A U.S. Army official said a $13 million video arcade in Philadelphia is intended to recruit potential soldiers and educate the public about the Army.

First Sgt. Randy Jennings said the Army Experience Center inside the Franklin Mills Mall, was designed to teach people about different aspects of Army life,The New York Times said Monday.

"Most people think joining the Army means being a grunt, and that Iraq equals death," Jennings said. "We try to show them that there's more to the Army than carrying a gun. If people come in here and they learn that, but they don't join, that's OK."

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School graduate student Graceson George said that while the center's video games were realistic and educational in many ways they were still based on entertainment.

"The reality of military service is beyond what you think," the student from Chicago told the Times during a recent visit to the center. "Here you can go back and replay, but in real life if you get shot you get shot. So it's an entertainment, but it makes you think."