October 19, 2007
In the video game world, high-tech and espionage come together in the popular Splinter Cell series, a fact that hasn't escaped notice by real-life spooks at a British spy agency.As reported by CNN, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Britain's super-secret electronic surveillance outfit, plans to recruit new members by placing jobs ads within games like Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent. From CNN:
The monthlong ad campaign, which starts at the end of October, is being run by GCHQ, the recruitment firm TMP Worldwide and Microsoft-owned in-game ad agency Massive Inc.
Ads headed "Careers in British Intelligence" will appear as billboards in scenes in "Splinter Cell" and other games including "Need for Speed Carbon" and "Enemy Territory: Quake Wars" when they are played on computers and Microsoft Xbox consoles in Britain.
Spokesperson Kate Clemens said:
The world of online gaming offers GCHQ a further route to target a captive audience.
Comments
Re: British Spy Agency to Recruit Splinter Cell Players
CIA can't violate a U.S. citizens rights. They have no jurisdiction inside the states. NSA and FBI on the other hand, can very easily do it. And if you want to do Splinter Cell type stuff, don't join the CIA, or NSA, or FBI. That's not what they do. The only people that come remotely close are the Army Special Forces (Green Berets). For more info go to your library and go to the non-fiction section and actually learn something real about it.
Re: British Spy Agency to Recruit Splinter Cell Players
Many organizations, both national and non-national, conduct espionage operations. It should not be assumed that espionage is always directed at the most secret operations of a target country
Thank God its no the CIA they're talking about. That organization is filled up with enough pansies already.
Hah, I like your thought process.
We could all be sitting at the local pub and when Villain X walks in we all just look at each other dumbfounded, then un-suspiciously continue filling our kegers with our favorite beer while we spy...
Seriously though, do they listen to XBox Live conversations... British Intelligence is one thing not shown!
idiocies aside. do they really think that they are going to be able to turn videogamers fit? this sounds like a failure version of cody banks in the making.
I can't wait to see the new order of spies.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
Random Tower: Game News and Commentary
Or Cider for me.
@Paul
Very few people show their intelligence on xbox live.
Ok, I'll behave now. :)
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
pc is where the real gamers are at
So, a government agency is shelling out money to place ads in a game to recruit "spies?" Really??
"The world of online gaming offers GCHQ a further route to target a captive audience."
Targeting a captive audience!?!?!? Targeting how? Do well at this fictitious game and you might have what it takes to enter a high-stress training program that could very well end up with you being the bagel-boy for the rest of the office of spies.
....Really?????
My heart weeps.
FFS, people, GAMES CANNOT TRAIN YOU TO {fire a gun|be a spy|take over the world}.
Both you and I had the same idea :D.
That's the worst kind of assumption. Its rather obvious that's not the case. They're simply placing ads where they know people will see them, albeit their placement may not make any sense at all within the context of the game itself.
Please, the CIA is filled with Nazi's.
Agreed. The common denominator in all those games is that they're all designed to excite and get your blood pumping. They probably want to find people who are thrill-seekers.
That being said, I don't know how good of an idea it really is. I played Goldeneye to death and never felt the urge to be a real superspy, dodging bullets and whatnot. My body already has enough orifices, thank you.
Analysis of events, large and small, is most of the intelligence work. There is information gathering, some actual spying, then the shit we don't know about.
British intelligence is simply looking for intelligent, educated, and to an extent motivated people.
I doubt they are looking for candidates for NOC duty.
Now the NSA, there's somebody with some work ethic.
They're recruiting gamers so that they won't need q to explain to them how the gadgets work.
It is a listening post, an intelligence gathering hub. Think listening into phone converstaions etc. rather than shooting up villians.
You don't need to be athletic for that.
They are targeting tech-savvy people for tech-savvy work.
Even in M16 the majority of people are in intel. If you join an intelligence service you are much more likely to be sat at a desk pouring over maps or transcripts than be a service agent in teh field.
Sorry to kill the romanticism but GCHQ are looking for Bonds-they are looking for people whoa re good at gathering and processing information in a high-tech work environment.
Our civil liberties have been violated enough in the UK already without using video-games as a recruitment tool to extend the reach of this surveillance society in which we find ourselves.
I hate in-game advertisements at the best of times, this is a step too far. I know the armed forces are struggling to recruit, evidently the intelligence agencies are having a similar problem.