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There is an interesting symbiosis between the Video Game industry and the Military-Industrial Complex.

Almost all of our Military-Grade trainers and simulators began their lives as video games.\

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft’s Flight Simulator game laid the foundation for commercial trainers and simulators. If you add a realistic set of cockpit controls (difficult to get after 9/11/01) the experience feels realistic, but far from real.

Regardless of how focused a “pilot” may be, the experience never loses a simulated feeling. You don’t look up from the instrument panel of a real aircraft and see people standing by a water cooler, for example, and there are generally no phones ringing in a real cockpit. Plus, a real pilot can’t put a flight “on hold” until the next morning.

At some point, the line between reality and simulation disappears. That is a primary goal for the simulation designer.
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Thanks to a lot of money, computing power and full-motion hydraulics, commercial flight simulators are sufficiently authentic that many simulator-trained pilots can be ready and able to go wheels-up, never having been inside of the actual aircraft.

But our government is able to take it to the next level by the application of massive amounts of money, black budgets, expertise, and hardware to die for.

Some of this stuff makes World of Warcraft look like Mario Brothers by comparison.

Sorry gamers, even if you could afford the hardware you’ll have to enlist to get to play with any of it.

Or, if history is any indicator, you can just wait for it to hit the commercial video game market in a year or so.

The video game industry may be unwittingly (I hope) doing what the military has to work hard to do on purpose — de-sensitizing new recruits to the horrors of the battlefield.

The Film and Entertainment industries appear to be doing the same thing, and I have fewer doubts that theirs is purposeful. More on that in another article.

Theater of War simulations are massively complex, use an enormous amount of classified data and imagery and are frankly, no fun at all except for possibly a few Intelligence Analysts.

These are essentially Massive Multi-player Online Games (MMOG’s) on Steroids, with Millions in Black budget money behind them — and you don’t get to shoot anything, you just remove an asset from the database. (BORING!)

Tank Simulator (Click to Enlarge)

The Tactical Weapons Simulators were the fun ones for me. These are simulated Aircraft, Tanks, Carrier Decks, and Submarines. Tactical Weapon’s Simulators give a student operational familiarity with a machine or piece of equipment before turning them loose on the real thing.

These machines are so authentic and immersive that the initial Period for Virtual Acquisition, (PVA) the time it takes for a new subject to effectively disengage from the real world and become immersed in the simulated environment, can be as few as 10 Minutes, with an average full disengagement and immersion time of Twenty-Seven.

In layman’s terms: “The PVA is the time from the beginning of the simulation until the subject gets so focused that they forget it’s not real.” The PVA continually declined and dissociation was almost immediate.for future experiences in the same simulator.

First-person shooter games are among the most popular on the market, and also the most similar to the military CCTS.

CCTS are visually and psychologically engineered to hone the cause-effect, action-reaction habits. The CCTS, serve another, less publicized, less popular and just as necessary task – decreasing reaction time by desensitization. Here, the reality is not only depicted, it is enhanced. The desensitizing role is where the Psychiatrists and Psychologists come in.

Those of us who have seen unfriendly fire know that stopping to think, especially about the poor wife and orphaned children of the person in your sight will kill you.

When you are properly trained and practiced, the entire thought process is an almost instantaneous friend or foe/fire reflex. Little to no conscious thought is involved. Since most of the time the target will be assumed to be a foe, the identification process happens in microseconds, followed by a pure muscle-memory squeeze of the trigger.

First Person Shooters, or Point of View (POV) simulations can disconnect, or further disconnect malleable minds from reality. (Click to Enlarge)

The key tools used in the desensitization process are Reality, Repetition, and Reflex. I’d have to give the Close Combat Trainer/Simulators that I may have seen a solid Six out of Five stars on each.

If I was ever going to have any lingering flashbacks, these things would have brought them back ten times over.

All I will say, and probably more than I should, is the experiences were intense, loud, disorienting, brutal, very gory, and very, very real.

After a few minutes behind the console, I could literally feel the Adrenaline and long-dormant fight/flight and survival training stirring. Unfortunately, by my age, one survival factor, reaction time, turns up its little legs and dies, as I frequently did in many of the simulation runs.

Whether playing cops and robbers, Army, or the far less politically correct game of cowboys and Indians, children must use their imaginations. Whether their toy weapons are super-realistic replicas, or pointed sticks and fingers is irrelevant.

Regardless of how realistic their toy weapons may be, they still hide behind bunkers, (trash cans) climb the enemy’s radio tower (Tree) take out their observation post, (Tree House.), and throw Hand Grenades (Dirt Clods) at enemy tanks. (The Old Pickup)

Today’s video simulations, (I now hesitate to call many of these games) require little if any creativity or imagination on the part of the player. New developments in 3D and sound technology promise to make these games as immersive as possible, further disconnecting the player from the world around them.

When immersion occurs, the rules, laws and morals of real life are replaced by those of their virtual world, be it World of Warcraft or Grand Theft Auto.

Mastering these simulations demands fast reflexes, muzzle, and situational awareness, development of muscle memory and eye/hand reflexes, strategic and tactical planning skills, and the ability to pull triggers or unleash violence without thought or hesitation.

These are the same qualities that the military wants to develop in their soldiers.

Children normally develop these important skills from a balance of sports, thinking games and diverse play with other children, but without the closely connected, virtually real, killing experience.

Note: You may have to drive out into the “country” to see children having this much fun playing politically incorrect games. If you do stop to watch some country kids playing, however, it’s advised that you let the locals know that you’re not a pervert first. You’ve been warned.