Learning tools: demand for non-combat skills fuels interest in games.

• Author: Pappalardo, Joe
• Position: Military training

The success of tactical shooting games as military training tools has bolstered the case for expanding the use of this technology into non-combat areas.

As priorities shift on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, experts point to an array of non-combat skills that U.S. forces will be expected to learn, and that will require novel training tools.

"The reason for this is that, for the first time in U.S. history, non-combat troops are taking more casualties than combat troops," asserted James Dunnigan, a pioneer in the development of so-called serious gaming. He has advised Wall Street and the Pentagon on using models and simulations.

"You can take any situation and make it into a game," he said. "And any of them can be made entertaining--maybe not as entertaining as Doom, but entertaining."

Like shooter games, virtual instruction needs to be honed by physical training, Dunnigan and other experts said at the Serious Games Summit, in Washington, D.C.

"It's a tool, not a panacea," he said.

Other participants said the gaming world is growing in stature. Instead of being cheap, fast alternatives, games can be developed to teach vital skills and lessons to troops.

"[Combat games] are maybe the easiest to do and the hardest to do in the real world," said Brian Williams, who heads a simulation center at the Institute for Defense Analysis, which is charged with adapting off-the-shelf games for use in the Defense Department. "We're seeing a maturing of the market."

One new application on the Army's radar screen is filling the cultural awareness gap that exists between combat soldiers and the civilian population in Iraq. One project under development at the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute not only teaches soldiers snatches of Iraqi Arabic, but also fosters cultural sensitivities that can lead to better intelligence gathering.

The tactical language skill builder immerses soldiers in scenarios through which they have to talk and gesture. They use verbal and body language to navigate through the challenge. Although originally planned to react to actual soldier motions, cost constraints forced designers simply to allow soldiers to pick gestures from a menu while they speak. Simulants react to the phrasing and gestures, and when players puzzle through the games plot of intrigue, they win. An "intelligent tutor" program corrects errors in syntax or highlights any cultural faux pas.

"One thing the Army wanted us to do is build...