Science & Technology

Think tank hires 'Call of Duty' creator

By T.K. Randall
September 29, 2014

Image: The Pentagon
Credit: Touch Of Light / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) Dave Anthony, creator of the phenomenally successful video game franchise, will be joined by several other authors, screenwriters and artists in a new initiaitve by the Atlantic Council think tank to better envisage the type of wars that might be fought in the future.

The idea came about when former Pentagon official Steven Grundman observed his son playing Call of Duty: Black Ops II and realized how realistically it portrayed a possible future conflict.

"It occurred to me that the perspective of artists on this question is compelling and insightful, and it's also different," he said. "One feature that struck me was the combination of both familiar technologies and novel ones."Games like Call of Duty are themselves often devised through brainstorming sessions involving a number of experienced and creative minds. It's exactly this type of thinking that is thought to be what the Washington think tank needs to help envisage future threats that nobody has considered before.

"Writers, directors and producers and other artists bring to bear observations derived from wholly different experiences in the creative world," the Council said in a statement.

"They can ask different kinds of questions that will challenge assumptions and status quo ways of tackling some of today's toughest national security problems."

Source: Russia Today

Tags: Call of Duty, Pentagon, Think Tank