You know how it’s really frustrating in one of those Tom Clancy-branded squad-based first-person shooters when there’s a part you can’t get past because all your guys keep getting pwnd by Chechen cyborg snipers or something? These new Army video games will be like that but instead of regenerating you’ll wake up in heaven to spend eternity with these dudes. Uh oh. From The New York Times:
At the Franklin Mills mall here, past the Gap Outlet and the China Buddha Express, is a $13 million video arcade that the Army hopes will become a model for recruitment in urban areas, where the armed services typically have a hard time attracting recruits.
The Army Experience Center is a fitting counterpart to the retail experience: 14,500 square feet of mostly shoot-’em-up video games and three full-scale simulators, including an AH-64 Apache Longbow helicopter, an armed Humvee and a Black Hawk copter with M4 carbine assault rifles. For those who want to take the experience deeper, the center has 22 recruiters. Or for more immediate full-contact mayhem, there are the outlet stores.
The facility, which opened in August, is the first of its kind. It replaces five smaller recruitment stations in the Philadelphia area, at about the same annual operating cost, not counting the initial expenses, said Maj. Larry Dillard, the program manager. Philadelphia has been a particularly difficult area for recruitment.
Screw that. We’re gonna go lazer taggin’ with the Black Keys guys instead.
Arthur Magazine 