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2010-02-10 Economy
Why the Army Doesn't Train on Xboxes
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Posted by Fred 2010-02-10 00:00|| || Front Page|| [4 views ]  Top

#1 Wehell, I've seen various young men, teens to young adult, playing "COD:MODERN WARFARE 2" at the local Internet Cafe. Their XBOX 360's seem to have little difficulty being hooked up to the Cafe's systems.

FYI "MODERN WARFARE 2" looks pretty good from my vantage point [rear].
Posted by JosephMendiola  2010-02-10 01:59|| na  2010-02-10 01:59|| Front Page Top

#2 It will be interesting to see if IBM offers the Army a product based on the PowerXCell8 graphics-heavy gaming boards. They've used them to great effect in building high end supercomputers for Los Alamos National Labs, teaming them with Opteron PC-sytle boards.

The PowerXCell microprocessor was developed jointly with Sony (it's in Playstation 3s).

Posted by lotp 2010-02-10 09:04||   2010-02-10 09:04|| Front Page Top

#3 But, but, but... I thought that with the new CinC everyone would love America, Ayatollahs would send us flowers and Microsoft would give Xboxes to the Army for free.
Posted by JFM  2010-02-10 09:08||   2010-02-10 09:08|| Front Page Top

#4 Face saving are they? Really, because of existing laws and statutes governing government purchases, Microsoft couldn't afford to handle its liability because of the XBox's Red Ring of Death.

Loads of XBoxes are sold to the Army and Air Force Exchange system, a non-appropriated fund activity [which means the tax payers aren't paying for it], aka as the BX or PX. Those don't have the legal coverage for liability that a direct DoD materials contract has.
Posted by Procopius2k 2010-02-10 09:21||   2010-02-10 09:21|| Front Page Top

#5 I play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as often as possible and its a rare game when there isn't a cluster of Military online playing as well. Seems the DOD just needs to provide the games and perhaps a rebate for those reluctant or unable and the troops will manage to get their own equipment.
Posted by rjschwarz 2010-02-10 12:22||   2010-02-10 12:22|| Front Page Top

#6 Where are those games at rjschwarz? I seem to end up in rooms where my handful of hours and no map knowledge earns me a tirade by some punk kid who has weeks of game time and gets to cuss at people from distance before mom and dad get home (and I still get'm 1/4 times so I just smile)...but I can tell when players have a plan and tactic..I propose that for the military/police/etc types that comes from the real world training translating into game tactics. For those who get good solely by hours of play, they will not understand the difficulties of humping gear, decisions under dangerous conditions and fatigue, and that a battlefield is a bit more nuanced than the game, as quality as it is.

The Red Ring of Death is real. And there will be those people who would avoid buying an xbox simply because it would be the official game system of the military, that is real as well.

I could envision it, and please correct me if I'm wrong soldiers et al, as a compliment to training like a very interactive powerpoint, but could not be a substitute for getting out in the field simply because there is no depth perception (a learned ability, ever seen someone fresh from the city try to gauge country distances?) or environment stresses.
Posted by swksvolFF 2010-02-10 12:47||   2010-02-10 12:47|| Front Page Top

#7 I had a red ring of death a few years ago. Now my dvd seems to be going. Anyway, I often play without the headset to avoid listening when annoying kids are on, either that or I mute them or block them. I haven't really had any troubles. In Modern Warfare 1 I ran into annoying kids over and over until I simply couldn't stand listening to the headset anymore.

The military members talk smack to each other as well, but its at a higher level. They also tend to cooperate and have clan tags.
Posted by rjschwarz 2010-02-10 23:30||   2010-02-10 23:30|| Front Page Top

23:45 crosspatch
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