Custom Video Games Training American Spies

Fascinating article on Wired.com — the U.S. Defence Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s CIA counterpart, just paid $2.6 million for three custom video games to train its entire analyst corps, young and old. So, you want to bitch about $US60 titles on the Xbox, think of that next time. Plus, these games are bereft of squad-based FPS tactics or any real arcade action. They’re designed to get to the heart of epistemology, which is, in essence, how you know what you know, and in these three cases, it’s how to assess a threat or judge the quality of information.

The three titles are called Rapid Onset, Sudden Thrust and Vital Passage, which is a Freudian trilogy if I’ve ever heard one. Seriously, the DIA’s Bruce Bennet told Wired that the games are more effective than day-long powerpoint torture sessions at getting training and a message across. And I can dig that.

DIA aren’t the only ones using video games to train analysts. The Army has a game training interrogators that is entitled “Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Tactical Proficiency Trainer Human Intelligence Control Cell,” which is based on Far Cry’s architecture.

Fascinating and enjoyable read, of course. And, ulterior motive, I know someone who also might kinda sorta do spooky intelligence shit and that person’s monitored my Interwebs traffic before, so I’m wondering how soon after I post this that I’ll get an email from … oh Holy Jesus that was fast.

US Spies Use Custom Video Games to Learn How to Think [Wired]