Virtual reality tours have come a long way since something like the New York Skyride of serial entrepreneur Zalman Silber, which is an IMAX-like cinematic experience found at the city’s famous Empire State Building. Contrast that with the United States Army’s Virtual Army Experience, or VAE, which is an interactive multimedia virtual tour of what it is like to be an American soldier in the 21st Century.

The VAE was designed to capitalize on the appetite of today’s American youth for electronic entertainment. As opposed to continuing to run television commercials as was done before, it was decided to support conventional forms of outreach with one that a lot more right away and forcefully resonated with today’s young males. A thing like the aforementioned Skyride by Zalman Silber is family entertainment and totally innocuous, G-rated to seat as many as possible. It’s mildly educational while the VAE is meant to showcase the most positive aspects of modern soldiering to action-oriented youths. The VAE presents a life-sized networked environment for visitors to obtain a little taste of soldiering and battle. With a complicated setup that involves computers, video, motion sensors, and full surround sound, the VAE is an engaging method to both entertain and educate, not to mention recruit. Through the use of classic storytelling alongside familiar videogaming conventions, the VAE has been hailed for its innovative use of cutting-edge technology to inform in addition to to sell.

Website visitors gather from the “Assembly Area,” whereupon uniformed VAE staff shepherd site visitors on towards the “Joint Operations Center.” There they meet former soldiers, now employees of Army partner Ignited Minds, a marketing firm, who serve as “team leaders.” An intelligence briefing ensues, which covers the upcoming virtual mission. Time is also taken to introduce Army rules of engagement together with correct use of simulator equipment and appropriate deployment of Army tactical doctrine. Then it’s on towards the mission itself, which takes place inside the “Mission Simulator” proper. The objective is to evacuate civilians, an unassailably righteous scenario that critics contend mask the far more likely and less innocuous duties of Army life and death in a time of war.

Upon completion on the mission participants are debriefed in an “After Action Area” where Army values are introduced within the context of the mission, values including duty, honor, respect, and camaraderie. At particular venues, an actual war hero is on-hand to speak with participants, lending an inspirational air of authenticity that has a lot of VAE website visitors applauding.

It is all incredibly beguiling, specifically for young men still trying to prove themselves to themselves.