Should Canada make a Game ala America's Army?

[Ukraineboy]

I've been thinking about this. I read many posts and read many articles and it seems a big complaint in the CF is recruitment. Now some people have suggested Conscription, but I disagree.Now my question to YOU, should Canada invest and pay for a free internet game ala America's Army based on the Canadian Army? Do you think this will help recruitment? Im sorry if this has been posted before but I searched and found nothing.

If you agree: How should they go about doing this? Should they group with the US Army and co-design it with the designers of AA? What company should they get a contract with to make the video game?

If you disagree: Why do you disagree? What other "radical" recruitment ideas do you think could put in place of this? Or should they stay with regular recruitment, and if so, how?

(I'm going to be neutral in this debate....I've already jumped off the wrong foot so I don't want to dig a deeper hole_

 

[Infanteer]

If you want to fork over the cash, go ahead.  I recall hearing that the design of that video game by the US Army exceeded Canada's annual recruiting budget....

 

[48Highlander]

That has to be a rumour, unless they decided to waste money for no reason.  Still, to design that type of game you'll be spending quite a few million dollars.  The cost isn't excessively prohibitive, I just don't think too many civvies would be interested in a game where all you do is run through open fields, trip over tank ruts, and yell BANG BANG once in a while.

 

[Goober]

According to this article http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020902&s=hodes20020823 America's Army cost 5 million to develop. The article aslo states that it costs about $15,000 to recruit each soldier in the US Army, so if the video game America's Army inspires 400 people to sign up, then it would have more than paid for itself.

As of last summer, 3.4 million people world wide downloaded and registered to play America's Army.

 

[Korus]

I remember when the game first came out, back when I was still into games. It was the glorious time where all the older people with patience who'd waited for the game to come out were playing it, and before the kids with ADD stumbled across it again after giving up and forgetting about it before it's release..  Most of the people said they didn't want to join the army, because 'everyone dies'.. which was true.. at the end of a 7 minute round, 2 8+ person teams would be decimated leaving only a few people altogethor.

classic.

 

[Zoomie]

... I just don't think too many civvies would be interested in a game where all you do is run through open fields, trip over tank ruts, and yell BANG BANG once in a while.

LOL - well put my kilted companion!

AA is a good shooter game - the cost is the best thing (ie free).

It isn't very real world though - if I thought jumping around a lot would stop me from being hit by bullets, I would be dead.

 

[marshall sl]

Ghost recon has a Canadian Army mod you can download.  :warstory:

 

[Alex252]

I'd perfer conscription.......

 

[Da_man]

Most of the people said they didn't want to join the army, because 'everyone dies'.. which was true.. at the end of a 7 minute round, 2 8+ person teams would be decimated leaving only a few people altogethor.

So true.  If the army was really like that, i would never have joined

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Operation Flashpoint has some brilliant Canadian mods that do the same thing.  Now if they could just get rid of those contact grenades....

 

[Matt-Z]

I better recruitment tool would simply be to better communication between the army and the schools. When I tried to apply for my BMQ training course as a coop course through school people were, erm, confused you could say. Everyone kept giving me a diffrent story and if I wasn't soo determind to get in then I probably would of gave up like most people.

 

[mo-litia]

  I just don't think too many civvies would be interested in a game where all you do is run through open fields, trip over tank ruts, and yell BANG BANG once in a while.

That must be the reserve version of this hypothetical game . . . Bang Bang!

 

[Korus]

I prefer the militia version of the Carl Gustav drill: where you have a third soldier standing behind the weapon yelling "BANG!" into the venturi.

 

[Ghost]

Yeah what would make the game very realistic is if it took 6 months to load up to simulate the rad fun of the merit list

 

[mo-litia]

RoKo - Wouldn't the guy behind the Karl Gustav be in the backblast area while he yelled 'Bang'?  ;D

 

[Ukraineboy]

Ok guys we're getting off topic. Seriously though, do you think it will help with recruitment?

 

[Korus]

No, Mo-Litia.. It would be his job to then simulate the backblast.

 

[Burrows]

Ok guys we're getting off topic. Seriously though, do you think it will help with recruitment?

It wont help because we dont have one   that and the CF doesnt recruit corpulent mcnuggets who spend 23 hours a day playing a computer game =/

 

[pbi]

I get the point, but I'm not sure that the game would do much about making an important life decision like joining the military. However, I don't agree that everybody who plays simulation games is an overweight couch-potato wannabe. I have a number of PC games (not the first-person console shooters, I hasten to add...) such as Steel Panthers, Age of Empires, the Cossacks series and the Blitzkrieg series. I see some value in them. On the other hand, I don't watch TV and I don't really like McD's all that much.

If you want a game that includes Canadians, try to get your hands on the Steel Panthers II CD. You will need a DOS launcher program to run it, but it is a surprisingly good tactical game. The editor allows you to build Canadian units to to about BG size, from individual units such as LAVIII, Cdn Leo, M109, Cdn Inf, TOW, etc. The game is a bit dated as it still includes AVGPs. Cheers.

 

[FredDaHead]

I get the point, but I'm not sure that the game would do much about making an important life decision like joining the military. However, I don't agree that everybody who plays simulation games is an overweight couch-potato wannabe. I have a number of PC games (not the first-person console shooters, I hasten to add...) such as Steel Panthers, Age of Empires, the Cossacks series and the Blitzkrieg series. I see some value in them. On the other hand, I don't watch TV and I don't really like McD's all that much.

If you want a game that includes Canadians, try to get your hands on the Steel Panthers II CD. You will need a DOS launcher program to run it, but it is a surprisingly good tactical game. The editor allows you to build Canadian units to to about BG size, from individual units such as LAVIII, Cdn Leo, M109, Cdn Inf, TOW, etc. The game is a bit dated as it still includes AVGPs. Cheers.

One of the latest Steel Panthers game (Steel Panthers: World at War) had a couple scenarios built around Canadian units (Dieppe, D-Day, and a few others) and Cdn units could also be used in custom scenarios. The game is (or at least, was) free, though it's a huge download (around 700MB, if I remember correctly) But I guess if you want modern Canadian units you might be better off with SPII, as SPWAW deals with World War II only.

On the original topic... I doubt enough people would be interested in a Canada's Army game to make it worth developing. I think that if it was possible to make it a kind of add-on for AA it might be cool, though. A joint Canada-US project like that would definately be enjoyable for, well, people like me.