Boot Camp

Not All Fun and Wargames

BreakAway has developed several successful training games for the military, including one to train medics to treat uncommon injuries sustained in bioterrorism and other catastrophic scenarios. Whatley believes that having a captive audience for their games does not mean they can afford to make them less engaging, even if they are not exactly fun as we know it. "There are many design elements of serious games that are similar in nature to entertainment games. We absolutely have to create engaging, thought-provoking and immersive environments, the interface must be intuitive and the gameplay should reward and encourage good decisions, but not necessarily lead players down the right path. I believe these are all characteristics of great entertainment games, but whether or not someone finds diagnosing and saving lives in an emotionally realistic, stressful hospital environment fun is very subjective! The more important question is, are game-based training tools effective, and the research is pointing to a resounding 'yes.'"

"Educational" has always been something of a dirty word when talking about games, but most people don't actually realize that figuring out the paths, strategies, rules and tricks of a game and adapting them to different situations really does amount to learning. Educational games have been reborn as "serious" or "training" games, and because people do not always realize that they are learning, they play these games in their free time, saving corporations millions in their training budget. Understandably, these games are experiencing a period of very healthy growth across the board.

But is there a limit to what games can teach? At the moment, we don't think of gaming as a physical activity, but even that may change if the trend towards peripherals such as the Wii Balance Board continues. For the moment, however, Smith believes games are much better at teaching cognitive and team-oriented skills. "The scenarios we create with games attempt to teach people to work together toward a common goal and to learn the patterns of behavior that are effective in completing a mission. In most cases, the soldiers also practice these skills in a live environment. Games allow us to spend more time on cognitive tasks without the limitation imposed in the physical world."

Games are often undervalued and dismissed as a lower class of entertainment, but they are very much our generation's medium, and are moving firmly into the forefront of our entertainment choices. The increased use of gaming technologies across society is the logical next step for the future, a move that is likely to look as logical and unavoidable in retrospect as the adoption of email or the Internet. The U.S. Military, in the meantime, feels confident enough to literally trust the lives of its soldiers in the effectiveness of games as training tools. That's a pretty strong endorsement.

Alice Atkinson-Bonasio is a freelance journalist currently working for games™ and 360 magazines. She has also been involved in the launch of a groundbreaking open-source film project called The 10 Pound Horror Film which can be found at www.the10poundhorrorfilm.com.