The US Army needs eighty thousand new recruits every year. To get to that number, it has over a billion dollars at its disposal for recruitment purposes. Hollywood movies that need tanks or helicopters can loan those from the army for free, often on the condition the movie doesn’t show any crying soldiers, says Nieborg. After all, that doesn’t make the army very appealing to potential new recruits. The army has also developed a game, America’s Army, which attracted tens of thousands of players in the Netherlands alone.

“The game cost the army twenty million dollars, but it brought in seven hundred million dollars worth of new recruits.” The ‘set’ of Call of Duty – with a little under thirty million players one of the biggest war games out there – there’s even a US Army propaganda officer. Officially he’s there to keep the game as realistic as possible, but in reality he makes sure there are no civilian casualties, and that other more complex aspects of war remain underexposed. The only options gamers have, is killing the enemy a.s.a.p. It’s exactly what the army needs, says Nieborg. The ‘kinetic’ aspect, the excitement and action, is exactly what makes young men decide to enlist.