167: From Gamers to Soldiers

[Sharon Sloane]

From Gamers to Soldiers

"In a war zone, decisions happen fast. The whole incident from start to finish lasts less than 30 seconds. When the platoon stops to assess the vehicle and its occupants, SFC Decker finds that the car wasn't filled with insurgents. It was an elderly couple; no weapons, no explosives and no reason why they didn't heed the repeated warnings. As SFC Decker observes the look on Specialist Blair's face, he knows he has to make a decision and he needs to make it fast: is Specialist Blair emotionally fit to continue his post, or should he replace him?"

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[REDH4MMER]

I really like this article.

I hope the Australian Army gives me this type of training or something similar. I think it's really smart stuff on the part of the Americans.

 

[wolfwood_is_here]

I really like this article.

I hope the Australian Army gives me this type of training or something similar...

This was a well written article. Very sobering the decisions that soldiers need to make in wartime, something none of us "civvies" really understand. The worst part is that by the time the events like those described in the article reach the media, most of the complicating factors have been stripped away leaving an distorted view of the original event.

Even if it is for a different country, I thank you for your (current/eventual) service in the military.

 

[RetiarySword]

Personaly I don't think milatary sims, actualy used by the milatary shoudl be allowed into civilian markets. Yes it is fun, but it will end up being used against the gaming public. Also at the end of the day, we are gamers, not soldiers.

 

[TorqueZero]

If military sims do what they should do, I don't think civvies would find it enjoyable at all. Well, for the majority one would hope this to be the case.

 

[wolfwood_is_here]

Personaly I don't think milatary sims, actualy used by the milatary shoudl be allowed into civilian markets. Yes it is fun, but it will end up being used against the gaming public. Also at the end of the day, we are gamers, not soldiers.

Do you think it would be the content of the sim itself, or the way "gamers" would handle them that would cause the most issues?

 

[Lukeydoodly]

An interesting read indeed.

 

[shMerker]

Personaly I don't think milatary sims, actualy used by the milatary shoudl be allowed into civilian markets. Yes it is fun, but it will end up being used against the gaming public. Also at the end of the day, we are gamers, not soldiers.

I don't think anybody was suggesting that they should be.

Interesting to hear the other side of this. I've heard plenty of stories (many apocryphal) about games being used to train soldiers in tactics or desensitize them to violence, I hadn't heard about using games to make our soldiers more human.

 

[stompy]

A very interesting read, so thanks.

I agree with the statements echoed in the article: it's better for them to mess up in the game then mess up in real life. It's a good way to keep soldiers alive... well, at ;east increase their life expectancy.

 

[SamLowry]

Not starting a war in the first place could be an even better solution.
But wait, I guess that's too easy...
Where can I buy new military hardware? I feel out-dated for the electronic battlefield.

 

[SmugFrog]

I enjoyed reading this article. You bring up a lot of good points.

 

[Cali0602]

An excellent article about a very important development. It'd be nice if the Army would share some of these simulators with the Marine Corps. Guess we don't rate it.

 

[Aegwadar]

An excellent article about a very important development. It'd be nice if the Army would share some of these simulators with the Marine Corps. Guess we don't rate it.

No worries it will most likely end up at a national training center; which always means joint.

Not a bad idea; they always ask questions like that during a board; but textbook is different from real life.

As an Army Vet, I'm happy to see things like this.

 

[Supreme Unleaded]

I really liked this article, it really hit homw with a lot of wartime things.

However, the gunner Blair, he did the right thing why would you sit him down? I don't get it, you cast glowsticks, you fired a warning shot, and they still didnt stop and they were gaining. If I was that gunner I would have lit them up as well, its what you do. And I don't care if your deaf, when the .50 cal warning shot goes off, you don't just hear it but you FEEL it.

So as the ending says, you did what you where supposed to do, nuff said, you coulndn't do any better. Because what if that was a suicide bomber, think about it that way, in essence you just saved the whole team.

 

[tsb247]

I'm shocked! There was not one mention of VBS, VBS2, or DARWARS Ambush... What a shame. They were created to teach leadership skills, situation awareness, and decision making skills.

Here's a link with regards to VBS2:

http://www.bistudio.com/binews/vbs2-to-become-a-new-training-game-in-the-us-army_en.html

They are the games that Operations Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis and the ArmA series are based on.

 

[felixader]

Personaly I don't think milatary sims, actualy used by the milatary shoudl be allowed into civilian markets. Yes it is fun, but it will end up being used against the gaming public. Also at the end of the day, we are gamers, not soldiers.

I think different.

What better game about war could be there then one that shows more than just the usuall attack, kill, rinse off, repeat.

I think something like this would be a hit, would be actually say something meaninfull about the reality of war, it would be a hit under the Critics and at least for the people who do like deeper games (added to the rest of there games) it would also be loved.


I think they NEED to be brougth out there.

 

[Jangles]

Quote From Article:


" As Gayle Olszyk, Deputy to the Commander for Training at the U.S. Army Ordnance Center and Schools sees it, "just the opening scene of Outside the Wire, where you have people who are being shot and killed, [is] enough to awaken lieutenants, who [will] now understand the impact of their decisions - that they're responsible for lives under their leadership"


I really enjoyed this article. I go to the Canadian equivalent of West Point(RMC), and I think the [will] inserted was derailing from the context of what Olszyk was saying.

Junior officers have been trained in leadership (4 years at least for ex-cadets)and they realize the impacts of their decisions before the simulators.

The simulators just provide real war context for those decisions.

Overall, great article.