Believe it or not the Pentagon (America’s defense HQ), the State
Department, Department of Defense, Air Force, National Guard and
countless other agencies have officials whose sole job is to liaise with
the media and entertainment industry.
In the film industry this is a well known occurrence and several new
FOIA requests have been granted which show the wide extent of their
involvement. This can range from providing bits of information simply to
make movies more accurate, to outright influence on the story being
told.
However one area of entertainment that also collaborates often with
state agencies is the gaming industry. Just this week it emerged that
the developers behind Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare worked with a
Pentagon adviser.
“Three years ago, right after we finished Modern Warfare 3, we
started thinking about how to change Call of Duty,” says Michael
Condrey, co-founder of Sledgehammer Games. “We brought in a lot of
outside help – military advisers, futurologists – we got together with a
scenario planner from the department of defense, who is active in the
Pentagon. His job is to think about future threats and prepare ‘what if’
scenarios for the US government. So we asked him, what do you think
will be the conflict of tomorrow?”
In essence this adviser had a key influence on the plot of the game, as his response is basically what the game has become.
“The adviser predicted that the next threat to the security of the
United States would come from a private military company. It may be some
billion-dollar contract gone bad or a sudden tipping point in the ratio
between national military and contracted forces.”
Sources:
Source 1
Source 2