Jordan Uhl: Video Games as a Military Recruitment Strategy
Talk summary and resources created by Alex Turvy.
Talk Summary:
The US military recruits young people through methods that many people are unaware of – particularly video games, live streaming, and esports teams.
The military uses tactics like sharing private information of students with recruiters to recruit more individuals, which has led to an overrepresentation of poor people in the military.
Additionally, they try to get around international laws that prohibit them from contacting individuals younger than 16 years of age through these methods, but they have been met with a lot of cynicism from Gen Z, who have grown up watching the war in the Middle East and are more aware of the issues with the US military.
The military has e-sports teams, which don’t tend to perform very well. They also attend major gaming conventions and bring lots of expensive equipment. The rationale for this is simple – lots of young men share these interests and they need young men to join.
They have research to suggest that teenager start seriously considering their future career at age 13, so the military acts with this in mind – discussing things like funding for college and healthcare. There are even giveaways for gaming supplies that secretly (in the fine print) give consent to share a minor’s information with the military for recruiting purposes.
Key Insights and Questions:
There is a long history of worrying (justifiable or not) about violence in video games, but this represents a new avenue for those concerns. Maybe kids aren’t picking up violent tendencies from games, but they are connecting quite young with the armed forces in a way that their parents are likely unaware of.
War Thunder, a free-to-play game, is intended to be so realistic that there have been multiple incidents of people leaking military secrets.
How does this phenomenon intersect or overlap with the new style of drone warfare which by many accounts resembles the UI / UX of a video game?
Once in the military, is extensive video game experience associated with a particular on-the-ground experience for a given soldier?
Talk Notes & Related Resources:
PBS Video: US Military focuses recruiting efforts on video game playing teenagers
This article focuses on the trend that Uhl identifies, but also extends the conversation to explore another way that the military uses video games for individuals who have already enlisted
This article extends the Uhl’s conversation by discussing how military-adjacent video games are associated with a more broad sensationalization of violence that is related to recruitment, even if youth are not being engaged with directly by the military