Ex-CoD director says military can "learn from game marketing"

CoDs

I have jerry-rigged a handheld Opinion-O-Tron that will set off an alarm if I venture too much into the political side of this news post about a man who has said some things.

Former Treyarch director Dave Anthony this week told a Washington think-tank forum that the US military could learn a lot from game marketing, GI.biz has reported. If that seems odd to you, it's because you haven't yet got to the bit about brainwashing.

Yes. There's a bit about brainwashing.

"When we have a new product that has elements that we're not sure how people will respond to, what do we do as a corporation?" he said, referring to his work as Treyarch director.

"We market it, and we market it as much as we can - so that whether people like it or not, we do all the things we can to essentially brainwash people into liking it before it actually comes out."

I've always found that, when talking about reasonable, normal things, it is entirely fine to use terms like "essentially brainwash people". It is in no way, weird, creepy, or borderline terrifying.

Hold on, I need to reset the Opinion-O-Tron. It's beeping for some reason.

If you already thought comparing games marketing to brainwashing was a little off, Anthony was making these comments in regards to his view that the military should station soldiers in schools.

"The threat now, the invasion, comes from within," says a man who has played too many Call of Duty games. "Imagine the concept of something like a ‘school marshal'. Now these guys are U.S. soldiers who are in plainclothes, whose job and part of their responsibility is to protect schools."

"The public won't like it, they'll think it's a police state," he continued. "All of these are solvable problems."

You know, by the brainwashing marketing.

Hmm. My Opinion-O-Tron appears to have broken. Weird.

Phil Savage
Editor-in-Chief

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.