America's Army to include real vets

Sent to me by Jay Babcock of the incredible Arthur:

War vets feature in US army game

By Alfred Hermida

Technology editor, BBC News website

The US military is putting soldiers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan into its video game in an attempt to put a human face on its operations overseas.

The soldiers' stories are part of a new version of America's Army, a game which is part of its recruitment strategy.

The US military denies that the project is a way of selling an unpopular war to the American public....

Also, interestingly enough:

"We are not attempting in any way to sell a war to the people, that has nothing to do with our agenda.

"We're trying to create awareness about the people doing the fighting, and that is a very apolitical agenda," said the major who now teaches at West Point.

Well, selling the war versus selling recruitment during the war -- a fine distinction indeed.

Full story [BBC]

Update: America's Army will not be the first video game to include stories and characters based on real contemporary experiences. Kuma has explored this territory before with its Stories from the Front contest: the winner saw one of his own missions recreated as a Kuma minigame.

Destineer's Close Combat: First to Fight, which was created with the participation of the US Marine Corp as a training aid, includes characters based on real-life Marines.

And of course much earlier there was [General] Custer's Revenge, but I'm skeptical of this game's tactical veracity.