Games in real life

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-01-22 09:23am

This was on Feb 2K6 PC gamer Eyewitness, I thought I should post it to see what people think of it.

PC gamer wrote: When real life and virtual reality collide
Military and sports professionals improve their real world skills by playing PC games

The next time you settle in for an extended session of NASCAR SimRacing, Flight Simulator 2004 or Half Life 2, you can take some comfort that you're not just playing a game, you're getting on the job training. Now, if you aren't a pilot, race driver or soldier, this argument probably won't fly with too many of you. But for military and sports professionals, these games can save thousands of dollars in simulators and training costs. Don't belive us? Check out some of these real world examples.

Speedway studies
When NASCAR superstars like Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Carl Edwards aren't rubbing fenders at Charlotte and Daytona, you'll often find them behind the wheel of the latest PC racing sims from Papyrus and EA sports.
Though they do this primarily for relaxation and entertainment, they;ve also discovered a significent training benefit from the activity.
In face, Roush Racing's Carl Edwards credits his PC sim racing with helping him win the 2005 Nextel Cup at Pocono, a track he'd never seen before. "I've got the computer game inside my RV and I kind of wore that thing out," he recounts.
Earnhardt Jr. also uses PC sims(Papyrus' defunct NASCAR Racing series in particular) to hone his driving skills esspecially on road circuits. Prior to making his Busch Series debut at Watkins Glen in 1998, he practiced diligently on his PC. "Before I drove that 31 car at Watkins Glen, I spent two hours a night for a week on that game, and between that and the Bondurant school, I improved my lap time by four or five seconds." (He wound up 8th in the 43 car race.)
Though NASCAR's current deal with EA sports prevents most sponsor concious drivers from endoring non-EA games, it's a poorly kept secret that Papy's ultra realistic NASCAR racing 2003 is still the preferred PC "training" platform for NASCAR's elite. That said, EA's much improved NASCAR SimRacing is carinv out some respect of its own.
"Over the last couple of years, the things EA has added, those things happen in real life,"says Earnhardt Jr. "For them to be able to incorporate that element into the human aspect of the AI is pretty amazing. They just keep bringing all these new things to the table and it makes [the experiance] a lot more real."

Flight school
The U.S Military owns a lot of flight simulators. Hell, they've practically got the market cornered on multimillion dollar motion platforms that simulate everything from negeative g-loading to barf bags. These simulators are extreamely expensive to operate, however almost as pricey as the real training flights so a cheaper alternative was clearly on the Pentagon's wishlist.
It came courtesy of Lt. Herb Lacey and Microsoft Flight Simulator. When this Navel pilot in training chalked up perfect marks in his first flight in a T-34 trainer back in 119(despite never having set foot in an airplane cockpit before), his superiors were curious. After investigating, they discovered Lacey had been using MS Flight Sim so extensively in his spare time that when it came time to fly around the Corpus Christi, Texas, Naval Air station for real, he could practicly do it blindfolded.
Before you could say "Get me Bill Gates on the phone," the Chief of Naval Education and training promptly installed modified Flight Simulator software on PC workstations at the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi and at two other bases in Florida. These MS Flight Sim labs have expanded each year, and student pilots are now expected to complete 27 hours of instruction running cheklists, following ATC clearances, preforming basic flight maneuvers, and polishing IFR flying skills under the direct supervision of Flight Safety Instructors.

No Half Measures

The U.S military jumped into the gaming business a few years ago with America's Army, and though that title is primarily a recruitment device, Uncle Sam also understands the value of PC games as atraining tool. The Pentagon has used modified builds of Operation Flashpoint, Ghost Recon, Real War and even Doom to supplement its troops' urban warfare tutelage since the late Nineties, and the concept works so well that the Brits now want a piece of the action.
So much that a UK technology company called QinetiQ(pronounced Ki-net-tic) is currently developing a customised version of Valve's Half Life 2 for the British Army. Why HL2? "Half Life 2 provides a stable, very capable platform; has an excellent physics engine; and enables the modeling of building internals more effectively then [alternatives like] Far Cry." explains program head David Williams.
QinetiQ's DIVE2(Dismounted Infantry Virtual Enviorment) mod replaces HL2 sci-fi weapons with current UK weapony, reskins the characters in British Army uniforms, and adds real world scenary from the Army's Copehill Down training Facility.
Major George Kohler from the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers is pleased with the results. "Experiance has shown us that more and more fighting is taking place in buildings and built up areas. [and] this has produced specific training needs," he says. "The DIVE2 concept can help inform the solution. We've already tried out the house clearance scenario on a number of experianced units, and the Royal Scots have particularly embraced it. The guys not only used it as part of their formal training, but in their own time too."

So, all of those 18 to 25 year old British Soldiers get to play HL2 during their off hours and on the goverment's time? Sounds like a sweet deal to us. Where do we sign up?

Andy Mahood

I think this is a great use of some programs, while they can never replace real training, as shown by the Flight Sim example, they provide good training in procedure. Its intresting to see games get used in this way, and I can think of several other games that can also be very easily used for such purposes.

Companion Cube · Post by **Companion Cube** » 2006-01-22 10:26am

Ah, if only playing HL2 was all there was to it.

There'd be no recruiting difficulties at all, and we could form the Queen's Own Computer Geek Regiment.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2006-01-22 10:30am

America's Army was a big hit with the deployed folks when it first came out. Of course it still did not fly when we tried to get it installed on the network for "training purposes"

Edward Yee · Post by **Edward Yee** » 2006-01-22 03:13pm

Doesn't help that some accused America's Army of promoting "run and gun"... (the gameplay style)

Post by **weemadando** » 2006-01-22 03:51pm

The ADF are in on this game (sorry, couldn't help it) at the ground floor. BIS has their VBS studios based in Australia as the ADF were the first to pick up on it as a training tool.

And if you hit the RAAF website, you can download the RAAF flightsim, featuring SeaHawk, Tiger and F/A-18 missions.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » 2006-01-22 07:56pm

Then again, this could be a bad thing. I once read a study about how FPS's hone your reflexes. This went bad when two teenagers decided to rob a store with "snub-pistols" (I have no idea what these are.) They walk in the store and the cashier looks up.

BAM! Bullet right between the eyes from 20-30 feet.

The paper stated that this was an impressive feat with a snub pistol.

Turns out this kid had no intention of shooting the man--it was all reflexes. He said he played 007 for several hours a day...

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2006-01-22 09:48pm

'Snub-pistol' is likely a type of small handgun, likely .22 or .38 Special in calibre, semiautomatic, made for easy concealment.

Jaepheth · Post by **Jaepheth** » 2006-01-22 10:17pm

A snub pistol is a pistol with a very short barrel (caliber doesn't matter) making it more concealable, but much more inaccurate. I wouldn't use one at anything more than point blank range.

Furthermore, this:

doesn't teach you how to use or aim a real gun.

This is a grouping from a snub pistol at 10 yards (30ft):

These were carefully aimed shots from a professional (I assume). Notice the shooter would be unlikely to get a shot "right between the eyes" on purpose.

My conclusion: the kid got a lucky shot. (or unlucky)

Playing the game didn't make him a sharpshooter. But it probably contributed to his lack of hesitation in pulling the trigger.

EDIT:
PS. This is a grouping from the same shooter, with the same ammunition at 15 yards, using a slightly longer barrel:

Notice the gain in accuracy and precision.

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2006-01-22 10:19pm

Dave wrote:Then again, this could be a bad thing. I once read a study about how FPS's hone your reflexes. This went bad when two teenagers decided to rob a store with "snub-pistols" (I have no idea what these are.) They walk in the store and the cashier looks up.

BAM! Bullet right between the eyes from 20-30 feet.

The paper stated that this was an impressive feat with a snub pistol.

Turns out this kid had no intention of shooting the man--it was all reflexes. He said he played 007 for several hours a day...

Goldeneye won't teach you shit about aiming except which parts of the body are better to aim for. The Snubnose are utter crap revolers, made to slip in a pocket and act as holdout weapons rather that effective pistols. Their sights are crappy or non-existant and are often linked with gang-shootings because they are cheap as hell.

Literly they break so easily, offer terrible RoF and reload... plus the bad sighting means I'd almost as take a pointy stick over a snub-nose(Not almost, I'm not insane.)

Post by **weemadando** » 2006-01-22 10:56pm

As I've said many many times. Games might teach you some very basic weapons CONCEPTS and tactical ideas, but until you actually pick up a REAL GUN and use that, you still won't be able to hit shit.

GrandMasterTerwynn · Post by **GrandMasterTerwynn** » 2006-01-22 11:24pm

Dave wrote:Then again, this could be a bad thing. I once read a study about how FPS's hone your reflexes. This went bad when two teenagers decided to rob a store with "snub-pistols" (I have no idea what these are.) They walk in the store and the cashier looks up.

BAM! Bullet right between the eyes from 20-30 feet. :shock:

The paper stated that this was an impressive feat with a snub pistol.

Turns out this kid had no intention of shooting the man--it was all reflexes. He said he played 007 for several hours a day...

A snub-pistol is usually a compact pistol with a barrel length of less than four inches which is designed for deep concealment. They usually come in either .22 LR, .38 Special (and there even snub-nosed .357 Magnum revolvers,) .32 ACP, .380 ACP, or 9mm Luger (though there are some examples utilizing the extremely underpowered .25 ACP round.) They're characterized by low muzzle velocities, basic sights, and indifferent ergonomics.

Frankly, the only thing playing a FPS does is desensitize the player to the concept of applying violent force against a human or humanoid target. It's a far cry from actually picking up a gun and learning to handle it. These problems are further compounded with the use of a very compact weapon with shit for accuracy. With that being said, it is very possible to get a lucky head shot from 20 - 30 feet away with a snubby. It's possible for someone who hasn't really handled guns to do it, given the (usually) low power of the weapons involved. This is a distance of ten yards or less, where such weapons perform their best.

Hell, its possible to get a lucky first time, dead-right-there shot using most any weapon. What's a better indication of skill is what happens to the shots fired after the opener.

To reiterate my point, the anecdote you listed is likely implying a false correlation between playing of violent video games, and the proficiency of the armed robbers.

Raw Shark · Post by **Raw Shark** » 2006-01-23 05:58am

Beyond a reduced hesitation in pulling the trigger, we're probably more likely to see improved group tactics in gang warfare on account of this. Not that that would necessarily be a bad thing for the innocent bystanders...

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-01-23 12:27pm

Dave wrote:Turns out this kid had no intention of shooting the man--it was all reflexes. He said he played 007 for several hours a day...

How did they know he had no intention of doing so?