Game simulation gains training importance | Stars and Stripes

The Joint Multinational Simulation Center is screening applicants for a computer gamer’s dream job.

Tom Lasch, JMSC’s director of models and simulations, said the organization, which opened a simulation building packed with hundreds of computer screens at Grafenwöhr on Friday, is looking for a civilian "first-person simulation specialist."

Whomever is selected will be charged with testing gaming technology — computer simulations that the Army uses to train soldiers for combat — and test-driving gaming technology that the Army is looking to acquire, he said.

The simulations, which include "America’s Army," "Darwars Ambush" and "Virtual Battle Space 2 (VBS2)," need regular testing because the manufacturers constantly add patches and extra features that could make the software malfunction, Lasch said.

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The simulations, which include accurate maps of large parts of Baghdad and several Iraqi towns, do a good job replicating Iraq, said Hensel, who served there 2004-05 and again in 2006-07.

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