By Bayley Camp, Operations Officer, Defense and Intelligence Initiatives, USC Institute for Creative Technologies
A few weeks ago, I came across some old college papers. One of them looked at how narratives and stereotypes are represented in modern day video games. Reading it, I couldn’t help thinking about my own path, how I ended up at the Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) and how our work has quietly shaped the Department of Defense over the years.
Part of that story is how the military has used video games. Over the years, they’ve turned into AI and AR/VR simulations that actually train people for real missions. How people see war really matters—it shapes expectations, readiness, and even recruitment.
I started wondering: how does commercial gaming show war compared to reality? How do ICT’s simulations and games rethink that narrative to enhance military training, readiness, and post-deployment support? How have games actually drawn the next generation into the military?
When I think about games like Call of Duty or Battlefield, the first things that come to mind are the explosions and dramatic storylines. However, those games almost never show the operational complexity of war: the planning, the logistics, and the real toll it takes on personnel.
Yet, as Matthew Thomas Payne notes in The Militarization of Video Game Culture: “Shooter games rarely, if ever, acknowledge the personal costs of war, such as debilitating injuries, mental trauma, and regret. Indeed, games are pleasurable precisely because they transport the player outside the messiness of everyday life. They distill players’ actions into quantifiable scores and in-game achievements.”
For most people, war exists as a high-stakes video game or a cinematic spectacle played out on a screen. But for service members, it’s operational reality. Some lie on beds at night, maintaining situational awareness in uncertain environments, while others are preparing for active deployment, not knowing exactly what’s coming. The gap between commercial gaming and actual operations is substantial, and simulations and realistic training games address that gap directly, giving service members tools to anticipate challenges, make decisions under pressure, and build operational confidence.
Strategic Simulations at ICT
Live training is invaluable, but it comes with limits—cost, coordination, and the simple fact that you can’t always recreate every challenge of a real operation. That’s where simulations earn their place. They give teams room to test decisions under pressure, see what happens when variables shift, and practice working across services or agencies without the risk or expense of field drills. What might take months to plan out in reality can play out in a few hours on screen, giving leaders a chance to adjust, repeat, and refine until it feels instinctive.
At ICT, games like CounterNet, Balance of Terror, and Dark Networks immerse players in the roles of state or counterterrorism actors, forcing tough tradeoffs around resources and strategic effectiveness. These games teach critical logistical thinking, decision-making under uncertainty, and adaptive strategy, skills essential in both military and government contexts. All three games are now part of the Global Ecco suite of online games at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) and continue to be used by a broader audience of cyber-security professionals and students.
ICT’s broader simulation suite pushes the boundaries of training:
- Building AI Competencies for All: Becoming Fei, is an educational game for machine learning and data science education funded by DEVCOM Army Research Lab (ARL). The game makes AI concepts tangible, helping personnel understand and apply machine learning in real operational settings. Rather than simple gamification, it blends gameplay with learning objectives, using narratives to teach the full process—data, algorithms, and models—while keeping the experience engaging and memorable.
- DisasterSim places trainees in the shoes of a DoD task force coordinating international disaster relief. DisasterSim is funded by PEO STRI and is developed in partnership with the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). It builds rapid problem-solving skills under complex, high-stakes conditions.
- UrbanSim is driven by an underlying socio-cultural behavior model, coupled with a novel story engine that interjects events and situations based on the real-world experience of former commanders, targeting trainees’ abilities to maintain situational awareness, while anticipating second and third order effects of actions and adapt their strategies in the face of difficult situations. UrbanSim officially transitioned to the Army as part of two programs of records, Games for Training and the Low Overhead Training Toolkit. It is available at the Army’s MilGaming portal. These simulations accelerate learning, encourage adaptive thinking, and strengthen readiness across joint and interagency operations.
The Future: Advanced Training Environments
Looking forward, a primary focus is Advanced Training Environments. The military is investing significant resources into advanced head-mounted displays, more dynamic training simulations, and tools for decision-making and drone operations.
ICT is acting as a trusted agent in both evaluating and building environments that not only prepare service members for what’s next, but also advance how we think about training, readiness, and rehabilitation. For example, ICT’s Watercraft and Ship Simulator of the Future (WSSOF) , a project funded by the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) , allows warfighters to safely explore complex littoral operations under variable environmental conditions. The next phase for the project is to enhance the application with the integration of a modular user-interface, additional terrain and vessel models, and network protocols for multi-user simulations directly enhancing operational readiness.
The MxR Lab has developed US Army funded Adaptive Head Mounted Display Interfaces (AHMDI). AHMDIs are intelligent, adaptive user interfaces that support complex decision-making in operational environments, designed to adjust in real time based on user inputs and situational contexts. The motivation for the system is to refine displaying data on 3D terrain, by finding a balance between providing essential information and minimizing visual clutter, considering factors such as user-context and the platform’s visualization capabilities. This ensures soldiers receive actionable information without cognitive overload, increasing decision accuracy in the field.
Projects like ICT’s Asynchronous Annotation Embedded Environments (A2E2) point toward a future where military training and operations merge through extended reality. Rather than reviewing static data on screens, trainees can now move through environments where information is embedded directly into the space around them. This transition from traditional setups to more interactive, spatial learning strengthens awareness and responsiveness in the field. It marks a step toward training environments that mirror real operational tempo—where decisions happen in motion, and context is constantly shifting.
As Joseph L. Votel notes in Military Gaming to Stay Ahead, But Not the Kind You Think: “Unlike traditional military wargaming, which often relies on turn-based exercises with maps or models, the gaming discussed here leverages digital interactive platforms—from modified commercial titles to purpose-built simulations—to emphasize rapid decision-making, high-pressure coordination, and immersive skill development. By harnessing the speed, interactivity, and scale of modern gaming, these environments cultivate competencies difficult to replicate in traditional formats, while also being more engaging and even fun.”
This underscores why simulations are essential today. Paper exercises can teach concepts, and you can study every line, flip page after page—but that alone doesn’t provide hands-on experience. Getting into the environment is different: it keeps trainees focused, helps them actually remember what they’re doing, and shows them what decision-making feels like when the stakes are high. Simulations give personnel a chance to test ideas, see the results, and build real muscle memory for challenging situations. That kind of hands-on practice is exactly what makes the DoD’s investment pay off in the field.
The Next Frontier: Artificial Intelligence in Training
These advances in immersive environments naturally lead to AI. As simulations become more dynamic, AI is helping connect human performance, data, and decision-making—making training smarter and decisions in the field faster.
A recent Memorandum from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stated, “the Military Departments should explore the use of artificial intelligence with human oversight.” He supports using AI in areas like IT and Administrative Investigations to streamline processes and speed up workflows. In an Army Transformation and Acquisition Reform Memorandum from April 2025, he also highlighted the need to “enable AI-driven command and control at Theater, Corps, and Division headquarters by 2027.”
Hegseth isn’t alone in emphasizing AI: senior Defense Department officials met in DC that month to discuss AI’s role in maintaining military superiority and national security, noting that “as threats evolve, the Joint Staff is integrating AI-driven technologies into daily military operations to enhance commanders’ decision-making and responsiveness.” ICT’s Becoming Fei answers the call from defense leadership in a role-playing game designed to help military users learn basic AI concepts, making a complex technology more approachable and engaging.
Training is crucial, but it also raises real questions: how should AI communicate its limits, and how can users recognize and counter disinformation? Research from USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies Human-Centered AI Lab addresses this by showing that systems which clearly convey their strengths and limitations improve trust and decision-making in human-AI collaboration essential for using AI responsibly in high-stakes military contexts.
These AI initiatives directly support Secretary Hegseth’s priorities: reviving warrior ethos through hands-on training, preparing forces for near-peer and asymmetric threats, and sharpening judgment under pressure. ICT’s work with AR, VR, and AI isn’t just about building tools—it’s about shaping warfighters who can think fast and lead effectively.
In the same way games and films once shaped perceptions of war, ICT now shapes how the military trains for it turning innovation into readiness, and aligning directly with the Department’s vision for a modern, adaptable force.
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