‘Ghost Recon:’ Video game developers learn from military and vice versa

As senior producer of the studio behind “Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Soldier,” Stuart White is constantly looking for real-life military technology to put in his video games.

Sometimes, he sees the influence go the other way,

White recalls a visit to a military research lab in Alabama in which the video game developers saw an automated .50 calibre gun in a turret on a Humvee. Having a soldier operate the gun left him out in the open, so the controls were moved inside the vehicle rather than on top.

“And the funny thing was when they showed us the control they were using, it looks extremely like an Xbox 360 controller,” White said during a recent stop in Toronto. “And I pointed that out to them and they said ‘Well, of course. We’re not going to reinvent a new way because we get all these kids into the military, they already know how to use a 360 controller, they’re already familiar with it. So we’re just going to use that in how we’re building the technology.

“And that was a really interesting moment for me to see how video games are actually affecting real life, and specifically the military.”

“Ghost Recon,” out Tuesday, is the latest Tom Clancy game from Ubisoft’s Red Storm Entertainment, located near Raleigh, N.C. The studio is close to several U.S. military bases and White says they make the most of the connection.

“We’re quite blessed in the location we’re at. We have people able to come visit us and tell us about the technology that they’re currently working on. Sometimes they’ll even show us some of the stuff they’re working on.

“We’re able to take that and sort of say ‘All right, this is what today’s technology is. What is that going to be in the future? How is that going to be entertaining for people to play with?’

“Because sometimes reality is not so fun to play with. But if you spin it, put some game play value to it, then it becomes a lot of fun to play with.”

The “Ghost Recon” world is “set in the future, but not too far are in the future,” says White, who puts it at five to seven years ahead of current time.

The game, for example, features a limited cloaking device for soldiers, which seems more James Bond than G.I. Joe.

But White says it is in the works.

“Currently technology is the military has these vehicles that have monitors on the front side of the vehicle, cameras on the back. So if you look at it from the right angle, you see the vehicle as not being there because you’re seeing on the monitor what the camera is showing you behind the vehicle.

“Now the thing is these monitors and cameras take massive batteries that you can only store on a vehicle. But technology tells us that these batteries are probably going to shrink in size. Hopefully, one day, they’ll be small enough to fit maybe in somebody’s pocket or on somebody’s belt clip.

“So if that’s the case, then why can’t these technologies that exist for hiding vehicles also work for hiding humans?”

White acknowledges “unfortunately the hiding vehicle thing is a second-hand thing that we’ve only heard about.”

The game includes a gunsmith option that allows gamer to create an almost endless supply of customized weapons. The options run in excess of 10 million, according to White.

“You do not have to do that if you don’t want to but if you are a gun nerd, we are the game for you,” he said.

White says his favourite piece of equipment in the game is the drone, which allows him to spot enemies while filling the role of engineer in multiplayer action.

He says developers have spent a lot of time improving the game experience, raising the artificial intelligence of your fellow soldiers.

“We put a lot of time and effort into making sure that players’ frustration in the past have been addressed,” he said.

“Don’t assume that this is the old ‘Ghost Recon’ as far as how difficult it is,” he added.

Several other Ubisoft studios included Ubisoft Paris and Romania were involved in developing the game.

“Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Soldier,” rated M for Mature, is available for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. A PC version is due at a later date.

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