Army plans new recruiting center with flight simulators, video games

[unhappycamper]

Army plans new recruiting center with flight simulators, video games
Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Monday, June 16, 2007

In August, the military plans to open its first Army Experience Center, a combination recruiting center/video arcade/retail store to promote the service, according to a report in the New York Post.

The paper wrote that the city’s Times Square is a likely location, and that the 14,500-square-foot center will be a multimedia extravaganza with flight simulators and life-size soldier video games.

While the Army will sell merchandise at the venue, the focus is on building "brand experiences" that give potential recruits a taste of military service, the Post reported.

Last summer, the Army appointed its first official chief marketing officer, Edward Walters, a 38-year-old West Point grad armed with an MBA and a marketing stint at Kraft Foods, according to the paper.

Walters told the Post that the Army store is a prototype for a new kind of recruitment office and is the latest example of the military’s increasing use of marketing tools to attract the next generation of soldiers.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=55584



uhc comment: I hope the Army experience also includes trips to Walter Reed, Dover AFB, and a local Veterans Administration hospital.

[DrDan]

1. and a trip to Arlington

[jtrockville]

2. I thought the Army already had one in Ocean City Maryland.

[bullimiami]

3. how about they stop throwing tax money away on gimmicks and propaganda and huge contracts.

and start to treat their soldiers with some dignity and care.

that would turn the recruiting around. soldiers know they are getting used up and tossed out. they can see the pitiful state of the va hospitals.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

4. Good points

:thumbsup:

[Crowman1979]

5. Aren't Video Games suppose to be fun?

Simulated combat courses aren't fun, they make you feel like your in boot camp! Video games based on realistic situations are dull. If I want to play a game, it would be one that is detached from reality as much as possible. How would you like it if they came up with a game based on administrative work or some other dull job. Is just a dumb idea for the army to give the impression that war is as simple as moving moving your thumbs and fingers around a gamepad.