War Play: Video Games and the Future of Armed Conflict

Mead (English, Baruch Coll.) covers the past and present of video games in the military far more than the "the future of armed conflict." He begins with a look at how the military has innovated in technology and education and then contrasts that history with the military's relatively slow adoption of video games—which Mead defines as "a variety of interactive digital and virtual applications"—as tools. He discusses key figures such as Lt. Col. Casey Wardynski, developer of America's Army, "the world's first military-developed video game," and Sharon Sloane, creator of a series of live-action, interactive movies that help soldiers deal with traumas such as sexual harassment and suicidal thinking. While Mead focuses most on combat games such as Virtual Battlespace 2, he also addresses therapeutic games that include Virtual Iraq and Virtual Afghanistan, deemed effective in treating post-traumatic stress disorder. Most compelling are his accounts of veterans achieving real gains because of these games. While his book lacks a consistent critical approach, especially with respect to video games as recruiting tools, Mead's primary goal is to explain and illustrate, not to debate and provoke.