The Army thinks that video games are important for training the soldiers of the future. However, it has resulted in over-estimating the capabilities of some young soldiers – in a recent exercise, it took soldiers one-third longer to complete a mission than it did their avatars.

“We were honestly quite shocked at the difference” between how soldiers would perform in the virtual world versus in real life. We had kind of an ‘aha’ moment that we really needed to dig into this more,” said Col. Anthony Krogh. “If your thumb-eye dexterity as an X-box player is better than mine, you’re going to appear to be a better soldier than I am.”

“The beauty of the Army is that we test our soldiers on a regular basis – how they run, how they use their weapons. We now have a digital system that manages that,” Krogh says. “[Today, game designers are linking digitally stored physical fitness and shooting range scores into the avatars and the games themselves] so that if you’re really heavy or shorter than the soldier next to you, [you’ll] be able to tell.”

Giving the example of an expert marksman/gamer who was overweight, he said, “If he went and ran 1,000 yards and came back, he’ll go from being the best to the worst marksman.”

The Army is planning on having avatars reflect the physical capabilities of soldiers, and that will teach them to function in groups along with deal with enemies that adapt. There could also be records kept to help see what good and bad habits soldiers are doing to help reinforce the right behaviors.

Citing an example from Hurricane Andrew, Krogh says that NPCs could potentially react differently based upon details like whether or not you have guns drawn during relief efforts. “Some units took their weapons, another unit I was in chose not to,” he notes. “I show up with water, ice, food, and people approach me and my soldiers. Other units who carried their weapons were viewed as security forces – people gave them a wide berth, even when they were bringing water. They are not reinforcing how you behave and how [the way] you’re postured changes your environment.”

Source: Christian Science Monitor