Slashdot Log In
Games That Shoot Back
Posted by
timothy
on Sun Apr 03, 2005 07:47 PM
from the mmm-enticing dept.
from the mmm-enticing dept.
syousef writes "A shooting game that shoots back, delivering electric shocks through the player's hips when they're shot, is being used for recruitment (Hey shooting people is fun) and training by the U.S. military. There's talk of developing it into a PC game. Here's a quote from the article: 'It has the same power as a stun gun. It knocks you down. You have to continue to work through the pain and keep on fighting, as that is what you need to do - to keep on fighting even when wounded.' I guess in Soviet America, games shoot you. How many law suits would this cause based on unknown heart conditions? I also hope there's some sort of built-in safety in case the thing starts to zap you repeatedly. (Deadly endless loop, anyone?)"
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Suicide Booth (Score:5, Funny)
"Timmy, forget about the TK rules, kill me please, please!"
Re:Suicide Booth (Score:3, Funny)
Otherwise, this sounds like a game for me!
Re:Suicide Booth (Score:3, Interesting)
Gives new meaning to BSOD (Score:5, Funny)
***user plays game, gets addicted to it and goes to anonymous website to download a new map***
"Windows had downloaded a security patch that will prevent a third party from gaining access to your computer and shocking you repeatedly. Click OK to update Windows."
***user clicks OK***
The following dialog pops up on screen:
"SUCKA! W1nD0z3 1s 4 n00bZ! I 0wn yoo n0w! Choose your hairstyle : Popcorn or Spikes"
Parent
Re:Suicide Booth (Score:4, Funny)
Brown trousers should be compulsory.
Parent
America's Army from Hell (Score:5, Funny)
Re:America's Army from Hell (Score:3, Funny)
Re:America's Army from Hell (Score:5, Funny)
Just beta testing...
Parent
Malware (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Malware (Score:4, Funny)
I hear ya. I'm so sick of malware that burns up motherboards.
Parent
This is better. (Score:5, Funny)
{
shockuser();
}
No chance of overflow with this loop.
Parent
Re:Malware (Score:4, Funny)
/* fake, pseudo-asm */
#define _shock(mag) __asm__ volitile \
("movl %0,%%sri \
mov $1,%%sre \
movl %%srs,%eax \
movl %eax,%1" \
#define _unshock() __asm__ volitile \
("movw $0,%%sri")
int main(void){
long magnitude;
int status;
for (magnitude = 10; magnitude != 0; magnitude *= 2){
if (!(status = shock(magnitude))) return EXIT_FAILURE;
sleep(1);
if ((status = unshock())) return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
It might not work, but at least the idea is sadistic enough...
Parent
Re:Malware (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Your favorite language sucks :) (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Uh oh (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Uh oh (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
What next? (Score:5, Funny)
Next.
But, it could be like Paint ball (Score:4, Insightful)
So, you REALLY try not to get hit. It's exciting!
If there were a concequence to being shot in an FPS besides a two minute wait until the next round, it would make you think twice about rushing or doing something stupid, and develop more tactics. There would probably be more camping (not necessarily a bad thing if the level is designed well) and it would force you to overcome those camps with better tactics.
Of course, I wouldn't want it to be as painful as a damned stun gun.
But, in the end it wouldn't work because you have no way to be sure there's a device attached to every person playing the game over the internet. This only works if there's full participation (you know, like SPF.)
In a LAN game it could be a blast though.
If something like this came to the mass market, I'd expect it to be some weak vibrating belt thing, not an electric jolt.
Parent
Hey, (Score:4, Funny)
Predicted in fiction (Score:5, Interesting)
This was written about in Piers Anthony's "Kilobyte" 20 years ago.
Re:Predicted in fiction (Score:5, Interesting)
Speaking of getting shocked by current flowing from one hand to the other (conveniently placing current flow dangerously close to the heart), anybody see the recent episode of Myth Busters where the assistants rig a fake Ark of the Covenant with an electric fence transformer and had the host grab a hold of the two terminals with his hands? I'm surprised someone didn't get fired (or sued) over that one.
Dan East
Parent
Ouch (Score:5, Funny)
Playstation.
Accessory.
Ever.
Call me when they have a peripheral to go with Hentai games.
Re:Ouch (Score:5, Funny)
I guess even sex-crazed demonic octopi need love.
Parent
Shocking! (Score:5, Funny)
(Yes, I know, it's horrible. The line to shoot me starts over there. *point*)
watt a terrible post (Score:5, Funny)
That's it for me, I'm going ohm now.
Parent
If I may just chip in... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Natural Evolution (Score:5, Interesting)
The whole point of a FPS trainer is to educate reality out of an individual. When you fire a pistol, sometimes your body will jerk the hand in anticipation of the shot. Dryfiring a few hundred times is enough to condition the pull back out, but it will eventually creep back.
I'm remember reading that 3/4 of the soldiers in WWI and WWII didn't aim at anything. They were conditioned to shoot at little bullseyes, not people. Notice how the military trains on human shaped targets now? Human-aim-fire-response.
This is all good, believe it or not.
Getting shot in a game there is no pain and risky behaviours can continue to flourish. Getting hit with a live round is most likely to inflict pain. Therefore, make the game as realistic as possible without killing your candidate
Will I play this? Nope. I already take Americas Army seriously and do my darndest not to die. But then again I'm not one of those people that beg the S-24 in order to get a pistol, either
Re:Natural Evolution (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
This would be great for fencing. (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe a shock belt could be used to improve the increasingly unrealistic sport of Olympic fencing.
While fencing is not a video game, it lacks a certain realism in the sense that there is not a significant enough penalty for getting hit. In epee' fencers learn to do many very silly attacks that put their face in danger so that they can attempt a toe shot.
By attaching a shock belt to the electronic scoring equipment that is already used, fencers would learn to use the kind of caution that they might in a real duel.
Of course that doesn't solve the problem of sacrifice that is encouraged by making all of the target area worth the same number of points, or the unrealistic use of the coupe--where a fencer often whips his foil into a "J" shape to touch his opponent on the back. But the shock belt may be a step in the right direction along with some other changes.
Re:This would be great for fencing. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Been done (Score:5, Funny)
imagine the (mis)applications... (Score:5, Funny)
Educational games. Kids are hooked up to the computer and the computer quizzes them, zapping them every time they make a mistake.
Extreme games - apply the electrodes to areas of the body much more sensitive than they would otherwise be attached to.
Exercise games - electrodes attached such that they automatically stimulate and tone the muscles while you work/play.
I could go on, but i'll spare you.
unsettling (Score:5, Insightful)
Does anybody else find that unsettling?
Re:unsettling (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, actually, yes they are - that's why they recruit most actively in poor areas, for the same reasons that terrorist-financiers recruit most (but not all) of their suicide bombers from youngsters with no jobs and impoverished families.
There are groups of people ideologically at odds with one another on our planet, fighting for power and control of a variety of things - there is no way to win, and the only way to avoid losing is to not play their game.
Parent
Heart Conditions? No problem! (Score:5, Funny)
In the event of cadiac arrest the computer will automatically re-start your heart, call the paramedics, reserve a room at the hospital, notify your family, and cancel your dinner reservations. That is unless the game locks up.
Lag would also be a pain if it happens right when you die.
Battlestar Linux, by Microsoft... (Score:4, Funny)
"We've developed some innovative new ideas for this game," stated Mark Davidson, project manager for the Battlestar Linux effort. "Our game will be set in an environment of post-World War 3 New York, with the city engulfed in violence from scattered rebel groups, gangs, warlords, and other nice characters. What sets this game apart from other games is a new USB we are producing that will make the gameplay feel more real. Attachments that go to a skullcap, waistband, wrist- and ankle-straps, will provide an electric shock whenever the player is 'shot' by an electrical weapon such as the raygun or cellblaster. Gas burners installed in these straps will engulf the player in real flames if the player is shot with a flamethrower. Explosives placed in a pack, worn on the player's back, will blow the player up if the player is hit with a grenade or rocket. Finally, a system of shotguns, strategically placed around the room in a surround-sound fashion, will shoot real bullets at the player when the player is hit by bullets in the game. Our effort is intended to give new meaning to the term 'virtual reality.'"
People familiar with the matter suggest the game will only be available for Linux, a first for operating system vendor Microsoft, which usually makes applications available only for the Wintel platform and for the Mac.
Re:In Soviet Russia.... (Score:3, Funny)
Try harder next time
Re:Save yourself a couple hundred bucks... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Save yourself a couple hundred bucks... (Score:5, Insightful)
Consenting? I think the law operates as it does because in fact consenting to being beaten up is really pretty unlikely, and the vast majority of situations where this might occur are cases of domestic violence, which surely no sane person would prefer the law turned a blind eye to. If you and a mate want a fight, go ahead - but make sure you don't create a disturbance, damage property or get any third parties involved. Usually by the time you've arranged all this you can be fairly sure the law will leave you to it - but by then presumably cool heads will have prevailed and realised the whole matter can't be settled by a fight. Fights are the last refuge of the idiot, and because society at large believes that, the law upholds that view.
Parent
Re:Save yourself a couple hundred bucks... (Score:5, Funny)
From my experience fighting is the first refuge of the idiot.
Cheers
Stor
Parent
Re:Save yourself a couple hundred bucks... (Score:4, Insightful)
Have you never heard of boxing?
Parent
Re:Save yourself a couple hundred bucks... (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Re:The Kevorkian game (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Re:The Kevorkian game (Score:5, Funny)
I'm not sure you quite understand how euthanasia works...
Parent
Re:Beyond the simulation of 'fighting while wounde (Score:3, Funny)
Just how painful is the Taser? (Score:5, Insightful)
Well anyway, the idea that you could have a weapon with two settings, stun and kill, gee, where did the cops get the idea that this would come in handy? Turns out that it is hard to stun someone without killing them. The old detective movie cliche of stunning someone by hitting them over the head? An MD writing in TV guide told readers that "if you hit someone over the head, most likely you just hurt them and make them mad. If you hit them harder to knock them out, chances are you kill someone from a hematoma."
I have seen films where they Taser a volunteer, and they start convulsing or they just faint and tip over and hit the mat in the gym they are doing this with a thud. I have seen a recent episode of "Cops" where they Tasered a whole bunch of different people, and it didn't seem to do anything. I suppose the electric shock causes intense, sudden pain, and that can cause someone to collapse, just like being shot with a bullet, only there is no tissue damage so the person doesn't bleed to death, but does it really work? I suppose a bullet doesn't always "work" in that a person can be fatally wounded but not always drop dead right away.
Anyway, I was the only person at the meeting willing to try the Taser (it was a model with two electrodes sticking out, and it didn't have the darts for remote action). I was going to zap my forearm and I was quickly advised "better try it on your leg. So I hold the Taser up to my leg and press the trigger. I was pretty embarrassed because I yelled out "Jesus Christ!" I was more startled than anything else, and it hurt real bad, but not the kind of hurt of someone drilling into your teeth -- more like the worst kind of muscle cramp -- it really hurt but I felt like my leg muscles were seizing up.
So what does a Taser do? Does it really knock a person out like on Star Trek, or does it merely cause a person to take the Lord's name in vain? Have they made the Taser more powerful in the last 20 years? More maybe because my finger was on the trigger, I let go when it first started to hurt, and a person has to deliver multiple jolts to get someone to collapse.
Parent
Loss of voluntary muscle control (Score:5, Informative)
Another aspect is that there is no scatter, there is no projectile penetration, and there is no risk of shooting the neighbor or wife through the wall accidentally. If firing into a crowded space, or even into a fistfight, you wanna make sure you hit just your target (but if you miss and hit someone else, you don't have to zap them).
Mal-2
Parent
Sexual apps for TENS units are old news (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.electrosexstore.com [electrosexstore.com]
http://www.peselectro.com [peselectro.com]
Parent
Re:Changes to Existing Games (Score:4, Funny)
no I can't, every time I tried to say it I got interupted, because the 1990s called, and they wanted their phrase back.
Parent
Camping (good point) (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean "hiding behind something bulletproof", just like most soldiers do in a REAL WAR unless the enemy is chasing them or their officers are ordering them to move? A real firefight between a dozen soldiers can take hours, since getting anyone to "rush" is both stupid and nearly impossible.
That's why "elite units" are elite, because they will actually voluntarily put themselves in harm's way rather than only trying to stay alive. Consequently, they can make short work of conscripts and half-trained farm boys.
Parent