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Games Entertainment

Australian Game Simulates Prison Escapes 31

Posted by simoniker from the escape-to-neighbours dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Australian newspaper The Age is running a story about a computer game that simulates real detention centers, inviting players to find a way to escape. The game uses actual Australian detention center layouts, and simulates things like the exact time that meals occur and "episodic violence". The kicker is that the project is sponsored by an arts group that has just received $25,000 in Australian government funding to develop the game."
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Australian Game Simulates Prison Escapes More

Australian Game Simulates Prison Escapes

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  • In the immortal words of Sean Connery (Score:3, Funny)

    by Joe the Lesser ( 533425 ) on Wednesday April 30, 2003 @11:47AM (#5843548) Homepage Journal
    'Welcome to the Rock.'

  • Easy to prevent in the US... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Danse ( 1026 ) on Wednesday April 30, 2003 @11:50AM (#5843584)

    If this were in the US, then all the state would have to do is make the inmates wear uniforms with a copyrighted work printed on them. Then if you make a program that aids in circumventing access controls to the prisoners... :)

  • Amusing (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Wingchild ( 212447 ) <brian.kern@gmail.com> on Wednesday April 30, 2003 @11:51AM (#5843598)
    I can't figure out what the overall goal of the original grant was; were they trying to design some kind of simulation that guards could use in order to figure out how to best deal with complicated, changing environments, much as the United States Army uses game-like simulators to prep for realtime battle conditions?

    Or are they trying to make some sort of weird MMORPG out of the jail environment? I mean, it's a frontier that hasn't actually been touched yet. I don't know any MMORPG where you can be an inmate and relive your deepest, darkest OZ fantasies.

    Hell, either way kinda works out for the powers that be. As players find new ways to escape, the administration can fix them in the real prison, then release a patch fixing it in the game as well.. ;) I sure do wonder how they're going to stop inmates that have a wallhack, though.

    • Re:Amusing (Score:4, Funny)

      by buffer-overflowed ( 588867 ) on Wednesday April 30, 2003 @12:41PM (#5844160) Journal
      There's probably a MOO or MUSH out there that does simulate/take place in a jail, with you as an inmate.

      [sarcasm] What's with you kids and your requirement for graphics? Back in the day we used to bugger people in prison in plain text, and we liked it! [/sarcasm]

      And, if you figure out how to turn on no-clipping mode in real life, please, please let us all know.
    • Players will be challenged to escape using the means at hand - refugee action groups, sympathetic lawyers, digging tunnels or scaling fences - all based on actual events.

      "We expect people to be upset," one of the game's creators said.

      "But there's been a lot of focus on the victimhood (of detainees) and we really want to focus on the bravery and heroism of these people."

      Requesting anonymity, she said the project was also a reaction to the Federal Government policy of restricting media access to dete

  • Escape? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Nick Harkin ( 589728 )
    ` To open the console.
    Noclip /Clipping Mode Off/

    This game shouldn't take to long now.... ;)

  • Right (Score:4, Insightful)

    by HopeUnknown ( 668633 ) on Wednesday April 30, 2003 @12:13PM (#5843825) Homepage Journal
    The game uses actual Australian detention center layouts, and simulates things like the exact time that meals occur and "episodic violence".

    So games where you mow down armies of monsters with imaginary weapons will poison our childrens minds, but a game that teaches you to escape from real prisons gets government funding? What a wacky world we live in.

  • Those are immigrant detention centers, not prisons (Score:5, Informative)

    by McMuffin Man ( 21896 ) on Wednesday April 30, 2003 @12:20PM (#5843904)
    If I understand correctly (I'm not Austrailian), the sites in question are not prisons which contain Austrailian citizens who have committed crimes, but rather detention centers for unclassified immigrants who may or may not be refugees. The Austrailian government policy towards immigrants is a fairly contentious issue in Austrailian politics, which goes a long way to explain why an arts group might choose to create a game like this.
    • > If I understand correctly (I'm not Austrailian), >the sites in question are not prisons which contain >Austrailian citizens who have committed crimes, but >rather detention centers for unclassified >immigrants who may or may not be refugees. Thats 100% right >is a fairly contentious issue in Austrailian >politics, No, it's only contentious with the small minority of politically correct people in this country. >which goes a long way to explain why an arts >group might choose t

  • Woomera not just a "prison" (Score:5, Informative)

    by sakyamuni ( 528502 ) on Wednesday April 30, 2003 @12:20PM (#5843908)
    There's more irony here than meets the non-Australian eye. The facility at Woomera isn't a normal prison. It's a notorious "detention center" for refugees. The complaints about it and similar prisons in Australia is that people are locked away in horrible conditions and pretty much forgotten. Query Google [google.com] for some back-story.

  • Methinks they are missing the obvious (Score:4, Interesting)

    by wowbagger ( 69688 ) * on Wednesday April 30, 2003 @12:22PM (#5843926) Homepage Journal
    Methinks they are missing the obvious:
    1. Make realistic game about prisons.
    2. Watch how players effect escapes
    3. Make changes to block those escapes.
    4. Keep bad guys in real jail.
    5. PROFIT!


    Seriously, this could also be good if it helps people realize jail is bad! ("This 5u><0rz! I got gibbed again!")

    Lastly, if you want to prevent escapes:

    "This is your collar. That is the transmitter. Get too far from the transmitter, BOOM! Take hostages, BOOM! Damage transmitter, BOOM!"
    • Lastly, if you want to prevent escapes:

      "This is your collar. That is the transmitter. Get too far from the transmitter, BOOM! Take hostages, BOOM! Damage transmitter, BOOM!"

      So, what would happen in the event of a power failure? All the prisoners with collars would explode, as the collar would lose the signal of the transmitter and think it had wandered too far away.

    • It sounds like a good idea in theory, but how would you go about implementing such a simulator?

      You couldn't simply program in situations in which the inmates have an oppurtunity to escape, because then you would have to already know about them. OTOH, developing a simulation which would truly simulate the prison and give the player complete freedom to move around and interact with it, would require tremendous attention to detail. Given our current level of technology, it doesn't seem practical.

      Also, alth

  • Reminds me of those companies that offer money to people for breaking into their system, so that they can learn from how it was done. I just hope its realistic enough.. I trust all the health packs and power ups are 3.4 cm. from the walls just like they are in the real prison.

  • Television did it first (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Wasn't this an episode of Whiz Kids [imdb.com], where Richie Adler was playing a game written by a prisoner who had modeled the real prison and worked out for him how to escape by evading guards and to "change color" by dying the prison clothes the color of the guards' uniforms?

    Of course back then the prisoners and guards were represented as big square colored pixels.
  • They've played right into my hands. Now I can familiarise myself intimately with the center for aiding a real breakout!

    Muahahahaa!!

    Seriously, I hate our policy and detention centers. Problem is that breaking them out does more harm than good, ultimately.

  • Please explain to me... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    How the Australian Government bans GTA3, and yet allow you to play games that simulate the brutalities of imprisonment?

    • I guess it's just one of the many wonders of beaurocracy.
    • Glamourizing civilian criminal behavior: Baaaaaad
      Glamourizing government criminal behavior: Gooood

      Seriously there's something very sadistic about saying "This game is awesome because you're in jail!" If there were added onto a larger game, sure that would be great. Imagine everytime you get caught in a game like gta, you get thrown in jail and have to find a new way to break out.

  • Wasn't this the plot of a Whiz Kids episode?
  • ... we're going to need something like this.

    Because when the RIAA, MPAA, and Ashcroft Commandos (tm) lock all the gamer geeks up, at least we can easily escape thanks to the many hours we've spent in sims.

    MIB: *breaks door down* MP3 Pirate? You're goin' to jail, buddy!
    Gamer: A11 r1gh7! 1 0wnz0r at 7h@7 g@m3!

  • Future conversation (Score:4, Funny)

    by Craig Maloney ( 1104 ) * on Wednesday April 30, 2003 @11:54PM (#5850368) Homepage
    Guard: The prisoner escaped, sir
    Warden: How did he do it?
    Guard: A walk-through on gamefaqs.com, sir.
  • Myself I'm amazed they received funding from the sources they did. But it was only a matter of time with these new First Person games coming to the console machines that a game like this would be developed.

    Look at the America's Army game. This is a huge hit and millions are playing it online. Why? Because it satisfies people curiousity of war.

    Speaking for myself I am anxiously awaiting the release of this game so I can satisfy my own curiousity. Im sure we have all watched a crime drama of one sort or a

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