Online gaming Defence's new recruitment tool

The Department of Defence's recruitment arm, Defence Force Recruiting (DFR), has launched an online game site to attract more people into defence jobs.

The DFR touts the "growing success" of online games in attracting potential candidates as the primary motivation for developing the Defence Jobs Games portal.

DFR director-general Brigadier Simon Gould said the site - to go live on Monday, July 16 - will harness the advantages of the current suite of casual games and enable an active community to build around them.

"Our games have proven remarkably successful in attracting people to look at a career in the defence force," Gould said.

"So we've built the Defence Jobs Games site to act as a portal for the expanding suite of games we've produced."

The new site will collate a wide range of games - including Extreme Battleships, Supreme Air Combat, and a new army game - and will offer potential candidates as much of an experience as they want, without demanding a great investment of time, according to the department.

"Putting all the games on the one site will also offer the user the ability to play from a range of online games with others while earning points, awards and advancing through the ranks of the navy, army and air force." Gould said.

Registered users can also build avatars of themselves, to add a personalized touch to the experience.

The site is developed in Flash and is online at http://www.defencejobs.gov.au/games

The idea of using computer games to attract new recruits into the military began in 2002 in the US with the release of the first-person shooter America's Army.

Of the local games, the navy claims Extreme Battleships, launched in September last year, has attracted 1,030,379 visits to date, and Supreme Air Combat has had 317,261 visits since March 2007.

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