How the American military is using videogames to capture the hearts and minds of children - Kill Screen - Videogame Arts & Culture.
▻http://killscreendaily.com/articles/how-american-military-using-videogames-capture-hearts-and-minds-chi
As education funding dwindles, more schools are partnering with military programs for the money. America’s Army is in some ways the military’s recruiting Trojan Horse, bringing back the moral dilemmas raised in Ender’s Game. Is it ethical to recruit soldiers at such an impressionable age?
But the military isn’t using videogames exclusively as recruitment tools, and not even all of them are shooters. There are games that teach Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness, the controversial program that attempts to prepare soldiers how to handle themselves when deployed and how to re-integrate with their families when they return. UrbanSim is a high-level tactics simulator from the perspective of an army battalion commander. Perhaps most interestingly is Virtual Iraq/Afghanistan, a form of therapy used to treat PTSD. The game uses settings from the military-funded Full Spectrum Warrior to recreate traumatic situations—detonating IEDs, fire fights, etc.—in a safe environment. At the conclusion of a University of Southern California clinical trial using Virtual Iraq/Afghanhistan, 45% of active-duty soldiers no longer had PTSD, with another 17% showing improvements in their symptoms—an above average rate for treatment.