>]–[>]

  as virtual-reality exposure therapy (VRET), [>]

  See also Rizzo, Albert “Skip” and Virtual Iraq/Afghanistan; Virtual Iraq/Virtual Afghanistan; virtual-reality exposure therapy

  Virtual Battlespace [>]. See VBS2 (Virtual Battlespace [>])

  Virtual Experience Immersive Learning Simulations (VEILS), [>]–[>], [>]

  Virtual Iraq

  Della Salla, [>], [>]–[>]

  funding and, [>], [>], [>]

  Kramer and, [>]–[>]

  settings/background, [>]

  treating psychological trauma, [>]

  as v
irtual-reality exposure therapy (VRET), [>]

  See also Rizzo, Albert “Skip” and Virtual Iraq/Afghanistan; virtual-reality exposure therapy

  Virtual Iraq/Virtual Afghanistan

  clinician control, [>]–[>]

  origins, [>]–[>]

  patient physiological data and, [>]–[>]

  patient control, [>]

  Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS), [>]–[>]

  treatment course/sessions, [>]

  See also Rizzo, Albert “Skip”

  virtual military training

  history, [>]–[>]

  See also specific components

  virtual-reality exposure therapy

  classical conditioning and, [>]

  description, [>]

  live actors vs. virtual humans, [>]–[>]

  origins, [>]–[>]

  studies on, [>]–[>]

  success with, [>]–[>]

  virtual characters’ movements, importance of, [>]

  See also Virtual Afghanistan; Virtual Iraq

  Virtual Training Facility (VTF), Kinnard Battle Command Center

  costs, [>]

  description, [>]

  training sessions, [>]–[>]

  Virtual Vietnam, [>]

  “vocationalism” movement, [>], [>]

  volunteer force effects, [>]–[>], [>]–[>]

  Vygotsky, Lev, [>]

  Walt Disney Imagineering, [>], [>]

  War Inside, The (video game), [>], [>]–[>], [>]

  Wardynski, Casey

  after military retirement, [>]–[>], [>]–[>]

  description, [>], [>], [>]

  OEMA, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]

  wife (Sue) and children, [>], [>]–[>]

  Wardynski, Casey/America’s Army

  army core values and, [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>], [>]

  basic training focus, [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]

  concept beginnings, [>]–[>]

  on conflict with MOVES, [>]–[>]

  costs and, [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>]

  design criteria, [>]–[>]

  on developing game, [>]

  disintermediation, [>]–[>]

  Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3/2002), [>]–[>], [>]

  funding and, [>]–[>], [>]

  Huntsville’s schools and, [>]–[>]

  rebuilding military’s image, [>]

  Red Team identifying potential criticism, [>]–[>]

  target audience, [>], [>]

  text addressing players, [>]–[>]

  video games importance, [>]–[>], [>], [>]–[>]

  VIRS money and, [>]

  See also America’s Army (video game)

  Washington, George, [>], [>], [>]

  Washington Post, [>]–[>]

  Watergate, [>]

  Welburn, Brenda, [>]

  What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (Gee), [>]

  WILL Interactive

  Beyond the Front (video game), [>], [>]–[>]

  Blended Families (video game), [>]

  description, [>]

  focus of, [>], [>]–[>]

  Home Front, The (video game), [>]

  military ethics and, [>]

  Mission to Heal, The (video game), [>]

  PTSD treatment, [>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>]

  Saving Sergeant Pabletti (video game), [>]

  “serious games” and, [>], [>], [>]

  Single Parenting (video game), [>]

  suicide risk/prevention, [>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>]

  Virtual Experience Immersive Learning Simulations (VEILS), [>]–[>], [>]

  War Inside, The (video game), [>], [>]–[>], [>]

  See also Sloane, Sharon

  Williams, Adam

  background/description, [>]

  VTF VBS2 training sessions, [>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>]

  Wilson, Edward O., [>]

  Wilson, Kent, [>]–[>]

  Wired magazine, [>], [>]

  Wolfenstein 3D (video game), [>]

  Women in Film and Video’s Women of Vision Award, [>]

  Woodman, Michael, [>]

  Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, [>]

  World War I

  ballistics data and, [>]

  specialized training and, [>]

  World War II

  computer’s invention and, [>]–[>]

  military training/education, [>], [>]–[>]

  Xbox and America’s Army, [>], [>], [>]

  Yahoo!, [>]

  Yerkes, Robert, [>]–[>]

  Zelman, Susan Tave, [>]

  Zyda, Michael

  America’s Army and, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  background, [>]–[>]

  entertainment/simulation and defense, [>]–[>], [>]–[>]

  Gamepipe research lab, [>]

  Institute for Creative Technologies, [>]–[>], [>]

  MOVES and, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]

  Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), Monterey, California, [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>]

  NPSNET, [>]–[>]

  “serious game” definition, [>]

  SIMNET and, [>]–[>]

  About the Author

  COREY MEAD is an assistant professor of English at Baruch College, City University of New York. He is a pioneering researcher on video games and the military and has lectured on the subject at universities and conferences around the country. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

  Footnotes

  * For simplicity’s sake, in this book I use the term video game to refer to a variety of interactive digital and virtual applications.

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  ***

  * “Human factors” centers on the idea that the effective running of complex technological systems depends as much on the people running them as on the equipment itself.

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  ***

  * One soldier with PTSD that I profile in this book had to fight the VA for two full years to get his benefits, and those were granted only after he wrote a letter of appeal to President Obama. Many other vets with PTSD whom I interviewed spoke about the same thing—the incredible hassle of cutting through the VA’s red tape.

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  ***

  * The game remains the best-known—and most controversial—project to emerge from the ICT. A big success commercially, Full Spectrum Warrior ended up being an embarrassment for both the army and the ICT, as it proved utterly ineffective as a training tool. In essence, the army paid millions of dollars to produce a game that it couldn’t use and that it wasn’t allowed to profit from. Meanwhile, the game’s commercial partner, THQ—which hadn’t spent its own money—raked in over $50 million in sales.

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