When Marines Play Video Games

When the Cold War abated, military budgets shrunk. Strapped for funds, the U.S. Marines licensed seminal first-person-shooter (FPS) Doom from id Software and built their own version for soldiers to play. Companies like Sega began designing simulation software for defense contractors, since they could do it more affordably. For a few years, FPS games were all called Doom clones since so many of them used Doom shareware. Part of the inspiration for the military’s collaboration with videogame producers was Orson Scott Card’s novel Ender’s Game (1985), which depicts videogame interfaces for real military battles.

Doom’s world was stripped down and streamlined for Marine Doom. Martian dungeons became “sparse, dust-colored plain punctuated by small brick bunkers, foxholes, and barbed-wired barriers.” Aliens and demons were replaced by “very human-looking opposing forces, clad in simple khaki military uniforms of a vaguely Communist/Nazi cut.”  The game’s new purpose was teaching Marines “how to work together in teams and make split-second decisions in the midst of combat.” Doom served as a basis for further military use of first-person shooters. Videogames and military training depended on the same basic logic: “what’s good for the Xbox is good for the combat simulator.” The U.S. military still depends on commercial companies for its training technology.
--Rachel Wagner