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the military-nintendo complex by Douglas McDaniel (dmcdaniel@accessmagazine.com) - October 03, 2001 |
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| In Orson Scott Card's science-fiction novel Ender's Game (New York: Tor Books, 1985), a group of kids playing video games discover they are actually being used by the military to fight real wars. What's actually happening is this: video games are being trained by kids to fight wars. Virtual combat as a recruitment tool comes next. Strafing villages as online entertainment will follow. The US Army's Web site will offer more interactive gizmos including video games, to attract teens' attention sagging enlistment efforts aid. The military trained troops for decades with video games: it taught an entire generation to fight. In partnership with the public sector, the military/video gaming industry nurtured a cyber-savvy warrior generation. Dubbed the Military-Nintendo Complex by John Naisbitt in High Tech, High Touch (New York: Broadway Books, 1999), the suspected link between >the Pentagon and video arcades has long been a hobgobblin of liberal anxiety. Eisenhower's Military-Industrial Complex morphed into a Military-Entertainment Complex (McKenzie Wark). Col. John Alexander's Project JEDI (1984) used Neuro-Linguistic Programming and creative visualisation techniques; today, virtual simulations and scenario generators are commandeered to enhance the art of keeping war at your fingertips. Like arms merchants, the military also unleashed simulated warfare into the mainstream. Game designers frequently receive Pentagon funding and other assistance to create and promote such entertainment. Since turning Doom into Marine Doom, the Marine Corps Combat and Development Command (Quantico, Va.) has "evaluated more than 20 commercially available electronic games for their potential use as training tools for marines." Atari's 1980s game BattleZone was made for the US military, and used as a Bradley Fighting Vehicle training simulator, one of the US arsenals' best anti-personnel devices. MAK Technologies (Cambridge, Mass.) won a 1997 Department of Defense contract to create Marine Exed Unit 2000, an amphibious assault game intended for both military and commercial markets. Interactive Magic (iMagic Labs), maker of the flight simulation game Carrier Strike Fighter, was given permission to roam the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln to film videos to ensure accurate visuals and a realistic feel. What gets a spy hanged for espionage will only get a video game designer's name on the military's mailing list for upcoming events. Each year the US government hosted Connections Conference war game designers and developers for a smooze. "Attendees include personnel of the Defense Intelligence Agency and game companies like GT Interactive," Naisbitt states. "Conference agendas have included such topics as 'Wargaming Design Fundamentals' and 'Department of Defense Wargaming 101.' " Well-meaning efforts to curb violent multimedia pale in comparison to designers' efforts keep raising the bar on pixilated mayhem. Raven Software and Activisionreleased Soldier of Fortune, a first-person shooter that "stands out for its unmatched level of violence." If stimulating dormant aggressive DNA is id Software's goal, they should have received a lifetime achievement award by now. The company is promising a Doom follow-up; its prequel Wolfenstein 3-D has been clinically tested for increasing "aggressive tendencies." It is a gross oversimplification that the Military-Nintendo Complex has an entire gamers population right where they want them. The US Army's upgrade is a desperate attempt to draw out a technologically intoxicated society of youths too emotionally downloaded to enlist. Suburban super-strata will likely stay home for Armageddon - unless it can be played out online with a Playstation2 or Dreamcast device, leaving the upcoming generation in the bad neighborhoods to play for keeps, bricks-and-mortar style. The "digital divide" must make the Pentagon wonder if America's underclass has the "nuts" and know-how for the one-click wars to come. |
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Stimulus Addiction Army Homepage To Get New Look Cyberplay: Why Do So Many Games Have Violence And Devil Imagery? Video-game Violence Targeted After Littleton School Shootings 1999 Video Game Report Card Behind Blown Eyes: Blurring Boundaries & Role Playing Games Entertainment Software Ratings Board Playstation2: Missiles Sold Separately Skirmisher Interview: Lt. Col. David Grossman Joysticks Lead To Mayhem Gauging Game Violence The Second Coming Of DOOM Video Games And Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, And Behavior In The Laboratory And In Life The Information War Killology Research Group John Naisbitt's Military Nintendo-Complex Synopsis Warfare Design For Fun & Profit Disinformation Dossier On John Shirley: Black Hole Sun, Won't You Come? Disinformation Dossier On Howard Bloom Disinformation Dossier On Marilyn Manson Disinformation Dossier On Robert Wright Disinformation Dossier On Turning Cops Into Soldiers Nintendo University A Meta Tag Nintendo Didn't Like 'Rogue Spear' to Train Military to Tackle Terrorists Disinformation Dossier on Majestic: The Welcome Intruders |
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