MMOGs have been growing in popularity over the years, so it was only a matter of time before the military found a use for them. Gamasutra reports that the United States Navy is currently working on a new MMO project "focused on simulating and crowdsourcing strategies for battling Somali sea pirates."

Fast Company details the project which will use a game platform called MMOWGLI (Massive Multiplayer Online WarGame Leveraging the Internet) as the product of several years of research and will include the work of more than 1,000 civilian and military players. The project is planned to launch on May 16th and was developed by the Office of Naval Research as a test to see if MMOGs can be used to help solve difficult strategic problems.

The project will begin with a focus on the problem with Somali pirates, but according to the article, it can be easily adapted to other military hotspots around the world. Who would have thought that MMOGs could become a key point of national defense?

Sources:

Gamasutra

Fast Company