Videogame Driving Skills Don't Apply In Real Life 241
the digital nomad writes "When driving cars in videogames, you're often forced to see everything from a third-person perspective. Now, what would happen if you tried to drive while limited to that odd view in real life? These folks decided to find out."
WTF? (Score:5, Informative)
What? When I play my racing games I'm in my seat with a G25 steering wheel playing "games" like iRacing.
And yes, the skills translate very well into real life. But don't take it from me, take it from the pros.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRacing.com [wikipedia.org]
Easy. (Score:5, Informative)
Stop playing your driving games in third-person view.
What about this guy...? (Score:5, Informative)
Granted in his case the main thing that helped him was practicing consistency in hitting braking points and adherence to a proper racing line. I doubt the game actually improved his physical ability behind the wheel.
Rather than.... (Score:3, Informative)
Jump through two articles to get to the source....here ya go [roosterteeth.com] C/O Rooster teeth, enjoying the riches gained from RvB I'm sure.
I enjoyed it, but this is idle/humor material.
Myth confirmed (Score:3, Informative)
Haven't the Mythbusters proven again and again that operating a vehicle from 'non standard' driving perspectives is quite difficult?
Re:WTF? (Score:3, Informative)
Your quote refers to learning the tracks not learning to operate a vehicle.
Credit where it is due: Roosterteeth did this (Score:5, Informative)
Rooster Teeth Shorts, Immersion (Pilot) [roosterteeth.com]
Not cool that Gizmodo didn't give them credit. These are the same guys that do the Red Vs Blue machinima.
Re:Acceleration (Score:3, Informative)
have you never been on a gimballed ride? your mind can be tricked into feeling acceleration with simple motion.
Re:Night Driver FTW (Score:4, Informative)
Video game driving skills do apply to real life:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/sports/othersports/04nascar.html [nytimes.com]
http://www.dailytech.com/Champion+Gran+Turismo+Gamer+Becomes+Realworld+Racing+Champion/article17035.htm [dailytech.com]
Quote: At the camp, Ordoñez proved a natural at racing in real world cars. He found his "experience to be consistent in the laps and to know the perfect line in the tracks" had helped him to be able to recognize real-world braking points.
As for the article/story:
1) The camera angle was too low for the car, and it was fixed.
2) In GTA3 etc who cares about hitting small stuff like traffic cones?
Re:Night Driver FTW (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, I wanted to point that one out too. I suspect that it also has a lot to do with how Gran Turismo aims to be a driving *simulator* and not so much a game. Most game designers drop a certain level of realism from their games to make them more fun, but the designers of GT are a) car nuts and b) totally of the mind that driving race cars is plenty of fun all by itself, thankyouverymuch.
To prove his point, and to prove that not only is GT realistic, but works well as a racing trainer, Gran Turismo's director Kazunori Yamauchi competed in the Nurburgring 4 hour race and won his class [gran-turismo.com], with no other training but 1,000 laps in Gran Turismo (and any futzing around he may have done in his own cars). It was the first time he actually raced on the track, and it's worth noting for those not in the know, that the Nurbergring Nordschlief (the full course - in this particular race it took Kazunori 10 minutes to complete a single lap) is the world's most difficult race track.
That aside, the original article is pretty funny.