ABSTRACT
The U.S. Navy is looking for ways to enhance recruitment efforts through a game-based environment that familiarizes potential recruits with the roles and responsibilities of enlisted Navy ratings, and determines players’ relative occupational interests therein. A bench-test approach based on pilot data was used to validate the game's design feasibility of gathering data about interest, based on player task choices across five represented ratings: Damage Controlman (DC), Fire Controlman (FC), Machinist's Mate (MM), Operations Specialist (OS), and Personnel Specialist (PS). A follow-on formative evaluation study is discussed where 65 high school students went through the game, completed a familiarity measure (pre- and post-gameplay), and completed interest measures (both in-game and out) that were compared with participant responses to the Navy's currently used occupational interest measure, Job Opportunities in the Navy (JOIN). Findings and implications for future research are presented.
