Ooohrah!

In addition to allowing its officers and enlisted to play certain military-related commercial computer games on base computers, the Marines have also been busy creating some training games of their own. Using a version of the commercial game DOOM, adapted with the help of Lieutenant Scott Barnett, Marine fire teams have been training at computer labs in Virginia, Georgia, and North Carolina, learning battlefield tactics and decision making. Interestingly, the skills Barnett was attempting to teach with these action shoot-'em-up games were not shooting and killing, but teamwork, communication, and concepts of command and control. What he certainly got was engagement. "It's funny, because at the end of the day I had to kick my Marines out of there and send them home," he says. "The Marines know they're learning, but they're also having fun. I think that's critically important to get them to want to learn."

Marine Doom is played as a networked game. Four-member fire teams are given four separate computers in the same room. Their goal is to coordinate their movements to eliminate an enemy bunker. "In the lab, we crank the sound up just to add to the confusion and the chaos. Each Marine can shout to his comrades; the fire team leader shouts commands and they advance on the enemy using what they know about strategy and tactics," says Barnett.

Marine Doom's sequel Quake can network up to 16 players, which can accommodate a Marine squad. "I think in the future we're going to see multiplayer gaming on a grand scale," Barnett says. "We'll see squads going on squads in an online environment." MaK Technologies, a consumer game developer, has already designed a 16-player Marine squad simulator called Battle Site Zero.

Published: February 2001