“In 2019, we did a big look at where we were spending our money, looking at where the next generation is,” says Lt Aaron Jones, captain of the navy’s esports team, as we sit in his office after touring the facility. A naval press officer hovers a few feet away. “This is where they are,” Jones continues. “Whether it’s Twitch or YouTube or Facebook Gaming, this is what they love.”
His esports team – navy personnel who compete with gamers online under the name Goats & Glory – consists of 12 enlisted sailors who used to work as flight officers, sonar techs and even a chaplain’s assistant. A navy recruiting command spokesperson says the navy allocates 3%-5% of its marketing budget to esports initiatives annually. That amounted to up to $4.3m from Oct 2022 through Sept 2023, according to budget information obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Since 2018, the US military has been ramping up its use of gaming to recruit more people, at a critical time when the US armed forces face the worst recruitment struggle since becoming an all-volunteer force after the Vietnam war. Targeting gamers makes sense from the military’s perspective, as it gives them access to the young, tech-savvy population they want joining up. But some veterans told me that marketing the military with video games – essentially making a game out of war – is unethical.
Of primary concern is just how young the military’s gaming audience is. Online gaming spaces are popular with minors, many of them not yet 13 years old, and the military deliberately capitalizes on games that appeal to them. If the military’s recruiting efforts are successful, these kids and teens will end up applying the skills they honed while playing games they love to warfare – piloting drones to kill from afar, for example.
Read more:
Schwartzburg, R. (2024, February 14). The US military is embedded in the gaming world. Its target: teen recruits. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/14/us-military-recruiting-video-games-targeting-teenagers