I always thought playing computer games was meant to be fun. Using them for recruitment tools, now thats a different story.

With the British Army needing around 15,000 new recruits each year to protect our country, homes and lives then i undoubtedly would expect them to use all options available to them to recruit but playing Halo 3 is a whole lot different than being posted to Iraq.

The British Government has recently started a recruitment campaign called “Start Thinking Soldier”. After doing some research on this i found out that the British Army  are claiming 68% of 17- to 21-year-olds have no career path. The campaign, which will include 4 television adverts, will be targeted at that age group, each advert highlighting a particular area of Army skills such as decision making or leadership qualities.

Before this most of the Armys tv adverts showed men in swimming pools with women, at bars drinking and parachuting out of airplanes. They dont show you the real world of what its like to be in the Army. I have several friends who have served and also members of my family and they say how the Army doesnt show you wthe facts like people dying around you, colleagues becoming traumatized at what they have seen and not having adequate equipment to defend yourself when been fired upon by the enemy.

In my opinion theres is no way a video game can give you a “real life” scenario. Guns dont jam in video games, well at least they havent while ive been playing Call of Duty which these games eerily resemble. You need to get a feel for what its like to hold a gun in your hand and not press a button on a controller to be able to reload. Theres no re-spawns, save points or second-go’s either, if something happens to you out there then thats it, done.

Ask any returning soldier from the Middle East if being out there is like playing Call of Duty or Halo and see what the reply is…