LogIn"If you're a top gamer, or a coder, your country needs you."
Activision
I remember that one Reddit story where a man wanted to be called a pilot because he had hundreds of hours in Microsoft Flight Simulator. Naturally, most people ridiculed him, but perhaps he was right all along: you can be a real professional if you just play games.
The UK Defence Secretary John Healey spoke at the Labour Party conference, worried about the state of the UK military, saying that while one million people applied over the last ten years, three in four gave up because of red tape.
So Healey announced he was going to remove 100 "outdated policies" that stop people from joining and invited coders and gamers to serve.
"I'm setting up a new direct route for Cyber Military recruits. Because if you're a top gamer, or a coder, your country needs you," he proclaimed (via PC Gamer).
With these changes, Healey wants to attract "the very best of Britain's talent, better fit to fight, better reflecting the country they defend." To help them do what they do best, Healey plans to lower some fitness and medical requirements (like hay fever, eczema, and acne) necessary for recruitment. As a result, gamers and coders will be able to work with computers in the army and pilot drones: "The sort of skills that drone pilots have are many of the same skills as some of our best console warriors in civilian life," he told The Daily Mail.
I think going from a match of Call of Duty with friends to a real-life battle is a huge leap, but perhaps some players will feel their usefulness in this area. As long as it's consensual, why not?
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