Making the War Real
Peace Letter 40-2
Washington Peace Letter
Washington Peace Center
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Making the War Real
Not just another video game
By Roger Newell
August/September 2004
Volume 40, Number 2
A new, highly promoted combat video game, released in June of this year,
is in reality a thinly veiled paean to build support for the U.S.-led
military inclusion in Iraq.
Called "Full Spectrum Warrior" the commercial version of the video game was developed from a video training program created for the U.S. Army to enhance U.S. urban warfare capabilities. It operates on the Microsoft Xbox system.
According to the developers of the game, the Institute for Creative Technologies, Full Spectrum Warrior places the student or game player in the role of light infantry squad leader, who must complete the urban warfare mission and return home with the squad. Their website describes the setting as "an eastern European urban environment."
"The goal of ICT games project is to develop immersive, interactive, real time training simulations to help the Army create a new generation of decision-making and leadership-development tools. Unlike other game-based tools, which adapt existing commercial games, … Full Spectrum Warrior [was] designed as [a] learning tool," ICT said of its product.
The game was developed with the assistance of groups ranging from the Army's Research, Development and Engineering Command, Simulation Technology Center to the Army's Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia.
TV ads for the game, which are currently running on both broadcast and cable channels, glorify both the military and killing. For more information on the game go to ICT's website http://www.ict.usc.edu.
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