Call to Duty: Video Game Effects on the Military - Potential for Violent, Aggressive Behavior, Positive Effect on Cognitive Ability and Learning Environment, Good for Military Recruitment and Training

This report has been professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction. Video games are a very popular form of media and entertainment—though not without controversy. This thesis seeks to understand the effects of video games on those who play them, because the U.S. Armed Forces have begun to adopt video games as training tools. This thesis attempts to determine whether playing video games will affect the nature of a military member's recruitment, job performance, and training. There are several potential effects that video games have on those who play them, which include increased violent and aggressive behavior on one hand, and increased cognitive ability and a more positive learning environment on the other hand. Overall, the research indicates that video games have a more positive effect on the people who play them, and in turn, would have a generally positive effect on military recruitment, job performance, and training.

Video games have been proven to be effective training aids in the work force. According to Katherine Buckley and Craig Anderson's, McDonalds has even adopted a game that helps to train their new employees in training seminars. Additionally, "One of the largest groups that has embraced the use of video games for training is the U.S. military." The Army uses video games to teach soldiers a myriad of tasks ranging from flying, driving tanks, commanding soldiers, etc. With this evidence, it is the author's hypothesis that prior exposure to video games will create better job performance within the armed forces. With having prior exposure to video games, new recruits will have been conditioned to learn in the way that the military is attempting to affect. Due to this conditioning, new recruits will be more likely to exhibit cognitive and problem-solving skills acquired through prior video game play.

Video games can have a profound impact on military recruitment. Video games can reach further than previous media could, expanding more deeply into different specific demographics. About 83 percent of teens play video games. This demographic is just the market that the military is trying to reach. The Army has shown success utilizing video games to recruit new potential soldiers with its 2004 release of America's Army, a free online game that teaches the ideals of the Army and enables the player to play in simulated war environments. The operation "was conceived by director Colonel Wardynski, who hypothesized that a free, high-quality game could effectively reach young, tech-savvy recruits and that it would be economically viable if it were to yield merely 300-400 recruits, given the high cost of traditionally recruiting college-bound teens." The game had 1.5 million downloads in the first month of its release, and reaching far more than Wardynski expected and later "military testimony to Congress indicates that it has been more effective for recruiting than any other method of contact." Its popularity leads to the belief that video games can be an effective method of military recruitment. With their ability to reach key demographics, and their ability to promote pro-military rhetoric, utilizing video games for military recruitment can be very effective.