British government recruiting Tom Clancy gamers

  • By Emma_UK, GameSpot
  • Posted Oct 18, 2007 7:12 am PT

Beginning next month, UK intelligence agencies are placing ads in a series of espionage adventures--including Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent--in the hope of attracting new recruits, reports The Times. Government Communications Headquarters, which is responsible for surveillance...

Beginning next month, UK intelligence agencies are placing ads in a series of espionage adventures--including Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent--in the hope of attracting new recruits, reports The Times.

Government Communications Headquarters, which is responsible for surveillance intelligence work, is hoping that virtual spying might give gamers a taste for the real thing.

A spokesperson for GCHQ said, "We find increasingly we have to use less conventional means of attracting people...to go beyond glossy brochures and milk-round stalls."

GCHQ is not the only intelligence agency to resort to unconventional means to nab recruits. Recently MI5 has been advertising in places, such as The Guardian newspaper, Cosmopolitan women's magazine, and the sides of London buses. However, this is the first time an intelligence agency is known to have used video games as a recruiting ground.

119 Comments

  • bashdkmgt

    Posted Dec 20, 2008 9:38 pm PT

    well the means may not be conventional, but if you find an extra 200 applicants and after screening them all you get 1 or 2 individuals who might fit the bill then i guess its worth it. What do they have to lose?

  • malaga01

    Posted Aug 8, 2008 6:06 am PT

    Why not recruit Doom players for demon hunting?

  • yourmakerawaits

    Posted Jan 24, 2008 3:52 pm PT

    I was a spy.

  • mehrdad1987

    Posted Jan 9, 2008 12:37 pm PT

    Well

  • Shmoe82

    Posted Oct 22, 2007 12:03 am PT

    So if you play spy games you might be able to be a spy? I played sim city, can I own a town?

  • KhanhAgE

    Posted Oct 21, 2007 10:10 am PT

    Yes. I'm sure killing a terrorist in a video game is just as easy as doing it in real life.

    The Only difference is that you don't get to reload the level when you die. You stay dead.

    - Hi. I'm here for the "I wanna be a cool super spy hero" position.
    # Sure thing. Just fill out these forms and you're a shoe-in.
    - Ummm....Wait. This is for my will.
    # Point being?

  • kalkhaja

    Posted Oct 21, 2007 9:07 am PT

    This is pathetic in my opinion

  • PS360Fanboy

    Posted Oct 21, 2007 8:08 am PT

    I was playing Attack and Defend in Calypso Casino the other day and i noticed near the Elevator that there was a british intelligence Poster, and has i was looking at it i was killed and teabagged.....

  • a1gaius

    Posted Oct 20, 2007 9:54 pm PT

    Is recruiting geeks to work for an intelligence agency a good idea? Surely, they'll be working at the headquarters and not out in the field...right?

  • kerensky287

    Posted Oct 20, 2007 4:30 pm PT

    "Hey if you guys are serious about recruiting annonymous gamer/hacker types, your best bet is some obscure CS server or something, not freaking tom clancy. Tom clancy games are not played by the types of people you want working in intelligence."

    ...and you'd want a CS player working in intelligence?

  • The_Weekend

    Posted Oct 20, 2007 10:40 am PT

    I wonder what Snake has to say about this ... *contacts snake via the codec*

  • rety5

    Posted Oct 20, 2007 5:47 am PT

    So when your agents start screaming 'I am meant to be invisible!' once they are spotted by some AK totting guard with an itchy trigger finger, who is going to get the blame? The video games industry!!!

  • fspilot66

    Posted Oct 20, 2007 5:41 am PT

    call me gamer...mad gamer...oh by the way shaken not stirred

  • ryo_strife24

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 10:54 pm PT

    Epic failure in the making. Remember people there is restart from last checkpoint in real life. Besides if there was one, I would have invested my money in other things like a small company called Microsoft.

  • solidsnake2050

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 8:33 pm PT

    Bond.... James Bond

  • saintsrowCS

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 5:28 pm PT

    Great when the U.S does it it's wrong when someone else does it it's cool (not that it should be cool)

  • Lord__Darkstorn

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 5:22 pm PT

    i dunno, i don't like when the military gets involved in video games (despite the irony, i know there's army of two, call of duty 4, america's army (yuk), etc.)

  • daedalus6

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 5:12 pm PT

    I wonder how many people posting are actually British citizens, not very many, so i don't think Americans should be griping about this

  • lamprey263

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 4:50 pm PT

    I don't know how things go in Britain, but in the US jobs like this really only go to people who grow up in military families or people with military experience.

  • JonnyNemesis

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 1:30 pm PT

    Everybody does realize the Splinter Cell isn't like real spying, right? There's no light meter to tell you if you're in a sufficiently dark enough shadow to be detected, no "Heal-U-Kwik" health kits, and no restarts. "This is like the second or third dumbest thing I've ever heard of." -Strongbad

  • pongley

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 11:05 am PT

    Haha. And I'm 18 now. I wanna become an operative, I've played every game in the series, do you think that's enough to get me in?

  • Delongman

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 11:01 am PT

    Play video games and become Jame Bond!!!!

  • Space-Q

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 10:43 am PT

    interesting...is this the same british government that banned manhunt 2?

    they seem to have no problem not only allowing but SUPPORTING a violent game when they can use it to recruit POTENTIAL killers of their own....

  • MasterChief725

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 6:37 am PT

    double agent?? what about conviction?

  • wilko_monkey

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 5:07 am PT

    "Stryker-Venom Now the British are getting a little desperate for new recruits"

    so what the hell is Americas Army all about then...and its free to play! talk about desperate...

    IMO...this is totally sick and twisted... Its a disgusting attempt to glorify something which is ultimately about risking YOUR life, YOUR REAL LIFE. Not some virtual character running through a pre determined path and virtually simulated experience... It would be YOU, in the REAL WORLD, where you can actually die without quicksaving or continues! And what's really sad is a lot of the comments so far appear to be from young people ("cool!!" "i wanna be a spy!! ") who probably are completely deluded about the reality of what this actually means and either consciously or sub-consciously , actually believe they will be just like SAM FISHER, SNAKE or (to a lesser extent) RAIDEN.

  • EternalYoshi

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 4:26 am PT

    Sigh. This is only the beginning of ads in games. Good thing there are limits or we'd be seeing beer commercials on loading screens for games like Halo 3 and Gears of War.

  • ketsuatama

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 2:57 am PT

    Just give me a gun and unleash me!!!!!!

  • Chiyou

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 2:53 am PT

    pfft British spies tend to suck, did you not see the new bond movie? he got his a$$ kicked.

  • K_M82

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 1:08 am PT

    Is it that hard to find recruit for a spy agency that they need to put up ads? I thought everybody wants to be a spy!

  • kratos_karmakar

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 12:23 am PT

    hey i was the 1st one to want to be a ninja spy after playing splinter cell. they should recruit me.

  • kasra_showan

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 12:22 am PT

    Saw this on the news this morning. Honestly, I think it can look pretty cool, if they portray it right.perfect game.i love so much

  • NinjaMunkey01

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 12:10 am PT

    ralinn I agree with you there. America does it tooo. Remember the Halo 3 news?

  • redfox66

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 11:54 pm PT

    I'll join and go sneaky sneaky solid snake style then find the objective look up and say in a gravely voice "METAL GEAR?"

  • CapcaS

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 10:38 pm PT

    I'd only be a spy if I could wear a tuxedo laden with hidden, high-tech devices.

  • generaltom

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 10:28 pm PT

    Its funny how people equate working for the government, especially organizations like the CIA with being very cool, very classy espionage. Its the exact opposite, and I'm sure the same applies to the MI5.

    It's really just tedious desk work with a piss-poor salary.

  • therejectx

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 7:51 pm PT

    simply phenomenal. awesome. i want in.

  • wiidominance

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 7:14 pm PT

    loool ... I can clearly see the state of intelligence agencies in 20 years time ... hehe ...

  • Vinnie222

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 6:55 pm PT

    why are we making fun of the Brits have you not seen all those America's army games, or the TV ads where the Videogame guy says why arnt you doing this for real its a tatic used more and more these days

  • vass86

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 6:41 pm PT

    flip flopping government. one minute games should be banned then used as a recruiting tool.

  • JackBurton

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 6:03 pm PT

    @Diablobasher>
    I completely agree w/ your CS comment.
    As much as I love the Splinter Cell series... Counter-Strike(original) totally pwns. It's got my vote as best MP game *i've* ever played (when youre on a server w/ experienced ppl of course)
    Thats the place to go for recruits w/ skillz.

  • Kfoss

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 4:59 pm PT

    LOL yes the gamers get signed up and the trainers are like WTF YOU LAZY BUNCH OF GAMERS!!! what do you mean you can scale a building! you cant even bench 100...! ON THE DOUBLE NOW!!!

  • kr24racer

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 4:43 pm PT

    cool

  • Sty1ez101

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 4:42 pm PT

    Wow....most of them are gonna be wither fat or unhealthy

  • markfisher2112

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 4:13 pm PT

    HAHAHA this idea will fail miserably
    think about it, a couple hundred overweight acne-faced nerds applying to be spies...im sure it will work out great
    or if they do get a job they'll constantly think "this guy can't see me, im hiding in a small shadow"...two seconds later their heads are blown off

  • ChrisDESTROY

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 3:22 pm PT

    "F4ll3n_1

    Its getting increasingly to the point where the BG need their brains scraping....first they decide putting the cigarette sales age up to 18 is a worthwhile idea...now they wanna recruit people who play Tom Clancy games and put the security of the country in their hands......"

    are you saying putting the smoking age up is a bad thing then?
    cos that's the stupidest thing i've ever heard if that is what you're saying

  • ReU_GanJa

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 3:15 pm PT

    haha if hardcore gamers actually fall for that their going to be pissed off when you realize what military is really all about.

  • AnimeNewtype

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 3:05 pm PT

    First the US Army uses Halo.
    Now the British government is using Splinter Cell.
    I guess it's only a matter of time before al Qaeda starts using Syphon Filter to recruit terrorists.

  • lukey9493

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 2:39 pm PT

    ahahahah
    ahahahah
    hahahaha

    and to think those people run the country
    you could just imagine think meting they had
    BOSS: "we need more recruitments for the force"
    nerdy guy: "how about we put job advertisements in a spy video game"
    BOSS: " your a genius have a raise"

    so if your are a terrorist in the uk watch out for the army of nerd spys

  • grayoldwolf

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 2:25 pm PT

    This is no different than the US Marines and Army advertising for recruits during episodes of The Unit or during football games.

advertisement

Hot Stories

Newsmakers

  • Spec Ops: The Line Interview - Greg Kasavin

    Spec Ops: The Line Interview - Greg Kasavin Thumbnail

    Former GameSpot editor and current 2K Games producer and the rest of the team explain why Yager's upcoming military action game will be "the most provocative shooter ever." Full Story

    • Posted Jan 5, 2010 9:19 am PT

  • Video Interview: Sega's Naoya Tsurumi

    Video Interview: Sega's Naoya Tsurumi Thumbnail

    Head of worldwide consumer business discusses strategy, his thoughts on the state of the game industry, and whether or not Sega is thinking of reentering the console market. Full Story

    • Posted Dec 31, 2009 12:20 am PT

Featured Stories

Submit News

Got tips? Send them in!