Network-centric warfare sim game?

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Culture and Context:

Network-centric warfare sim game?

By Susan Miller
Published on November 27, 2006 - 03:56 AM

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Wired News is running a review of the Armyâ€™s Future Force Company Commander (F2C2) game. In Army Game Proves U.S. Can't Lose, Wired says:

It's an impressive game, simulating weaponry the military is actually using or building, gamers say. But the gameplay is designed so it's hard to lose: The equipment holds up awfully well and the enemy doesn't learn from experience.

They're right in saying that the game isnâ€™t a very realistic first-person combat game (or doesnâ€™t simulate present conditions in Iraq), but I donâ€™t think thatâ€™s what the Army was aiming for when it contracted with SAIC for the simulation. The SAIC web page about F2C2 says:

F2C2 demonstrates the networked intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance that will provide greater battlefield awareness. F2C2 gives you an unparalleled view into FCS, allowing you to command the advanced network architecture that provides joint connectivity, situational awareness, and synchronized operations.

Even Zombie, the company SAIC contracted with to build the game, says pretty much the same thing:

SAIC has contracted Zombie to produce a simulation of the FCS battle command station in which the player controls the full spectrum of FCS vehicles, sensors, UAVs and weapon systems - and fights four intense missions on the complex future battlefield.

Perhaps the Army wants F2C2 to serve too many functions: first-person shooter game, recruitment tool, training simulation and PR vehicle for Future Combat Systems. That's too tall an order. Besides, any kind of battlefield game built by the U.S. Army (ultimately meaning taxpayers) is going to attract a lot of scrutiny -- it costs too much, it glamorizes war, it's not realistic enough, it's too realistic, etc.

Plus, I think the whole serious games model isn't well understood because it doesn't match up with any of our current training or entertainment models. We need new assumptions when we talk about the effectiveness of serious games. I'm still chewing on that idea...

Meanwhile, the guys at Pointless Waste of Time have a hilarious list of tongue-in-cheek suggestions for a more realistic battlefield simulation. Here are the first two of 20. Theyâ€™re all pretty funny, though the language is rough in spots.

I want a War Sim...

1. ...where I spend two hours pushing across a map to destroy a "nuclear missile silo," only to find out after the fact that it was just a missile-themed orphanage.

I want little celebrities to show up on the scene and do interviews over video of charred teddy bears, decrying my unilateral attack. I want congressional hearings demanding answers to these atrocities.

2. On the very next level I want to lose half of my units because another "orphanage" turned out to be a NOD ambush site. I want another round of hearings asking why I didn't level that orphanage as soon as I saw it, including tearful testimony from a slain soldier's daughter who is now, ironically, an orphan.

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