War Games Without Weapons, Sometimes Without Words
It’s probably no surprise that soldiers benefit from virtual reality training offered in computerized war games. But soldiers abroad need to learn to dodge more than bullets: in different cultures, they need to learn to navigate different norms and rules of nonverbal communication.
American soldiers stationed in Iraq, for example, have discovered the hard way that gestures that are innocent in the United States can be quite offensive in Iraqi culture (and vice versa). For example, showing the soles of your feet is considered rude in Iraq; proximity while speaking, head bowing, and handshakes can also lead to misunderstanding. In one instance, an Iraqi man gestured at a female soldier by rubbing his fingers together. He was indicating friendship; she thought he was making a lewd sexual gesture.
This is where Tactical Iraqi, a virtual reality game created for the U.S. military, comes in handy. Wired magazine reports that “players navigate a set of real-
Interestingly, the game, though intended for soldiers, has no weapons or combat of any kind. It focuses instead on mutual understanding, with soldiers attempting to gain the trust of their companions in order to rebuild war-