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Virtual reality tours have come a long way since something like the New York Skyride of serial entrepreneur Zalman Silber, which is an IMAX-like cinematic experience found at the city’s famous Empire State Building. Contrast that with the United States Army’s Virtual Army Experience, or VAE, which is an interactive multimedia virtual tour of what it’s like to be an American soldier in the 21st Century.

The VAE was created to capitalize on the appetite of today’s American youth for electronic entertainment. As opposed to continuing to run television commercials as was done before, it was decided to support traditional forms of outreach with one that much more instantly and forcefully resonated with today’s young males. Something like the aforementioned Skyride by Zalman Silber is family entertainment and totally innocuous, G-rated to seat as many as possible. It’s mildly educational although the VAE is meant to showcase the most positive aspects of modern soldiering to action-oriented youths. The VAE presents a life-sized networked environment for visitors to obtain a small taste of soldiering and battle. With a complicated setup that involves computers, video, motion sensors, and full surround sound, the VAE is an engaging way to both entertain and educate, not to mention recruit. Via the use of traditional storytelling alongside familiar videogaming conventions, the VAE has been hailed for its innovative use of cutting-edge technology to inform as well as to sell.

Website visitors gather from the “Assembly Area,” whereupon uniformed VAE staff shepherd visitors on for the “Joint Operations Center.” There they meet former soldiers, now employees of Army partner Ignited Minds, a marketing firm, who serve as “team leaders.” An intelligence briefing ensues, which covers the upcoming virtual mission. Time is also taken to introduce Army rules of engagement as well as right use of simulator equipment and correct deployment of Army tactical doctrine. Then it is on to the mission itself, which takes place within the “Mission Simulator” proper. The objective would be to evacuate civilians, an unassailably righteous scenario that critics contend mask the additional likely and less innocuous duties of Army life and death in a time of war.

Upon completion on the mission participants are debriefed in an “After Action Area” where Army values are introduced within the context from the mission, values including duty, honor, respect, and camaraderie. At certain venues, an actual war hero is on-hand to speak with participants, lending an inspirational air of authenticity that has quite a few VAE visitors applauding.

It’s all very beguiling, particularly for young men still trying to prove themselves to themselves.

computing & tech
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