Comment: War and Development, Video Game Style (by Wojciech Gryc)

There is a crisis in Sheylan, an island to the East of India, and the World Food Programme (WFP) needs your help. They will be surveying the situation, organizing food drops, and collecting ingredients to improve food rations for those going hungry in Sheylan. Your job? To do all of the above, and then some. Welcome to Food Force.

In one of its most recent educational toolkits, the WFP decided to take a novel approach to teaching young people about famine. While workshops and printed materials are still available, the WFP created Food Force, a short, interactive video game that introduces players to six crucial aspects of disaster relief. Players are assigned to a WFP relief team working in Sheylan, and must take a leading role in ensuring that food is nutritious, meets institutional budget requirements, and is distributed fairly.

Indeed, the educational tool has been very successful. In its first six weeks online, the game was downloaded over 1 million times. With its online scoreboard, a recent contest that allowed the highest scorer to attend the Super Bowl, and being hosted by major companies like Yahoo!, the game is getting a great deal of attention, as well it should. While it is by no means realistic, video games are not supposed to be. Rather, they are a new medium allowing players to be introduced to serious topics that normally may not attract younger audiences.

The concept of advertising social and political causes through video games is not new. The most famous example, called America's Army, is a video game sponsored by the Department of Defense (DOD) in the United States. This game is a first-person shooter (FPS) game that allows players to experience what is feels like to be a solider in the US Military. It is a multiplayer game that forces those playing to select specific roles, such as being a medic or marksman, and encourages them to work as a team. Those interested in playing the online version, however, must first complete basic training.

Basic training is more than just an introduction to how the game should be played. Those not familiar with FPS-style games should expect to spend more than an hour learning how to use a gun, grenades, and how to discern between an enemy and a friend character within the game. While missions are loading, players are introduced to the soldier's Code of Honour, and if one happens to shoot a fellow soldier, the person is sent to jail. Throughout the training, players are introduced to army life and, if interested, links to army recruiters are readily available.

Though it is too early to tell if America's Army will meet its goal of increasing recruitment rates for the military, it is already starting to become clear that such video games do have an effect on those playing them. While conservative parents harping about video game violence leading to school shootings have little scientific support, studies and investigations into how much such programs teach players do show a correlation between knowledge of weaponry and playing military-based video games. Indeed, the Washington Post even reports that soldiers in Iraq compare their experiences to missions played in FPS-style games.

The US military defends the creation of such a game by saying, "there is no way that manipulating a keyboard and mouse, as players do in the Army's game, can provide vital cues on key elements of marksmanship."

Video games can't train a person to use a gun, but like any form of media, they can promote stereotypes and desensitization. The effects are both good and bad. The Army does promote the positive educational aspects of its game, emphasizing how its medic training module allows players to learn how to save lives, and work as teams. While games can't teach players to use guns per se, the army does use them to prepare soldiers for the battlefield. Tactical Iraqi, Forterra Systems' On-Line Interactive Virtual Environment (OLIVE), and other video games are used to teach soldiers about culture, provide sensitivity training, and prepare them for the battlefield. The Department of Defense even has its own video game developers' portal, available at dodgamecommunity.com, where developers working on DOD-supported game projects can collaborate and share ideas.

The games on that site don't just include ones made specifically for the DOD. The site reports that the US Air Force uses Air Force Delta Storm, a game available for the XBox, while the Marine Corps uses Battlefield 1942. The latter sold over 3 million copies to the general public.

With all of these benefits to the use of video games in professional military environments, one must wonder what the untold negatives are, especially when used by the general public.

This article won't make alarmist accusations connecting school shootings to such video games, but one must view such a powerful and popular media tool with caution. As always, there are two sides to every story: yes, the military uses such games, but as was mentioned early in the article, the WFP also benefits by creating interactive educational materials.

While no conclusive studies exist that link video games to negative or positive effects, one can be sure that the world of video games is changing. Companies, organizations, and governmental bodies are beginning to see the benefits of using video games as a way to further their own agendas, and are doing so in full force. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for this medium.

Sources

"A ‘Puppet’ Who Pulls the Strings" USC Public Relations 15 Feb. 2006. http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/12068.html.

"Tactical Iraqi: Iraqi Arabic made easy" Tactical Iraqi. http://www.tacticallanguage.com/tacticaliraqi/.

"Olive Platform" Forterra Systems Inc. http://www.forterrainc.com/products.html.

"Food Force" The World Food Programme http://www.food-force.com/.

"Americas Army" United States Defense Department http://www.americasarmy.com.

"Virtual Reality Prepares Soldiers for Real War" Washington Post 14 Feb. 2006. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/13/AR2006021302437.html

"Department of Defense Game Developers' Community" Department of Defense http://www.dodgamecommunity.com/.

"Battlefield 1942" Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlefield_1942.

McCauley, Denis; "Game Politics" gamepolitics.com http://www.gamepolitics.com/.

[ issue contents ] [ fmm home ] [ send feedback ] [ tell a friend ]