Army Discusses MMO Troop Training Sim

An anonymous reader writes "Over at GameSpot, there's an interview with Dr. Michael Macedonia of the U.S. Army about the AWE training sim, a 'massively multiplayer simulation [based on the There 'virtual world' game engine] that will be used by military personnel to train troops in urban situations before they are airlifted to a battle zone.' Macedonia says 'We built downtown Baghdad in this environment', and also says 'we call our games tactical decision aids. Our thing is not making people shoot better; it's making people think better.'" We previously featured an initial announcement of this project in January.

Re:What can't they simulate?

[Trent05]

A commander in chief willing to sacrifice American lives for a people who would be better off left to their own devices?

Really!?!?! [fas.org]

Umm, don't let Sean Penn fool you, life under Saddam wasn't too swell.

Re:New Game? New Engine?

[MatthewB79]

The 2nd game you speak of was never supposed to be for actual training of soldiers. I think the elusive 2nd game was supposed to be a sort of RPG/advertisement where your character is enlisted and goes through basic training, with different skill sets, careers, game endings etc. To educate high-schooler about the Army. Last I heard it was scrapped when they included the training "FAQ" and "what's life in the army like?" type maps in the existing FPS game.
But I wouldn't be suprised if they used the existing work on that RPG as a base for this training sim.

Re:Inquiring minds want to know?

[Blastercorps]

The game this is based on has been in open beta for a year now. Follow the second link for a trial.