Connecting with America: The Army Game Project

America does not know the real Army. In contrast to previous eras, today's citizens have relatively few portals of insight into the Army as a profession. Increasingly, youths and those who influence them are in touch with an Army that does not exist, but is instead the product of Hollywood, the media and marketing. Since these perceptions are often negative, Army recruiting suffers. One countermeasure to this is to connect directly with America, particularly its young generation-Gen Y-in arenas that it frequents. One promising arena is in Internet-based experiences, and one tool of the Army's newest outreach effort is the computer game-the Army Game Project.

Several factors account for the erosion of the connection between American society and the Army. The veteran population continues to decline, including the number of politicians who have served in the military. To an increasing degree, American society is experientially divorced from the Army, having little sense of its structure, history, values and ethos. The growing cultural and physical distance between the Army and society, combined with strong labor demand for high potential employees, means that many authority figures and mentors-from parents to guidance counselors-do not advocate military service as an attractive career choice, even for a limited term.

In terms of Army recruiting and Gen Y, the Army is in a double bind. Not only is the Army beset by the weak propensity of American youth to enlist in the military, it must also struggle against perceptions among both propensed and non-propensed youth that of the military services, the Army provides the least attractive cultural, technical, and economic "deliverables." These negative perceptions are the foundation of a long-term trend. In a forced choice ranking, 22.6 percent of men were propensed toward the Army in the 1980s, and only 14.7 percent were propensed in the 1990s.

For Gen Y, the most important motivation for enlistment after obtaining money for college tuition is developing work skills, particularly in technology. This is not surprising given that Gen Y moves easily through the digital economy, having never known a world without computers. For Gen Y, technology is the defining element of their lives. Unfortunately, the Army runs last among the services in Gen Y's perception of technological sophistication. If the Army is to have any hope of increasing its fair share of high potential recruits, it must present itself as a cuttingedge organization in terms of technology.

Matters are made worse for the Army by sociocultural factors, including the long-term decline of patriotism. Although interest in national civilian service has risen among members of Gen Y since the September 11 attacks, the Army has not benefited significantly from this trend. Why? The most important cultural barrier to enlistment is distaste for the Army lifestyle. Today's American youth crave independence and self-actualization. They embrace hard work, but want more flexibility and scope for experimentation. Unfortunately, Gen Y perceives that military culture-and particularly Army culture-does not fit very well into its value matrix.

The key recruiting challenges facing the Army today are twofold: to strengthen its ties to American society and to encourage Gen Y to understand that the Army offers rewarding experiences and rewarding career opportunities. To these ends, Army strategic communication efforts should incorporate the following objectives-be appealing to a wide youth demographic and have high educational content for youth and those who influence them, exploit the Internet and ultimately improve receptivity of young Americans to learning about the Army. Out of these objectives was born the Army Game Project.

The Army Game Project-"America's Army"-is a seven-year initiative undertaken by the Army SecretariatManpower & Reserve Affairs, as proposed and managed by the Army's Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis. The mission is to build an appealing and educational Internet-deployed interactive simulation-in plain language, a computer game. The game consists of two interlaced components: a first person perspective action game (of the "Counterstrike" genre) and a unique role-playing/attribute-building game (similar to the "Civilization" and "Sims" genres). The game will be available through several mass distribution channels at no cost to the recipient this summer.

"America's Army" is unique. It is:

* The only game developed exclusively by the Army. As such, the Army's game developers had access to personnel, weapons, installations, sounds, sights and experiences that no commercial game manufacturer could possibly rival.

* The only game to embed social responsibility into its development by enforcing the laws of land warfare and socially appropriate behaviors.

* The only game to link experiences across two entirely different game genres.

* The only game that models the entire Army enlisted experience from recruitment and basic training through unit assignments and real-world missions.

* The only game reviewed by Army subject matter experts for realism.

* The only game capable of capitalizing on unique military simulation experience for a beyond state-of-theart game experience. Many technical innovations, such as innovative story engine technology, new text-to-voice technology, new application of cell animation and photo-realistic images, and higher order physics modeling push "America's Army" ahead of its commercial contemporaries.

The game is a hybrid that encourages players to play two game genres and rewards them by building a personnel file that travels between the two game components. These components, played singly or in combination, target a wide cross section of the Army's prime recruiting population, as well as the next generation of recruiting prospects and those who influence them. At launch, the adventure component provides an actionoriented experience in a single enlisted career management field (CMF), while the career component provides a broader look at the entire spectrum of CMFs. Together the two components comprise "America's Army" and allow players to experience an entire virtual Army career.

The action game component is an exciting, three-dimensional, first-person perspective, Internet-based depiction of Army CMFs in training and operational settings. Light infantry will be the first featured CMF, followed by other CMFs that model well in action games. The games emphasize the importance of the individual and acknowledge the necessity of teanwork and leadership. Realism is key to successful games in this market, so real Army action, real training, real weapons and real technology are painstakingly depicted. The project team was also mindful of the Army's role as a responsible public institution and incorporated rules of land warfare in depicting the Army's legally sanctioned use of force to achieve national objectives.

Here is how "America's Army" would typically communicate with youth. A high school student hears that his friend received a free video game from the Army in the mail. He asks to borrow the Army's action component CD from his friend. After school, he copies the CD (encouraged by Army marketing) and installs the game on his home computer. After launching the game, he finds he must undergo a progressive training mission that rewards him with a unit assignment of his choice. Since his friends want to play online in the team mode as Rangers, he also goes to airborne school and Ranger training.

After about an hour of training, the newly minted virtual soldier wants to join his friends in a game of online Army operations. He locates the server that his friends are meeting on to play Taking a position as a rifleman, he is briefed about his first mission-pursuing terrorists in Afghanistan. At the same time, another group of friends plays a similar game scenario. The two teams play each other, each appearing as the enemy to the other team. After playing through several missions (normally youths will play successful games of this genre for hours), the new "recruit" has absorbed a great deal of information about basic training and other aspects of the real Army. At the end of the action game, he is encouraged to improve his performance-as measured by the software-by playing the roleplaying portion of the game. He loads the other CD to play the career component.

The career component role-playing game differs significantly from the adventure component and also from other role-playing games on the market. It is an "edu-tainment" game that allows the player to discover and understand Army life. Players guide their character through a simulated enlisted career with a full array of life experiences. These experiences are determined by the selection of character traits derived from Army core values and goals and from values common to Gen Y recruits. An infinite number of dramatized story paths unfold, based on a unique realtime assembly of the story line by the patented story engine.

Each new life, education or job experience has the potential to add new capabilities to the player's character. As a result, players will virtually experience the connection between their life-course decisions and later lifestyles, outcomes and achievements. Typical game sessions last up to three hours and contain detailed information about life in the Army, on and off duty.

The Army Game seeks to reconnect with America and counter misperceptions about the Army held by Gen Y. To help turn the tide, the Army targeted its new "Army of One" campaign to directly communicate with important subgroups within Gen Y and so does the Army Game Project.

Fortunately, the demographics of the average gameplaying member of Gen Y also generally correspond to those of the Army's prime recruiting targets. For example:

* Sex: 95 percent male (action games), 85 percent male (role playing games).

* Education: 100 percent computer literate; high percentage of high school graduates.

* Income: generally moderate to upper-middle income. (Sixty percent of all Americans, or about 145 million people, play computer games.)

Through the efforts of the Army Game Project, the Army expects to reach millions of Americans on their own turf and directly communicate its own story. In addition, those who influence youth, who also play these games and monitor the activities of their children, will receive the positive and accurate messaging of "America's Army."

By dramatically involving today's youth in the exciting and challenging virtual life of a soldier, "America's Army" will send a clear message to the people of the United States that their Army is an elite, innovative and high-tech organization.

By Mal. Christopher Chambers Thomas Dean Sherlock and Maj. Paul Kucik III

MAJ. CHRISTOPHER CHAMBERS is the deputy director for the Army Game Project in the Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis at West Point. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. THOMAS DEAN SHERLOCK teaches political science at the U.S. Military Academy. He received an M.Phil. and Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University. MAJ. PAUL KUCIK III is an economic analyst in the Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis at West Point. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Copyright Association of the United States Army Jun 2002
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