Future Force Company Commander (F2C2) is the long awaited sequel to the highly popular and controversial America’s Army. To give a quick recap, America’s Army was a first person shooter developed by the US military as an effective way of getting more recruits. You were based as a Marine in the Middle East.
F2C2 is a “realtime strategy” game designed to mesmerize new recruits with an array of technological warfare. Developed by Zombie, the game is composed of four missions where you will have to guide, organize and direct your battalions to glory. It’s teeming with cinematic cut offs, military jargon and detailed military maps.
A recent Wired article points out that it has been developed so it is “harder to lose”. You make use of extremely advanced precise technology against an enemy that “doesn’t learn from experience”. While we can see the obvious benefits of making US forces seem invincible, the tactic could backfire. What type of gamer gets his kicks out of a game where you can’t lose?
Susan Nash, an e-learning expert, is also worried that the video game will trick new recruits into believing that a career in the army is all about “riding a joystick” in a comfy chair. In America’s Army, you weren’t allowed to play as insurgents. In F2C2 you can never lose. In games designed by the US Army to aid recruitment, is this all so surprising?
Check out the video here after the break:
[quicktime width=”315″ height=”260″]http://www.army.mil/fcs/images/videos/overview.mov[/quicktime]
