Real-Life Helldivers 2 Army Recruitment Causes An Uproar

The United States Army is good at a lot of different things, but some gamers are questioning its media literacy. The Army recently left some people utterly baffled by its latest recruiting technique, which happens to involve a "Helldivers 2" tie-in.

Oh sick hell divers pic.twitter.com/bwuIshltWa

— Zyzx_ 🚘LVL UP EXPO (@_Zyzx_) April 27, 2024

There's a bit more context here, but even with that, the sheer image of this booth is a bit of a head scratcher. It was set up at a convention, and it wasn't actually geared at getting people to enlist in the Army's professional esports team (which exists). Someone thought that they'd be able to rope in more gamers by showing off the hottest shooter of the moment, but anyone who's played much "Helldivers 2" could probably tell you exactly why that's a bad idea.

Pictures and videos of the Army's esports booth started making the rounds online, and gamers took a break from speculating about if "Helldivers 2" will land on Xbox to dunk on this recruitment method. While images of the booth have quickly spread on social media and most folks just got a good laugh out of the situation, others took the opportunity to get deep about military propaganda.

Previously, "Helldivers 2" has delighted fans with references and crossovers, but this is a very different kind of tie-in — one that might not have directly involved the developer at all. Gamers immediately pointed out that someone on the Army's esports team clearly didn't understand the satire at the core of "Helldivers 2." This has either amused or frustrated fans of the game to no end. One Redditor wrote, "'Helldivers' subverts military propaganda by hammering home how expendable you, the Helldiver are." Another echoed that point, writing, "Perhaps they missed the subtle undertones of 'war is bad.'"

It's not too hard to believe that someone missed the point of "Helldivers 2" and picked the totally wrong game to use to advertise a booth for the Army. There are still people who think that "Starship Troopers" is a straightforward action sci-fi flick, after all. However, another Redditor raised a different possibility. "This checks out. 'Full Metal Jacket' was made as an anti war film to embarrass the Marines, [but] it drove up recruiting," they wrote. "Same with 'Jarhead.'" The Army's just jumping on what's popular right now — and to be fair, it's far from the first time a video game has been used to entice new recruits.

The military has used video games as a recruitment tool for years, and it's leaning in even more now. This particular "Helldivers 2" booth isn't some shocking new development, but it's part of a growing trend that helps explain why the Army has an esports team in the first place. In recent years, there's been more of a push from the military to find new ways of using video games to encourage new recruits, partly because recruitment numbers have reached record lows in recent years.

Does playing a video of a satirical anti-war, co-op-only game make sense as a means of recruiting new members to an Army-sponsored esports team? It's hard to say, but there are definitely worse games the Army could have chosen, and most commenters seem to think the irony is lost on the booth organizers. At least "Helldivers 2" has a modicum of realism, like its unwavering commitment to keeping friendly-fire in the game. Regardless, people are going to keep dunking on the Army's "Helldivers 2" booth until the next big "Helldivers" development comes along. 

The unanswered question here is whether or not Arrowhead Game Studios knows about the booth. Maybe we'll get a comment from the Ministry of Truth via CEO Johan Pilestedt's social media feed, but odds are good that the devs are keeping their heads down and working on creating new content and fixing some of the biggest issues plaguing the game.