Virtual Peace Sim Game Based On America's Army 186
fortapocalypse writes "Duke University in collaboration with Virtual Heroes (who created America's Army) has produced a game called Virtual Peace, the intention of which is to help the gamer develop disaster relief and conflict resolution skills. Virtual Peace also is the winner of the HASTAC/MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Competition, according to an article published by the university."
Re:I don't know (Score:3, Interesting)
Global political simulator? I think it does all right.
There were also some rts games made by a german company that involved environmental cleanup. I'm not sure how those did but they looked interesting.
Re:I don't know (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I don't know (Score:3, Interesting)
But the ones you listed don't have an overt propaganda mission (ok, "educational aim"). This is "Make Learning Fun"! - which generally isn't a very good way to teach.
If they wanted to actually get their point across, make it an expansion module to America's Army where you get promoted to a position that actually needs these skills to win the game. Think Petraeus in Iraq.
This is an undergraduate course at Duke University (Score:3, Interesting)
It's like saying flight simulators are boring because you can't shoot the other planes.
This "game" is a simulator used to help train our potential, future world leaders how to resolve conflicts without resorting to the type of diplomacy typified in America's Army.
You will also notice there is no way to download this "game." It seems this is part of the course curriculum, as the private area of the website points out.
Sure, it may be more fun to blow someone's head off with a sawed-off shotgun, but really, would you do it for real, just for fun?
Another great quote by Ben Franklin... (Score:3, Interesting)
"I am Ben Franklin! Master of sex and Voodoo!" - Benjamin Franklin
Who is going to shoot the looters? (Score:2, Interesting)
When handing out relief supplies in devastated areas, who is going to be shooting the lowlife scum looters?
I propose an add on module for online gamers to join as either looters or people who shoot looters.
Depends how you like to play... one group has fun! (Score:3, Interesting)
Yep, that's unbelievably lame to most people, but some people are going to have fun. There exists a subset of the population that will be intensely serious (perhaps even obsessive/compulsive) about carrying out these virtual negotions. You've seen them in other online games before... the people for whom the game becomes their reality, and they are so dedicated they don't eat or sleep in the real world.
However, that's not the group I was referring to when I said some people are going to have fun. That group is going to be tortured. The group that is going to have fun is the group that LOVES to mock the serious gamers, screw around in negotiations and generally tick people off. Essentially, they'll be the Leroy Jenkins of Virtual Peace.
For those that haven't seen the World of Warcraft video about Leroy Jenkins, here is a link. Listen to the square in the background being all serious, carefully planning out this raid as though it somehow matters or has significance in life. Then you've got ANOTHER loon in the background doing "number crunching" and calculating their odds of success to ridiculous significant figures. They're the first group. Then along comes Leroy, member of the second group. I think it's pretty obvious who was having fun, and who was being tortured as their carefully ordered virtual life was messed with. Leroy is going to have a good time in here :D.
Re:Video goodness (Score:2, Interesting)
I think that the selling point is that the kids don't all have to be in the same room.
I did a software platform for a similar project [mq.edu.au] back in 1998. The impetus for taking it online was that universities from all over the world would take part in the scenarios, which generally ran for a couple of months. The only example mentioned on the site is that in 2005 it was Macquarie University in Australia and the University of Texas taking part. At other times they've done it with the American University in Cairo, other schools in America and a few other Australian universities.
So yes, there may have been 30 kids all in the same room taking part, but there were probably another 15 kids sitting in another room a very long way away. There is no way all those kids could afford to be in the same place for the duration.