Fight pirates, the U.S. Navy Recruit Gamer

WASHINGTON - In order to anticipate incidents of hijacking ships as Somali pirates who carried out some time ago, the United States Navy plans to invite gamers to participate in an online game that simulates the incident.

Office of Naval Research (ONR) hope this step can filter the thousands of ideas of society in the fight against the pirates, instead of just relying on the traditional way with a discussing military strategy in the office of the Pentagon.

"This approach is made ​​to come up with ideas and potential solutions to the problem and our biggest challenge," said Lawrence Schuette as Director of Innovation ONR, told AFP.

"Pirates in the African region is an old problem that must be faced. We chose this topic for the beginning of the game scenario," he added.

The plan, 1000 ONR will only recruit players to participate in this project. However, unexpectedly, approximately 9,000 people enrolled in the project, so that ONR should postpone the implementation date to a month.

The Navy hopes this project can bring in the experts not only from the military field, but also include academics, politicians to technology specialists.

"The hope is, through the collective intelligence and knowledge of many people we can hold a conversation about the problems of geopolitical weight and get a solution that it never occurred to us,"said Schuette.