Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Sunday Morning

Computer Game Brings `Real War' to Consumers

Aired November 25, 2001 - 08:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: It is an eerie coincidence -- a very realistic computer game focusing on a U.S. war against terrorism that was created long before September 11.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "REAL WAR")

NARRATOR: A new era is upon us. Gone are the days of the Cold War and opposing superpowers. A new threat is emerging. Terrorism and regional conflicts are becoming our immediate priority. These escalating conflicts are compromising our reputation and effectiveness as the world's peacekeeper.

The U.S. military is losing respect, and as a nation, we are losing the battle of world opinion. We must eliminate this growing terrorist threat by seeking out and destroying their centers of operation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CALLAWAY: Now, Daniel Sieberg from CNN.com is joining us now with more on "Real War."

Good morning Daniel.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN.COM: Good morning Catherine.

CALLAWAY: You know, this -- we should say first of all that this video game, this computer game that we were just looking at was developed by the Pentagon to really try to capture the video game generation, wasn't it?

SIEBERG: That's right. The original version of this game was called "Joint Forces Employment." And it was created at least a year and a half to two years ago. And it was aimed at instilling the joint forces doctrine. That means getting all of the forces in the military to work together -- Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines -- getting them all to work together.

Now the game, for the military purposes, is very similar to this commercial version that was released in October, called "Real War." And it certainly is an eerie similarity to what's happening right now.

CALLAWAY: You know, it really is; and it's so realistic-looking. I'm wondering if there were any second thoughts about releasing this in October, so soon after the incidents of September 11, and the current ground war that's going on.

SIEBERG: Well, there certainly were. The coincidence wasn't at all lost on the creators of the game. I spoke to the developer, and he said the first thing, when he saw what happened on September 11, he said it gave him the willies. And it really -- it was certainly something they had to consider. They grappled with it; they thought about some of the concerns, and whether or not it would be tasteful. They wanted people to know they weren't capitalizing on what happened -- that it was created long before September 11.

CALLAWAY: Now, was it changed at all -- the Pentagon version, you know, versus what the public can buy now?

SIEBERG: Well, what they say is they took out some of the dry, textbook stuff. In the game that they created for the military, it's more of the learning objectives, and you only have a finite number of forces; when you're the military side, you only have a certain number of tanks and battleships you can use. The game -- the commercial version, you can have as many as you want. But the gameplay is very similar.

CALLAWAY: I don't know about you, but there's something a little unsettling to me about, you know, a former game that you use to train the U.S. military now available to the public. Were there any concerns about that at all, do you think?

SIEBERG: Absolutely. They took this very seriously. They thought about whether they should release this game. None of the information in the game -- the one that they created for the military, nor the one that they released to the public, is classified. So they felt that it was OK to put it out to the public and to sell it.

CALLAWAY: We've heard a lot about simulators since all this, with the hijackers allegedly training on simulators -- airline simulators. Now they're talking about making simulators possibly available for the public for these types of games. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? I know the military uses them to train their troops but, you know, are we going to see that out there at the local arcade?

SIEBERG: Perhaps one day; perhaps. This is what we would call a strategy game. Something else is a simulator; and we can see an image of it behind me. And what this is called, is called a mission rehearsal exercise. And this is something separate. The military is putting about $45 million into this high-tech training. And what it's meant to do is to put a soldier in as realistic an environment as they possibly can without, obviously, being in the field.

So if you can imagine, if I was the soldier standing in front of this screen, it's about eight feet-by-30 feet; it's 150 degrees. There's 10.2 channel audio, which means the floor would shake under your feet because the sound is so powerful. There's also voice recognition technology, and you can even smell some of the environmental smells...

CALLAWAY: Now you're going to have to explain that a little bit. What do you mean? Can you smell, say, if there's a bomb or something, you can smell the smoke? What do they do? How does that work?

SIEBERG: Right, they'd be a little limited in what they could put out; but it could be some smoke or something that would at least put that person in as much of that reality situation as they can.

CALLAWAY: Now that right now is just used for the military, right?

SIEBERG: That's right. It's still in the fairly developmental stages. They only have one environment they can put a soldier in right now. And if you can see it, this is -- imagining a soldier is in Bosnia, actually; that's where this takes place. They've come across an accident and they have to decide whether to continue on or stay with this accident.

But it's quite an impressive display of high-tech.

CALLAWAY: Daniel, what's your guess on this -- you think we are going to see this in the public in a few years -- this kind of thing?

SIEBERG: Oh, I think so, and especially with the upcoming generation who have grown up on video games, the military recognizes that this is a viable way of training those people who are familiar with that type of technology.

CALLAWAY: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and do a little war games, Marty.

All right, Daniel Sieberg, thank you for joining us. At CNN.com you can find out more about this high-tech military training. On our Web site, CNN.com, of course, you can click on to "Science and Technology" and read Daniel's article. Great article on all this. And you can remember the AOL keyword is CNN.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com