Support NeoGAF

[ocean]

Via: Foreign Policy

The Atlantic Council's newest fellow has been a key strategist for several wars -- all fought on gaming consoles and computer screens.

Until recently, Dave Anthony was a director and writer for Call of Duty, one of the biggest video game franchises ever. [...] The Atlantic Council hopes Anthony can draw on his experience waging fictional war to bring a new, creative approach to predicting global threats. His unpaid, part-time work at the Council will aim to convince policymakers to do a better job preparing against the dangers that new technologies and forms of attack pose to national security.

(Oliver) North told Anthony that the soldiers used the game to improve their team coordination on the battlefield, and that he believed it saved lives.

He predicts that when faced with the need to prepare for these threats, Washington's response will be, "'Well, we can't afford it.' And my answer's going to be, 'Well, you can't afford not to.'"

Guys, what's your take on a member of the video game industry participating in policy design? I mean it's interesting to say the least that this guy, with his background, is going to be hanging around military advisors and international relations buffs. I think it's usually a good idea to bring somebody with new, fresh perspectives into a team.

That last comment scares me though. I really hope this guy doesn't have a real-world vision of future warfare that looks like a Michael Bay movie.

Court martial me if old.

(Not sure if this goes in Gaming or Off-Topic, but I put it in "Community" by mistake. Mods halp!)

 

[luxarific]

Hah. This guy.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...-game-marketing-says-ex-call-of-duty-director

That's what former Call of Duty director Dave Anthony told a think-tank forum in Washington this week. According to a report from Businessweek, Anthony's talk explored potentially controversial solutions to national security problems in America, and he had an intriguing take on how those solutions could be sold to the public.

"When we have a new product that has elements that we're not sure how people will respond to, what do we do as a corporation?" he asked, referring to his time as writer and game director on Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2.

"We market it, and we market it as much as we can - so that whether people like it or not, we do all the things we can to essentially brainwash people into liking it before it actually comes out."

The forum was organised by the Atlantic Council, a think-tank where Anthony is a fellow in international security. He warned the crowd of the threat of "invasion" from within America's borders, most likely by an Islamic terrorist group, and illustrated the concept with a video that depicted, among other things, a US drone hacked by forces working from Iran and a massacre at a Las Vegas hotel.

Anthony's plea that policy-makers should learn from marketing and promotion in creative industries was linked to what he saw as a potential solution to the issue: stationing undercover US soldiers in schools, much like air marshalls on aeroplanes.

"The public won't like it, they'll think it's a police state," he said, then added, "All of these are solvable problems."

"I look at the US military and government, ironically, as having some of the very same problems as what the Call of Duty franchise has," Anthony continued. "We are both on top of our game. We are both the best in the world at what we do. We both have enemies who are trying to take us down at any possible opportunity. But the difference is, we know how to react to that."