US Army Claims Video Games Are The Best Recruiting Tool

November 18, 2009 - JimC - No Comments

In testimony to the US Congress, the US Army has called video games the most effective recruiting tool around. In particular it’s game America’s Army. This is in line with an MIT study in 2008 that discovered “30 percent of all Americans age 16 to 24 had a more positive impression of the Army because of the game and, even more amazingly, the game had more impact on recruits than all other forms of Army advertising combined.”

This does show a long trend of entertainment being a better tool than physical recruiters. Back in my grandfather’s day, the military was an escape from the mundane. Nobody wanted to be a miner or farmer. Sure they had Audie Murphy and the Duke, but the soldier in dress in the high school would be able to recruit more soldiers.

During the 80′s, you had Rambo, Delta Force, and any other number of military movies glamorizing being a soldier. I can say from personal experience they were effective. My brother, best friend, and plenty of other guys I grew up with went into the military. Some to escape a mundane life, but plenty because Rambo was “F’ing cool.”

The disturbing trend however comes from an Air Force Colonel, commander of a Predator Drone squadron, noticed that although aptitude for flying drones was high in part to video games, the consequences of their actions were more likely to be abstract. It leads one to forget they are taking a human life, not just a “bad dude” on the screen.

Source: GamePolitics.