One of the challenges facing the Army today is the ability to explore innovative concepts and capabilities in a resource constrained environment to develop materiel, doctrinal, and organizational solutions for the future force. Early Synthetic Prototyping (ESP) is a process and a set of tools that will enable Soldiers and technologists to rapidly assess how technologies might be employed within a game environment. ESP is envisioned to be a persistent game network that allows Soldiers to play scenarios and provide experiential feedback to concept and capability developers. An operational test has been conducted that leveraged VBS3 to explore four future concepts: Virtual Pointer, Counter Unmanned Aerial System, Aerial Resupply, and the Next Generation Close Combat Vehicle A total of 76 Soldiers participated in the test. The test allowed the prototyping of ESP tools and processes, along with answering three primary questions: (1) What games do Soldiers play in their off-duty time and what devices do they use? (2) What would motivate Soldiers to participate in ESP on their own time? (3) How valuable is their qualitative feedback and game data to concept and capability developers? The results of this test were encouraging and overwhelmingly positive. More than 85% of Soldiers play military-themed games in their off duty hours; more than half of the Soldiers play more than 10 hours of military-themed games each week. Most Soldiers stated they would participate in ESP on their off duty hours and their biggest motivation to participate is knowing they are helping shape the future of their Army. The qualitative feedback indicates Soldiers are able to provide insightful feedback about materiel, organizational, and doctrinal solutions. The results of this study show there is strong potential that ESP will not only be a great way for concept and capability developers to gain meaningful feedback from end users but is also an environment Soldiers relate with and can innovate solutions. This paper describes the test procedure, analysis of the results, lessons learned, and recommendations for future development. Insights are generalizable to understand how to engage service members in their off-duty hours through gaming solutions. The results of this test gained the attention and support of senior leaders in ARCIC and TARDEC. Continued research needs to refine the ESP method and to determine the best way to extract and visualize both qualitative and quantitative data from the composite data collected from thousands of Soldiers.