Marines unveiling two new games.

• Author: Peck, Michael
• Position: United States. Marine Corps

The Marine Corps is adapting two commercial video games--one a first-person-shooter and the other a platoon level strategy game--for training purposes.

Each side sees the deal as a win-win; the Marines get cutting-edge video game technology at a fraction of the price, while the game company marketers can bolster their products with a valuable Semper Fi endorsement.

The shooter game is appropriately titled Close Combat: First to Fight. In a strange twist, First to Fight started out as tool to help curb illegal drug use.

Officials at Marine Corps Community Services saw a Navy study suggesting that video games were a good way to reach young Marines, according to Lt. Col. Chris Sharp, who heads the Marine Corps Family Team Building Branch. They decided that video games could serve both to teach drug awareness and as a useful tactical simulator.

Marines will receive the version of First to Fight with the drug awareness module, which they can play on their home computers. They'll see how a stoned Marine can ruin a fire-team leader's day. At some point in the mission, one of the team members will scream incoherently or run out in the middle of a bullet-crossed street. While individual Marines won't have the option of turning off the drug module, Marine simulation centers will be able to shut it down, thus enabling them to use it as a multiplayer tactical trainer.

Sharp said various methods of distributing First to Fight are being considered. One possibility is to hold First to Fight tournaments, beginning with the battalions that provided subject matter experts for the game.

The Marines spent about $900,000 to develop First to Fight, with commercial developer Destineer picking up most of the tab and the Marines providing the subject matter experts. Sharp estimated it would have cost the Marines several million dollars to develop the game on their own.

"We have developed it with the full expectation that it will become a tactical decision-making simulation," said Michael Woodman, project manager far Marine Corps Systems Command.

Woodman anticipates that First to Fight will become the primary fire team- and squad-level simulation.

The human players battle insurgents in multiple scenarios across Beirut in 2006. The player's fire team is part of a NATO task force battling various factions in "Operation Preserve Peace." "The Marines fight as a combined-arms Marine air-ground task force (MAGTF). Players can call in Cobra attack helicopters, mortar fire...