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To PC game developers, there’s always a sense of pride when one of their titles wins an award or two, but no pride compares to what they must feel when the US Military wants to use the game for their own purposes.

The idea of using video games to simulate actual military scenarios is not a new concept. Some may remember the hype surrounding Marine Doom, arguably the first “realistic combat” mod for first-person shooters, which became famous before the game modification scene took off, mainly because of the interest military groups showed for the game.

Some time later, as computer technologies became better at modelling 3D terrain, the Delta Force engine was being looked at, and contract negotiations were in place with Novalogic to use their Land Warrior engine for military training purposes. This voxel-based engine was perfect for outside military scenarios, and a version modified for military use was soon in the works.

Now, however, the idea of using video games as training supplements for the military is kicking into an even faster gear. With the talk of games such as Operation Flashpoint being used by the military, it sounds as though gamers are getting first dibs at real-life military simulations, and these simulations are starting to get pretty realistic. I have to admit, Operation Flashpoint is the most hardcore “combat simulation” I’ve yet played, and I’m half-addicted to it, and half-annoyed at just how difficult working with a team is. This is not Counterstrike on crack, this is practically the real thing, minus the blood and guts, of course.

There’s a next-level to all of this, however, and even CNN is reporting just how high-tech some of these for-military games are getting. Not only are we talking about first-person shooters, but we’re talking sophisticated roleplaying for completing scenarios, with total immersion in a simulated, foreign atmosphere (complete with smells).

Fortunately for us gamers, government funding for these sorts of projects means new technologies will likely trickle down to the consumer, and for those thinking about going into video game design, it looks like there’s another niche market ripe for picking, what with the need for advanced artificial intelligence, graphics, sounds, etc that these for-military titles will require to actually make a difference.

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