Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3
Publisher: EA Games
Developer: EA Montreal
PopCultureShock recently headed up to EA Montreal to get a final check up on the upcoming Army of Two title for Xbox 360 and PS3. Being that the title is about a couple of contractors for a fictitious Private Military Corporation, we felt that we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to speak to the person responsible for bringing that real world experience and authenticity to the game. We spoke with Richard Mister, an ex Navy SEAL who has been protecting our country since the ’80s, about his involvement with EA to make sure that Army of Two is as authentic as possible. In light of recent events pertaining to Blackwater and other Corporations of that ilk, the timing for going into the mindset of an operative in this field was perfect. We found Mr. Mister to be very intelligent and business minded in this candid interview about Army of Two and his line of work.
This is the Army of Two interview, with Richard Mister.
Howard Brown: Could you tell us a little bit about your military background as a SEAL, PMC contractor, etc?
Richard ‘Woodie’ Mister: I was in the SEAL team for over fifteen years. Then I moved into the private side, working for other government agencies as well as Private Military Corporations (PMCs) and Firms doing this type of thing both in the capacity of a mercenary as well as a security contractor; it’s kind of a different thing.
Certain companies and certain government agencies will hire you for two different reasons. Either they’ll hire you as a soldier for hire, which is the classification I give to a mercenary where you’re hired for a dollar amount as a soldier to go and fight. Or you’re hired to guard something, so you’re basically a security contractor where you’re hired to secure a place, person or thing as a guard. They’re two very different things. You may have Military Companies that do both of those things, but they are two very distinct jobs for obvious reasons and they both carry a separate, distinct price tag.
HB: Can you tell us a little bit about what your role is for Army of Two?
’Woodie’: Yes, I am their consultant for authenticity. When we first developed the game, they asked the usual suspect of questions like: ‘Here’s our concept, this is kind of what we want to do.’ ‘Does this seem feasible?’ ‘We want to do some new things, but we’re really not sure. It’s all going to be based around Para Military Corporations.’
They started running over some storylines; they’re very creative. Basically I listened to a lot of it so I had an idea of the direction they were going at. Then I tried to get into the details, and that’s what they brought me in for.
One of the big things in the game is the weapons customization, just to give you an example of one thing. They didn’t know how to do that. It’s something that, it’s not rocket science, but there were questions of ‘how do we make this realistic?’ ‘When we say we want to customize a weapon, do we want to make it more realistic or more fantasy related?’
Obviously they wanted to make it realistic because this is supposed to be something that is really happening. So that’s something that I’ve been doing for my whole career, so I easily went through the whole gamut about how we trick weapons out, how we change it, how we customize for every single person. Almost every weapon that you’ll see is completely different from each contractor as opposed to the weapons that an Army infantry soldier would be carrying in the field; they’re all going to be pretty much the same.
So that was a really big piece. And some of the other things that you’ll see in the game like utilizing a tampon to put in a bullet hole. Things like that; it’s a fantastic way to stop bleeding from a wound. And they would totally not be aware that something that simple would exist for that type of application.
So it was that kind of thing, I started with gear, equipment, weapons, tactics, showed a lot of pictures so that the artists could really visualize about how we do things and what it really looks like.
HB: How long have you been doing the entertainment side of this?
’Woodie’: I’ve been doing the entertainment side of this since 2000. The first game I worked on was S.W.A.T. 3 then I went onto S.W.A.T. 4. From there I’ve done a lot of Splinter Cell games. Most recently, I did a really big piece for Splinter Cell: Double Agent.
HB: You worked on the previous Splinter Cell, Chaos Theory as well right?
’Woodie’: Yes, I did a lot of pieces for Chaos Theory. It really helps to validate the game. Like, we’re not just creating something from books and movies, which are great because they’re really creative, but if you want to beat out the competition with the competition being so stiff right now, you kind of need an edge. The best way to do that is to bring in someone who really knows and can identify whatever possible discrepancies there may be to the gamers. They want to get in there and have a good time and shoot ‘em up and that has to be delivered. And on the flip side of that, there’s a whole market of gamers that aren’t hardcore and if it looks cool enough and realistic enough, they’ll want to play it, so you don’t want to leave any market untapped.
HB: How much has the PMC business grown over the past few years? Would you say it’s utilized more recently?
’Woodie’: Well, they’ve always been around, the Corporations. Obviously since the unfortunate events of 9/11, the boom for security contracts has tripled. The need for it is because of the downsizing of American Armed Forces and other militaries in other countries since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. So all the Forces were downsizing, downsizing and downsizing, then all of a sudden 9/11 comes along and the War on Terror is in full swing and there’s a lack of trained soldiers still wearing a uniform.
So where do those soldiers go for work? They come on board. Their skills are of high value now because of the War on Terror. So I’d have to say that all these companies have been around, and they have been conducting the same types of things but in a lower capacity. Now since 9/11 when there is a great need to secure compounds, secure packages and secure people in addition to doing other types of works. Depending upon who hires you, if it’s another government agency and it’s sanctioned by that government, you could be a completely civilian contractor working for another sanctioned government conducting soldier for hire type work. So that ability is there now that there is a need for it.
HB: That brings up a good question. Take yourself for example; your background is that you were classically trained as a US Navy SEAL. What is the mindset behind a person going from fighting to serve their country to fighting to earn a dollar? What is the thought process behind such a change in thinking?
’Woodie’: The main thing is that a PMC is a business. It takes a business minded person to go up the chain of command there. When you come out of the military, everybody has their reasons. My reasons were if I can do the same type of work, be in charge and make more money, then that’s what I want to do. I work with less bureaucracy and I don’t want to answer to some jackass that I don’t believe should be in charge. When you go into the corporate world you’re going to be answering to people that want to know ‘Can you get the job done?’ and ‘Are you going to make money for our corporation?’ So if you’re a self starter and a go-getter and you have the hard skills, hard skills meaning the types of skills that SEALs, Army and Marine Corps soldiers have, then you can go into the same types of business that PMC’s and PMF’s offer and you could make yourself a good paycheck, you could run the show and do the same type of work you did as a soldier. So that’s kind of the motivation behind it.
HB: It seems from the sounds of it that you could essentially wind up doing work for other governments. Is that the case? Do we have corporations sending U.S. trained personnel to soldier for other governments? Where is the line drawn when working for another government could be against the best interests of the U.S. since this business is all about the dollar?
’Woodie’: I think that’s just a personal, ethical question. In my case I work for legitimate governments, on legitimate contracts and for legitimate reasons. I won’t work for any criminal organizations, well none that I know of. I would have to say that there are contractors out there that feel that they’re doing it strictly for the dollar and they get the money and run. They don’t care who the dirty work is for at all. My personal rule is that I need to know where the contracts come from, who they are and those types of things.
HB: So you do make it a point to try to take the moral highroad?
’Woodie’: Yeah, I do. This is a good job. It’s worthy; we’re stepping up to the plate. Private Security Companies, Private Military Corporations if you will, are stepping up to the plate to provide a service that the government can’t provide any longer. It’s just going to cost them more money. So whether it’s training, mission support or operational support; regardless of which of those things it is we can provide those from the company and we are contributing to our country’s success in the War on Terror which is going to last for a long time.
HB: Thank you for your time Richard.
