According to this story, released by CNN, most visitors to MegaGames would make excellent Generals.
The U.S. military, realizing the need for better training of its forces, has accepted statistics which show that virtual training can improve soldier performance in the battlefield. The Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has organized the development of strategic games for personnel training purposes in the past few years. One such game was originally titled "Joint Forces Employment" and has since seen worldwide release, October 2001, as "Real War". The only real difference between the retail version and the military training one of the game is the limitation of resources in the military version in order to make the gameplay more realistic.
The storyline of "Real War", developed by Rival Interactive Inc. before September 11th and published by Simon & Schuster, is particularly notable for its premise which now seems eerily familiar. A terrorist strike on U.S. interests causes great global upheaval and war.
"It can't replace any real training," says Omer. "But what it does do is allow the military to prepare and rehearse before they get into any situation." says Jim Omer, president of Rival Interactive. Reflecting on the accuracy of the storyline Omers says "It bothered us a little to be associated with those heinous events, but we hope people will take away some positives from it. We never intended in any way to exploit the situation."
To find out about the U.S. Military's plans to develop its own simulator and to release commercial games follow the link below and to the right...
