Connecting with America: The Army Game Project

Army, Jun 2002 by Chambers, Christopher, Sherlock, Thomas Dean, Kucik, Paul III

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.