Hidden Levels #3: This Game Wants YOU

Summary

99% Invisible – Hidden Levels #3: "This Game Wants YOU"
Released: October 14, 2025
Host: Roman Mars
Producer/Reporter: Caitlin Harrop
Guests: Ben Brock Johnson, Staff Sergeant Joseph Edwards, Captain Mimi Mejia, Casey Wardinski, TJ Boulter, Matthew Thomas Payne, Jonathan Hansing

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Overview

This episode of the "Hidden Levels" series explores how the U.S. Army leveraged the world of video games—most notably through its own title, "America’s Army"—to influence, attract, and recruit new soldiers, particularly from the ranks of enthusiastic teen gamers. The show traces the historical roots of military recruitment tactics, the creation and impact of the "America's Army" video game, the military's expanded presence in esports, and the debate and backlash surrounding these strategies.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Rise of Esports and Army Outreach

[02:14–05:29]

• The Army recognizes the massive, mostly young, and often male audience drawn to esports. Given ongoing recruitment struggles, the Army pivots to meet potential recruits where they are—gaming conventions and online.
• Staff Sergeant Joseph Edwards describes how Army esports teams interact with attendees, engage in casual competition, and segue conversations from games to Army life.

“We kind of start off the conversation with gaming and then if they're interested...that kind of opens it up to us being able to tell our army story...”
—Staff Sgt. Joseph Edwards [05:29]

• Army esports members are not official recruiters but are accompanied by recruiters at events, ready to speak with interested attendees.

"Planting a Seed": Engaging Young Audiences

[07:11–09:28]

• Outreach efforts target those under recruitment age, not for immediate enlistment but to familiarize them with the Army as a viable option—described as “planting a seed.”
• Captain Mimi Mejia, commander of Army Outreach Company, is candid about connecting with kids—even those younger than high school, since “those kids still play games too.”

“If a young kid sees a guy...wearing the US army logo and they continue to see that over their time in middle school and high school, then they might start to think about the army..."
—Captain Mimi Mejia [08:42]

Birth of "America’s Army": Gamer Recruitment by Design

[11:33–18:59]

• Facing persistent recruiting problems in the late 1990s, Army economist Casey Wardinski pitches the idea of meeting teens virtually—through games.
• Inspired by his own sons’ interest in shooter games, Wardinski conceives a first-person shooter reflecting real Army values, structure, and skills, not just fantasy combat.

“The best way...for the army to talk to young adults about being a soldier is virtually.”
—Casey Wardinski [13:16]

• The game is crafted to be both realistic (based on real Army training) and values-centric: “If that wasn’t interesting to you, we probably weren’t that interested in you and you probably weren’t that interested in us.”

—Casey Wardinski [16:50]

Engineering Recruitment through Gameplay

[15:15–18:59]

• Players must complete Army-inspired training modules before entering battlefield scenarios—marksmanship, first aid, and more.
• The game encodes real consequences for in-game choices, like whether a player “cheated” during medic training—a fact that may affect later gameplay and is revealed to teammates.

“If you cheated on the test to pass the medical training, Wardinski says it could come back to haunt you in a firefight...”
—Narration [26:19]

The Impact and Influence on Young Gamers

[22:17–27:48]

• "America's Army" is deliberately rated “T for Teen” to expand its reach, making the Army experience available to kids as young as 13.
• TJ Boulter, who began playing at age 13, describes being deeply influenced. The game’s squad play, leadership, and training aspects motivated him to enlist after high school.

“It definitely influenced my decision to join...All of those things had a heavy influence on me wanting to do that.”
—TJ Boulter [27:27]

• "America’s Army" achieved over 42.5 million downloads, echoing Wardinski’s hopes for reach and influence.

Criticism and Controversy

[29:53–31:39]

• The game’s realism and recruitment framing spark criticism, especially during active U.S. war campaigns.
• Protest artist Joseph DeLap stages performance protests "Dead in Iraq" by typing names of real fallen soldiers into the game's chat.
• The ACLU accuses the Army of violating UN conventions protecting children from military recruitment, but public enthusiasm overshadows these concerns.

“It's a sign of desperation, I think, and it's obviously like incredibly disturbing, dystopian. It's horrifying.”
—Caitlin Harrop [37:58]

The Game Fades, The Strategy Shifts

[32:28–34:46]

• By the late 2000s, games like "Call of Duty" outshine America’s Army technologically and in popularity; the Army eventually retires its own title in 2022.
• Instead, the Army targets outreach via popular commercial titles, with recruiters attending game launches and former soldiers acting as consultants.

The Modern Esports Arena

[35:12–36:41]

• Army esports teams compete in mainstream games (from "Call of Duty" to "Rocket League"), prioritizing presence over proprietary development.
• The Army’s outreach focus is on tech-savvy, competitive young gamers, hailed as having desirable skills for the future battlefield.

“People who have skills in gaming can be beneficial to the army, especially with the way that we see the future of war going...So those types of skills...is really coming into play right now.”
—Captain Mimi Mejia [36:07]

New Tactics, New Backlash

[37:42–40:17]

• Army esports on platforms like Twitch draws fresh controversy: accusations of covert recruitment, links to sign-up forms meant for children, and bans of users raising critical questions.
• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez unsuccessfully attempts to legislate a ban on military recruitment on streaming platforms due to concerns regarding exposure to children.

Dissent and the Ethics of Recruitment

[40:17–41:52]

• Criticisms center on the one-sided portrayal of military service via these gaming channels, which Army veteran Jonathan Hansing and his group “Gamers for Peace" seek to challenge.

“You cannot do that if you are filling kids heads with an incorrect vision of what the military is.”
—Jonathan Hansing [41:23]

Legacy of "America’s Army"

[41:52–43:41]

• "America’s Army" still survives in fan communities, some now comprised of actual veterans. For original player Boulter, earning a special in-game icon as a real veteran was a milestone.

“If you were in the Navy, the Marines, the army, or something like that. You get a special icon in game that made you stand out... That’s one of the biggest things I wanted when I was growing up playing this game.”
—TJ Boulter [42:33]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• “So I'm not going to go pro?”
  —Roman Mars [03:21]

• “If that wasn’t interesting to you, we probably weren’t that interested in you and you probably weren’t that interested in us.”
  —Casey Wardinski [16:50]

• “It was a huge day. I was really excited.”
  —TJ Boulter on getting his veteran’s icon in America’s Army [42:50]

• “It's a sign of desperation, I think, and it's obviously like incredibly disturbing, dystopian. It's horrifying.”
  —Caitlin Harrop on Army esports on Twitch [37:58]

• “You cannot do that if you are filling kids heads with an incorrect vision of what the military is.”
  —Jonathan Hansing [41:23]

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Important Segments & Timestamps

• Esports as Army Outreach [03:48–05:29]
• Planting the Recruitment Seed [07:11–09:28]
• Creation and Philosophy of "America's Army" [11:33–18:59]
• In-Game Consequences & Marketing [22:31–27:27]
• Backlash and Protest [29:53–31:39]
• From Proprietary Game to Esports Presence [32:28–37:42]
• Twitch Controversy and Legislative Pushback [37:42–40:17]
• Critique from Veterans and Activists [40:17–41:52]
• Lasting Community and Symbolism [41:52–43:41]

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Tone and Style

The episode navigates between analytical, investigative, and conversational, with doses of skepticism, humor, and moments of critique. Roman Mars and the producers maintain curiosity and engagement, always linking design choices to larger social, political, and ethical questions.

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This episode provides a detailed, nuanced look at how the military adapts to new media to shape opinion and recruit the next generation—and how those efforts intersect with wider debates about ethics, transparency, and the power of design in shaping our lives.

Transcript

[Roman Mars]

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[Ben Brock Johnson]

Morris from 99% Invisible Today we're bringing.

[Roman Mars]

You the third episode from our series Hidden Levels, all about how the world of video games has changed the world beyond video games.

[Ben Brock Johnson]

Speaking of worlds, how familiar are you with the esports world?

[Roman Mars]

Like, familiar enough to tell you a definition, but not like, steeped in it in any meaningful way.

[Ben Brock Johnson]

You're not following Evil Geniuses or Fnatic or Cloud nine. You're not following these teams.

[Roman Mars]

No, I wouldn't say that I am.

[Caitlin Harrop]

I don't.

[Roman Mars]

I mean, I know that you're saying English words, but I have no idea what those things are.

[Ben Brock Johnson]

So for the uninitiated, esports is basically organized competitive gaming. Think of all the fanfare, sponsorship, stadiums, tension of your favorite sports league. But instead of dribbling a ball or swinging a racket, esports competitors are playing multi person video games for titles, often in front of very large live audiences.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Oh, they go back in. Baker flashes in and down goes night once again.

[Roman Mars]

When you need someone, when you need.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Anyone, to stand up and show just what this game's all about.

[Roman Mars]

And I know this has been big for a while, but at this point, how many people beyond the stadium are watching people play games?

[Ben Brock Johnson]

I will say, Roman, I was shocked by this. The global esport audience is expected to exceed 600 million this year. This is an industry worth more than a billion dollars. Average competitor is in their 20s and you actually age out in your 20s of being able to play because you can't click a mouse fast enough after that to compete.

[Roman Mars]

So I'm not going to go pro?

[Ben Brock Johnson]

No, Roman, I'm sorry. You can't go pro. You can't go pro. You might be able to coach. You'd be a great coach. You can't go pro. So the spectators for esports are largely male and can actually even skew younger than the players themselves. So there are a lot of teenagers who watch this stuff and this demographic, teenage males, is very interesting to a long standing US organization.

[Roman Mars]

Who needs you?

[Ben Brock Johnson]

We will let producer Caitlin Harrop take it from here.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Let's go. Picture this. It's 10am on a Saturday and you're in a convention center in Philadelphia or Denver. The space is crammed with booths promoting video games like Call of Duty and Halo. You can see an advertisement for G fuel, an energy formula for gamers. And everywhere you look there is group after group of young men huddled around gaming demos. As you keep walking, you come across a bank of gaming consoles manned by a crew in tight hairstyles and quick dry jerseys branded with a gold and white star. You found the army esports team Fan.

[Caitlin Harrop]

Expos is one of our bigger events where we're able to interact with most of the public and we pretty much bring a 30 by 30 booth. We set up all the games we possibly can and then we just have genuine conversations with the event goers while competing against them and talking a little bit of trash and just having fun.

[Narrator/Reporter]

That's Staff Sergeant Joseph Edwards. He spent most of his career as an army intelligence analyst stationed all over the world. Now he's one of 13 soldiers who has taken on a multi year assignment fully devoted to representing the army in the world of competitive gaming with one major objective in mind. They want to spread the army message through the power and passion of gaming and get you interested in joining up in the process.

[Caitlin Harrop]

We kind of start off the conversation with gaming and then if they're interested, a lot of times they'll ask, are you actually in the army. And then that kind of opens it up to us being able to tell our army story, why we joined, what we've done so far, all the different opportunities that the army's provided us.

[Narrator/Reporter]

The army feels it's important to adapt to the culture and to the times, to find innovative new ways to reach potential recruits. And this is important because for decades, the army has been on edge about recruitment, hitting their goals for a few years and then missing them again. Recently, the army missed their recruitment goals in 2022 and 2023. They met them in 2024 after lowering their target by 10,000 from the year before. And as they see it, video games are a great way to connect, live in person and online. Members of the army esports team are not technically recruiters themselves, but they do sit under the army recruitment division as members of the army's outreach company. And at any public event, the army esports team is accompanied by at least one recruiter. If someone's interested in joining up, that recruiter is ready to step in. Nora Bensahel is a professor of practice at Johns Hopkins School of advanced International studies. She says that the army's presence in esports builds on a long standing effort, an effort honed at county fairs and in high school cafeterias, an effort to communicate with young people.

[TJ Boulter]

The military considers people between ages 17.

[Caitlin Harrop]

And 23 to 24 to be the primary target for recruiting.

[TJ Boulter]

But of course, 17 year olds don't.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Suddenly decide to start thinking about their career when they're 17. While recruiters focus on warm contacts, those of recruitment age interested in signing up. Bensahel says outreach gets to cast a wider net. So the army does try to reach.

[TJ Boulter]

Out to people who are younger than.

[Narrator/Reporter]

17, not to recruit them, not to, say, come into the army right now.

[TJ Boulter]

But because most Americans know nothing about the military, they do try to reach.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Out to people younger than that to.

[Caitlin Harrop]

Give them information so that it's one.

[TJ Boulter]

Of the options that they consider.

[Narrator/Reporter]

The army maintains that they do not target kids under recruitment age with their army esports team. But it's also an undeniable fact that many esports spaces where the team can be found, including expos and tournaments. They bring in people of all ages, including spectators younger than 17. And if these teens and preteens are interested in learning more about the army, the army esports team is ready to connect. Captain Mimi Mejia, commander of the army's outreach company, which oversees esports, describes this dynamic as, quote, planting a seed. Is there like a youngest age that folks talk to or See, at these.

[Captain Mimi Mejia]

Events, there's no minimum age. I would say a recruiter themselves isn't going to start talking to anyone until they're at least a freshman in high school. But the esports team does pretty well connecting with kids that are younger than that just because those kids still play games too. So if a young kid sees a guy that they really respect wearing the US army logo and they continue to see that over their time in middle school and high school, then they might start to think about the army a little bit more. So that's just a seed that we're planting. And especially when they're in middle school, we're not saying join the army, but we're more so just getting that idea into their heads.

[Narrator/Reporter]

It makes sense that the army would embed itself so, so deeply in esports. Nearly 80% of Americans between 13 and 28 years old play some form of video games on a weekly basis. So gamers. It's a market the army badly wants full of young Americans prepped for the technological advancements of the modern battlefield. This approach is not new. Decades before military esports teams started facing off against civilians, the US army took its first steps into consumer video games. Finally, in January 1973, the draft is.

[Caitlin Harrop]

Ended and replaced by an all volunteer military force.

[Narrator/Reporter]

When the US army ended the draft in 73, it was widely seen as good news. The US was no longer forcing the majority of young men who couldn't afford to go to college or avoid the draft in other ways to go to war. But it also meant the military needed to majorly step up its outreach efforts, which they did. Campaigns like the be all you can be ads of the 80s were super popular and led to short term bumps in recruitment. But it didn't last. The army failed to meet its recruitment goals in 1998. It failed again in 1999. And folks at the Pentagon began to worry. If war were to break out, U.S. defense could be stretched thin. There's a common understanding that as the economy booms, entry level pay for soldiers doesn't always keep up with civilian wages and college attendance goes up. Which meant recruitment age. People either already had jobs or they were in school school and not so likely to pursue a career in the armed service. They needed a new creative approach to recruitment. One that went beyond TV ads and pull up contests at the county fair. Enter military economist Casey Wardinski.

[Casey Wardinski]

I have a PhD, so sometimes I go by Dr. Wardinski. I'm retired army colonel, so sometimes I'm Colonel Wardinski.

[Narrator/Reporter]

In 1999, Wardinski West Point graduate, steely gaze, strong jawline, was running the Army's Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis.

[Casey Wardinski]

We were very interested in government efficiency, particularly with regard to the army and how to make the best use of resources.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Part of Wardinsky's job was to make sure the army had enough, as his title suggests, manpower. And things weren't looking great. But Wardinsky had an idea, an approach to this recruitment slump that would target not just recruitment age individuals, but the next generation of potential recruits still open to influence as they consider their future. This big idea, as Wardinsky saw it, would allow the army to create their own media image and target future recruits at the same time. A vision born from a very 1990s traditional the family trip to Best Buy, his two sons in tow.

[Casey Wardinski]

While I was off doing looking at refrigerators or whatever with my wife, they'd be in the computer game aisle looking at like, games that they wanted me to buy for them.

[Narrator/Reporter]

While the real army was suffering a popularity crisis, battle and first person shooter games, many based in fictional or intergalactic worlds, were booming. Establishing battlefield control, standby games like Starcraft, Half Life and Command and Conque Tiberian Son, each of which were on the list of top 10 best selling computer games of 1999.

[Casey Wardinski]

And the games they were looking at were always in the perspective of like a soldier. And that quickly led to an idea that the best way, perhaps for the army to talk to young adults about being a soldier is virtually.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Wardinski began to envision a video game that pulled from popular shooter style games. But instead of the fantastical version of combat featured in many blockbuster titles, Wardinski's game would support recruitment by giving young people an idea of what the Army's really like. As he interpreted it, you really couldn't.

[Casey Wardinski]

Like, take them on an army post and take them through basic training or let him drive a tank. But virtually you could get past all those limitations and let a child sort of take a virtual test drive of the Army. They could do it from their bedroom. They didn't have to go to an army for it. They could do it when it fit their schedule. And so these are the ideas that drove the concept.

[Narrator/Reporter]

To take the ideas from concept to reality, Wardinski focused on the details, like the images, sound and language of the game. But he knew next to nothing about game design. So he brought in some help, a team of army modelers and simulation experts from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, to get a better sense of the Army's story. During game development, Wardinsky's team visited Bases, filming and studying real life soldiers and their equipment to make the game's actions, like running, crawling and gunfire as accurate as possible. But Wardinski's vision went beyond high end graphics. He wanted the game to communicate the breadth of opportunities available in the army, just as a real life recruiter would. Except with the army game, it could be hands on and at times mandatory.

[Caitlin Harrop]

They were really keenly invested in letting you know that this, while like other shooters in certain respects, was not going to simply lead you to your own pursuit.

[Narrator/Reporter]

That's Matthew Thomas Payne, associate professor at Notre Dame. He studies the relationship between the military and video games.

[Caitlin Harrop]

They had clear agenda in place, and part of that meant that you were going to go through the drills that a recruit would go through and that you would along the way understand the values that the army embraced while playing this game.

[Narrator/Reporter]

While putting together the game, Wardinski and his team developed a series of training modules that taught the players the basics of army work as they envisioned it. From physical fitness to first aid to target practice. Players were required to pass certain modules before they could hit the battlefield in their chosen roles.

[Casey Wardinski]

You'd sit there and go through courses on combat lifesaver.

[Ben Brock Johnson]

Okay soldier, there are injured people out.

[Casey Wardinski]

There who need your help dealing with, you know, gunshot wounds, dealing with compound fractures and all this kind of stuff. We actually had to back off at one point because we got into like how much morphine to give somebody that probably got too far down the road.

[Ben Brock Johnson]

Okay soldier, remember to treat the most critical casualties first.

[Roman Mars]

Am I gonna be okay?

[Narrator/Reporter]

Wardinski, a very eat your vegetables kind of guy, believes that you could put in these arduous boot camp trainings and young people would still play the game. And if that was a turnoff, he didn't really care.

[Casey Wardinski]

The whole undergirdment of the game was these army values. And if that wasn't interesting to you, we probably weren't that interested in you and you probably weren't that interested in us.

[Narrator/Reporter]

The army game team created a series of detailed maps, vaguely Middle Eastern cities, war torn hospitals, disputed bridges that players, once they passed marksmanship and weapons training, could explore, defend and conquer with their teammates. Other teens and young adults from around the country and world representing the virtual U.S. army. But the developers had one big looming question. Because war can't exist without an enemy.

[Casey Wardinski]

The question was, well, who's, you know, America's the good guys, who are the bad guys? Well before 9 11, that wasn't a real easy question to address. And so we were looking at narco terrorists, you know, and people like that to be the bad guys. After 9 11, that solved itself. It was obviously Taliban and that crew. And so that that made that more straightforward.

[Narrator/Reporter]

The enemy in the game wasn't directly called the Taliban, but in 2001, the overwhelming cultural consensus that the Taliban was America's number one real life enemy, it served as a guiding force. As Wardinsky and his team fleshed out the details of their virtual enemy combatants. For instance, the game's setting, the operations.

[Casey Wardinski]

In the game would be in Afghanistan or Iraq or somewhere like that. And they would be involved with the war on terror, which you know, would be a surprise if they weren't, given that the United States, by the time we launched the game, was in a war on terror.

[Narrator/Reporter]

And playing as the US army against this enemy, that was the only choice. While in your average multiplayer game you got to choose which team you're on, in the army game you would always be Team usa. Think of it like a patriotic mirror. Matthew Thomas Paine again, so you really.

[Caitlin Harrop]

Only see yourself as a U.S. soldier. You never played as anyone other than the U.S. army. Even in a multiplayer setting where Team A is fighting Team B, both Team A and Team B always see themselves as the US soldiers, and they always see their opponents as a kind of oppositional force, foreclosing the ability for any of the teams to imagine themselves as an oppositional force or as terrorist.

[Narrator/Reporter]

And it was against this backdrop that Wardinski began to launch his project America's army, the official US army game cue menu theme. In May 2002, Wardinski premiered America's army at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, one of the biggest industry trade shows in the country. He worked with a marketing team to make the release into an event that felt like a military operation.

[Casey Wardinski]

And I said, okay, you get us a space, we'll bring the rasmutants. And they're like, what does that mean? I said, well, we'll show up with the army.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Tanks were theatrically placed outside of the venue. Soldiers rappelled from the ceiling of the convention center holding machine guns, while groups of young people crowded around computers demoing the game. The stunt got coverage from the New York Times, CNN and the LA Times. America's army came out on the 4th of July 2002, and within the first month of release, the game was downloaded more than one and a half million times. It was the first of its kind, a video game by the US army designed for recruitment. Wardinski's belief that video games could bring the army to young people had been proven right. The game's success was partly due to Wardinski's dedication to realistic gun design and lifelike language of virtual drill sergeants. But America's army offered something else, something none of its competitors could. The game was 100% free. If you had an Internet connection, it was yours.

[Caitlin Harrop]

It's hard to overstate just how important it was that America's army be a free to play game. Big budget, free to play. Games like we have today, right? With Fortnite and other games didn't really exist. Most games that take multiple millions of dollars to produce, you want a return on investment. The army doesn't care about that.

[Narrator/Reporter]

By the end of 2002, the army had spent nearly $11 million on America's army, according to data obtained by the website GameSpot. It's a budget Wardinsky considers a steal for the army, who, for context, budgeted $55 million for TV ads in 2003 alone.

[Caitlin Harrop]

Like, they're not in it to make money from the game. Quite clearly they're in it to get recruits. They're in it for positive brand recog or having people think more positively about what a career in the army might look like.

[Narrator/Reporter]

But gameplay wasn't limited to those of recruitable age. As a commercial game, America's army received a rating T for teen, which marked the game's content as suitable for players as young as 13 years old.

[Caitlin Harrop]

Teen games will have some violence, but there's typically little gore or explicit blood. Now, of course, producers know all of this and they use ratings to strategically market their games. Teen and titles designed for younger players are often sold as family friendly experiences.

[Narrator/Reporter]

This meant that America's army, the game that promised a true and authentic army experience, was relatively bloodless. Unlike in a real battle, players shot dead, fell to the ground without much of a visible wound, then booted the game back up and started again.

[Caitlin Harrop]

I mean, you would see much more kind of graphic detail in even fantasy shooters of the 90s than you would see in something like America's Army. When we talk about military realism, I don't think you're going to design a game that is realistic to a soldier's experience that is going to sell anybody on being a part of that experience, because we know that a lot of the experience is absolute boredom, which is punctuated by these moments of horror.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Payne says having America's army rated teen was key to making the game available to its core demographic, teens and preteens open to considering a future in the US Army. Young people like TJ Boulter. He was just 13 years old when he started playing America's army about a year after it dropped. He was already interested in video games and curious about the military when he saw a post about America's army on the website PC Gamer. And the price was right. Pretty much immediately he got way into it.

[TJ Boulter]

I was playing every day, if I could for several hours a day in order to play.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Bulcher started to make his way through Wardinski's training modules, the ones he hoped would give players an authentic sense of army service. And he loved them.

[Caitlin Harrop]

Let's get started.

[TJ Boulter]

They make you watch basically a slideshow in game on the steps to do first aid and what your role as a medic should be. In combat.

[Casey Wardinski]

Shock may be caused by severe injury.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Or blood loss and disrupts the normal.

[Caitlin Harrop]

Flow of blood through the body, leading to.

[TJ Boulter]

Depending on how well you did, it could take anywhere from a half hour to to an hour. If you failed the test and had to retake it and rewatch it.

[Narrator/Reporter]

This is just pathetic.

[Casey Wardinski]

Soldier.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Okay. Wow. Yeah. So that's kind of a commitment when you're 13 years old.

[TJ Boulter]

It is a super commitment. As a young kid, I found it really interesting that you had to do all this training and even had the ability to train like you were an adult in the army.

[Narrator/Reporter]

After training, TJ got ready to deploy.

[TJ Boulter]

You pick a role, whether it's a rifleman, an automatic rifleman, a sniper, and once you pick that role, you're in a team based on what role you pick.

[Narrator/Reporter]

That rifleman or sniper then picked a map and a mission to play. In one map, it's your mission to make a preemptive raid on a terrorist training camp. In another map, one of TJ's favorites, Team USA, had to cross a bridge held by enemy occupants. And it was during this stage of gameplay that the results from those training modules could come back to help or hinder a player. Take the medical training Bulger mentioned earlier, the one with the final exam. During that module test, players actually had a choice to cheat, which helpful if you couldn't remember all the details in the informational slideshow. But if you cheated on the test to pass the medical training, Wardinski says it could come back to haunt you in a firefight on that very bridge. Say you're playing medic and a teammate.

[Casey Wardinski]

Gets shot and the game announces to all the other players, hey, Joe over here cheated in basic training in medic, and he doesn't know how to save any of you. So the game would keep all that and play it back to a kid at the Right moment in time, maybe two years down the road.

[Narrator/Reporter]

And the army message, it wasn't just woven into gameplay. Looking back, Bulcher remembers the overt marketing and recruitment text included in America's army.

[TJ Boulter]

Pretty vividly on the landing page of the client. Before you started the game, they had all their recruiting stuff plastered all over it.

[Narrator/Reporter]

What kind of stuff would it say?

[TJ Boulter]

You know, go like, go Army. Click here if you're interested in joining the Army. Learn more about the army and stuff like that.

[Narrator/Reporter]

After countless hours of battling as a member of the virtual U.S. army, Bolcher finished high school and then enlisted in the military for real. He opted for the Marines instead of the army because it's the branch other members of his family served in. But America's army still had a significant impact.

[TJ Boulter]

It definitely influenced my decision to join it. I wanted to be able to be able to do the things I can do in a game. Work as a squad, work as a team, be leadership. All of those things had a heavy influence on me wanting to do that.

[Narrator/Reporter]

It's impossible to know how many people joined up because of America's army, but the player numbers, they show a lot of engagement with the game. In July of 2008, the Guinness World Records named America's army the most downloaded war video game ever, with more than 42 and a half million downloads. For Wardinski, America's army was exactly what he had hoped for. A seemingly successful recruitment tool and a chance to get his version of the army into mainstream media beyond anybody's dreams.

[Casey Wardinski]

It won every award you can win. This is an immersion. This is they're in the Army. Except for sweaty.

[Narrator/Reporter]

The army proved that it could get attention in the commercial gaming industry. That good graphics and a free 99 price tag could get army recruitment messaging in front of millions of eyes, setting the precedent for a relationship between the military and the video game sector that would continue for decades. But not everyone was on board. When we come back, Army Gaming meets the resistance. No one could have predicted the success of America's Army. But as popular as the game was from the moment it was released in 2002, it also drew criticism from parents and advocates concerned that the project gamified war to a young and impressionable audience. Remember, at the time, America's actual army was at war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Anti war advocates saw America's army not just as a glorification of war, but as a tool for promoting military violence.

[Caitlin Harrop]

There was no shortage of hand wringing around. Well, what does it mean to play war? While there's war happening, particularly in these games where they're advertised for having photorealistic graphics and surround sound and military vehicles and weapons that look and kind of fire like the real thing.

[Narrator/Reporter]

In 2006, media artist and activist Joseph DeLap began joining America's army games under the handle Dead in Iraq. In an act of protest art, delap would drop his virtual weapon and begin typing into the game's chat function for everyone to read. In it, he entered the name, age and service branch of every American killed while serving in Iraq. Delap describes this act as a cautionary gesture, a protest to what he described as, quote, this very simplistic representation of warfare. In a wide ranging 2008 report, the ACLU even accused America's army and the army at large of violating a UN treaty aimed at protecting children from military recruitment. But these critics were no match for the cultural appetite of post 9 11America.

[Caitlin Harrop]

It could have been a situation where you could have had a public, a game playing consumer group that said, no, thank you, this isn't for us, but that's not what we had. We had instead, yes, this is awesome. Can we have some more of this please? And, and so the rest is history, right?

[Narrator/Reporter]

Under the leadership of Casey Wardinski, America's army continued. America's Army Special Forces was released in 2003. Two years later, America's Rise of a Soldier dropped on Xbox. Then comics, action figures and in person events like the Virtual army experience, a traveling interactive virtual battlefield exhibited in a 10,000 square foot inflatable dome. But by the mid 2000s, the realistic first person shooter space was radically more competitive. Payne says America's Army's later versions, America's Army 3 and America's army proving grounds, they struggled to keep up with some of the flashier opportunities posed by by other new games.

[Caitlin Harrop]

I don't know if there's a change in appetite as much as a continuing kind of ratcheting up of what was possible. America's army just really couldn't keep up because of, I think, their correct assumption that they had to remain within certain kinds of representational and simulational parameters. You want to be able to fire a giant machine gun from a helicopter. Like you don't want to be doing basic training when you could be jumping out of a jet or fighting with your pals in a session of Deathmatch.

[Casey Wardinski]

Over and over again.

[Narrator/Reporter]

In 2022, after a two decade run, America's army was honorably discharged from the virtual battlefield. The army officially removed the game from its servers and shuttered the game's website. America's army creator Casey Wardinski.

[Casey Wardinski]

Again, a lot of really good people made that game happen. You know, I'm just the guy who came up with an idea and made sure everything hung together. But a lot of really good people are in the army because of that game.

[Narrator/Reporter]

As trends in video games changed, so did the army's approach to using them for recruitment. Major game studios like Electronic Arts and Activision were making blockbuster titles that targeted the same military interested audience that the army coveted. So they pivoted. Instead of making their own games, the army started to take advantage of opportunities offered by bigger, flashier, more successful games to reach the same objective as American America's army. Connecting with potential recruits.

[Caitlin Harrop]

The military has been largely opportunistic in the way that it approached video games as a technology. When Halo was a really big property, it wasn't uncommon for recruiters to be part of, you know, the game release parties, and they would occasionally appear at retail places where. Where people were lining up to buy the games, in part because, well, if you like this military space shooter, maybe you're already predisposed to being interested in the army as well.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Current and former members of the military have also served as subject matter experts for games such as Call of Duty and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint, consulting on the game's realism and offering player feedback. Just as they did internally for America's army In the early 2000s and back at Fort Knox, the Army is continuing to build out its outreach efforts in the competitive gaming space.

[Casey Wardinski]

Currently, I'm playing for the United States army esports team, and that's my dream, to be some sort of organization playing professionally.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Today, the video games played by army esports soldiers aren't in house creations like America's art army. Some of them aren't even shooter games at all. Like, have you ever heard of the insanely popular game Rocket League? It's basically cars playing soccer, and the army esports team is way into it. The titles they play vary. Apex Legends, Call of Duty, Valorant, Overwatch 2. But they all have one thing in common. They're incredibly popular with young people, and they're huge in the esports world, where about a quarter of those who watch are 20 years old or younger. And as Captain Mimi Mejia, Commander of the army's outreach company, says, some of these young people could make great soldiers today or in the years to come.

[Captain Mimi Mejia]

I do think that people who have skills in gaming can be beneficial to the army, especially with the way that we see the future of war. Going right now, it's a lot more technologically advanced. So those types of skills versus, you know, just straight up war fighters is really coming into play right now. And that's why this whole company was stood up to be part of that broader recruitment effort, that we wouldn't just have boots on the ground in high schools, but that we would be able to meet people where they're at in these different arenas.

[Narrator/Reporter]

I asked the army how they measure the success of their esports program. Lt. Col. Lindsey Thompson wrote me back. He's commander of the U.S. army Mission Support Battalion, which oversees army esports. Thompson said that the army esports team gets about 500 direct responses or signups at each event. He added that in opting to participate in these army esports activities, members of the public provide personal information. Information that includes email and phone numbers, which may be used by army recruiters to, quote, follow up with respondents who have expressed an interest in joining the army or those that just want information about the Army. But the Army's presence in the esports arena in person and online is a tactic some gamers and political critics find insincere or even disturbing.

[Caitlin Harrop]

It's the action itself of even trying, trying to recruit what could be a very young audience and the tactics in actually doing so.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Does Twitch want to allow this showcase.

[Captain Mimi Mejia]

The talent and hobbies that soldiers have.

[Narrator/Reporter]

An outlet for outreach? That's code for recruiting.

[Casey Wardinski]

Yeah.

[Caitlin Harrop]

It's a sign of desperation, I think, and it's obviously like incredibly disturbing, dystopian.

[Narrator/Reporter]

It's horrifying. Some of the strongest blowback came in 2020. Back then, the army was using Twitch to stream its esports team to thousands of young viewers.

[Caitlin Harrop]

Yes. The army in particular is getting a lot of criticism. What's new for how it's acting on Twitch? For one, they've been scolded by kids.

[Narrator/Reporter]

As young as 13 can make Twitch accounts. Following reporting by the Nation magazine, streamers and advocates accused the army of using the platform to surreptitiously steer kids to an army recruitment form. The army disputed these allegations, but agreed to remove the links after Twitch flagged them for lacking transparency. And more than 10 years after calling out America's army, the ACLU was back, this time accusing the army esports team of violating the first Amendment. This was after the team's Twitch channel banned commenters who asked questions about war crimes and other alleged military transgressions. This public concern gained enough momentum that it even caught the attention of Congress. I'd like to present this amendment by opening with the stance of the U.S. marine Corps, which is that war is not a game. In July of 2020, New York representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, a gamer herself, introduced a draft amendment to the House appropriations bill that aimed to ban the military from using funds to maintain a presence on Twitch or other streaming platforms. This amendment is specifically to block recruitment practices and funding for recruitment practices on platforms such as Twitch tv, which are live streaming platforms that are largely populated by children well under the age of military recruitment rules right now. Currently, children on platforms such as Twitch are bombarded with banner ads that link to recruitment signup forms that can be submitted by children as young as 12 years old. The amendment failed, but today the US army esports team remains dormant on Twitch.

[Caitlin Harrop]

I think many times the view that young say high schoolers get about what military service is is extremely one sided.

[Narrator/Reporter]

That's Jonathan Hansing, an Army veteran and avid gamer. In 2021, fresh out of his army service, Hansing got involved with a group called Gamers for Peace dedicated to confronting recruitment via esports and other forms of gaming. It's a branch off of the larger advocacy group Veterans for Peace.

[Caitlin Harrop]

The military service members that you do have access to in some of these online communities can only say nice things about their service. And as a 13 year old to 17 year old you don't really have the perspective or the critical thinking skills to ask yourself what is the full comprehensive view of what military service is like.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Enhancing believes that giving this comprehensive view of what it means to join up the army has an obligation to do it.

[Caitlin Harrop]

Not just in a philosophical sense to the American people, but to the people you serve with to make sure that you are recruiting high caliber people who understand the risks and accept those risks with clear eyes. You cannot do that if you are filling kids heads with an incorrect vision of what the military is.

[Narrator/Reporter]

And as for America's army, the Force's early foray into commercial gaming, the game has found a new life with a small group of highly dedicated players, including early adopter T.J. boultcher. Today he plays America's Army 2.5, an adapted version of the original game with die hard fans around the world.

[TJ Boulter]

I couldn't believe what I was seeing when it said that they still had a community and the game was actually running and people were playing on it.

[Narrator/Reporter]

TJ says he actually sees a lot of the same names he played with back when he started at 13 years old and a lot of those people are now veterans themselves just like him.

[TJ Boulter]

If you were in the Navy, the Marines, the army, or something like that. You get a special icon in game that made you stand out from everybody else. And that's one of the biggest things I wanted when I was growing up playing this game.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Did you end up getting that?

[TJ Boulter]

I did.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Was that a big day?

[TJ Boulter]

It was a huge day. I was really excited.

[Narrator/Reporter]

For now, the army esports team remains quiet on streaming platforms, but continues its work at fan expos and other public events. And the esports team continues to make its presence known to gamers in the competitive esports sphere too, extending, shall we say, an outreaching hand in the hopes of building up the next generation of of American soldiers.

[Roman Mars]

That was producer Caitlin Harrow. Next time on episode four of Hidden Levels, the boom and bust of Machinima, the agony and the ecstasy of making movies inside live multiplayer games.

[Caitlin Harrop]

There's so many outtakes I have of me just like yelling at the people in the game like, don't kill the guest.

[Casey Wardinski]

We're shooting.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Bad choice of words.

[Caitlin Harrop]

We're recording an interview.

[Ben Brock Johnson]

This episode was produced by Caitlin Harrop. It was edited by Christopher Johnson. Mix sound design and music composition by Paul Vikas. Additional mixing by Martine Gonzalez. Series theme by Swan Raal and Paul Vikas Fact checking by Graham Haysha the managing producer for Hidden Levels is Chris Berube. Hidden Levels was created by myself, Ben Brock Johnson, after reading a study about Tetris reducing the effects of PTSD with power ups and cheat codes thanks to Team 99% Invisible in Team Endless Thread.

[Roman Mars]

99 Invisible's executive producer is Kathy Tu. Kurt Kolstead is the digital director. Delaney hall is our senior editor. The rest of the team includes Jason De Leon, Emmett Fitzgerald, Vivian Leone, Jacob Medina Gleason, Kelly Prime, Joe Rosenberg and me, roman Mars. The 99% invisible logo was created by Stefan Lawrence. The art for this series was created by Aaron Nestor. We are part of the Sirius XM podcast family now headquartered six blocks north in the Pandora building in beautiful uptown Oakland, California.

[Ben Brock Johnson]

Endless Threat is a production of WBUR Boston's npr. The rest of our team, tackling unsolved mysteries, untold histories and other wild stories from the Internet, includes my illustrious co host Annmarie Sivertson, managing producer Samata Joshi, editor Meg Kramer, producers Dean Russell, Grace Tatter and Franny Monahan, and sound designer Emily Jankowski. See you on Friday.

[Roman Mars]

Hello beautiful nerds. It's Roman here. If you're loving 99% invisible and you want to hear new episodes ad free and get access to exclusive bonus content, subscribe to SiriusXM Podcast plus on Apple Podcasts or visit siriusxm.com podcastplus to start your free trial today.