Game Analysis 2
Battlefield2 and Battlefield2:Special Forces

Electronics Arts 2rd rendition of the Battlefield game franchise does a good superb of transferring the immersive game play of the original WWII game into a modern setting. The user is soldier in one of the three armies of the recent past, Iraq, China, and America. The game is designed around an up to 64 player online arena. Varying maps, vehicles, and different field kits add to the sense of diversity on the battlefield.
I choose Battlefield2 for this analysis because it accurately portrays the ideas Mark Frauenfelder presents to us in his “Toy Soldiers” article. The article discusses the use of video games as training for the Army and the long history of gaming and military simulations. “The differences between videogames and military simulations are disappearing.”
Battlefield2 takes in the massive, diverse military situations and combines it with realistic fun manipulation. The game does this through three major means. First through character diversity. In the game you can be a medic and heal your squad mates, an engineer that repairs radars, tanks and helicopters, a sniper who takes to the high ground, an assault soldier, a special forces elite, and a support marine. This is realistic because each character adds to the squad’s ability to attack and defend. In Black Hawk Down the Delta Special Forces worked together with the Marines and Army Rangers, that was a real situation. This is exactly what the Army is looking for in games. Secondly the game is massive in scope. The levels present very real situations. From large open areas that need to be crossed safely to house-to-house combat in Iraq. Fighting over power plants and airports the player is forced to reckon with the massiveness of possible situations. If you get to far behind your squad you will either get picked off or not be able to back them up in time. These levels aren’t the circular arenas of previous shoot’em ups, like Doom and Unreal Tournament. The third means by which the realism is portrayed is through the squad, commander and friendly fire. Your team is usually made up of between 15-30 people, all connected over the online servers. You can split up into several squads. Squads have leaders that can give on screen prompt commands, i.e. take that position or take out that vehicle. This is a very important aspect in real military situations; unlike in real situations soldiers aren’t obligated to do as commanded. Online you will find squads working as one to take down larger less uniform squads. You quickly learn that, if your squad leader is tactile, that he is looking out for you and wants to win just like you. How much your squad can come together brings determines if you will win. On top of that a commander can direct squads to tactical points, call in artillery strikes, supply drops and scan areas for enemies with satellites. In the middle of a firefight it is easy to strafe to far or shoot someone at a distance who is on your team. The consequence of this is that the person(s) you killed can choose if he feels that you did it on purpose to eject you from the game. The amount of working together towards the same goals is phenomenal; someone stepping up to be a commander or a medic is exactly what the Army is interested in.
Why does Battlefield2 meet the demands of the Army? Because, “We want the same things as the entertainment industry. We want to create stories that make the training experience unforgettable,” says chief director of the U.S. Army Simulation Training and Instrumentation Command. The differences are indeed fast disappearing between the Armies simulations and what consumers want. I would not be surprised if, in the future, you could go to the local armory and get in a real tank and play out a simulation, all on Uncle Sam’s tab too.