US Government Licenses Unreal Game Engine To Train FBI Agents and Army Medics 54
cylonlover writes "While games like Batman: Arkham City and Gears of War are certainly entertaining, virtually beating up thugs and fighting subterranean creatures doesn't exactly translate into real world skills. However, a new agreement with teaching software developer Virtual Heroes could see Epic's Unreal Engine platform used to create more practical experiences and train medical staff and law enforcement officers to handle high-stress situations. By using Epic's Unreal Engine 3, some United States government agencies like the FBI and U.S. Army are hoping to give their employees tools for virtually practicing their skills in a more realistic environment and better prepare them to save lives."
yea ok (Score:5, Insightful)
when a downed FBI angent screams officer down they will be comforted by the fact that their medical personal trained behind a sony with a analog controller and a mountain dew
Dont get me wrong, games can be high stress, but not nearly as high stressed as one wrong move and you cease to exist, games a have reset button and a spawn location
Its not about you ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Pure bullshit (Score:4, Insightful)
As a former combat medic, I can assure you NO VIRTUAL TRAINING can match or prepare you for the real thing. NONE. I participated in medical procedures on dead people (cadavers, people who'd donated their bodies to medical science before death,) and livestock (farm animals, I cannot be more specific, legally,) as part of my post-Healthcare Specialist Course, given at Ft. Sam Houston, TX. I subsequently worked in an aid station and gave literally scores of IV's over the years before my retirement, and helping train new medics as they arrived at my unit, as well as treating numerous wounds in combat (burns, and a few gun shot wounds, but mostly run of the mill stuff as I've mentioned). This includes several deployments to combat zones.
It is my considered opinion, having gone through STX (Situational Training Exercise) or "Sticks," as it's sometimes called, (somewhat realistic training at the end of Advanced Individual Training, treating soldiers playing casualties with realistic-seeming (but fake) wounds and injuries) to the Combat Medic Advanced Skills Training Course, including procedures done on livestock animals... and additional training administered as part of our routine day to day during any down-time we had... literally MONTHS of training that went for the duration of an entire standard work-day... that when you see your first soldier all banged the fuck up from a grenade or IED, or with a hole in him oozing various bodily fluids, all the training up until that point will seem like a goddamned joke.
Anything done on a computer, likewise, is going to be a goddamned joke. I can see why they want to use every tool available to train the newest generation of docs, but it calls into question the people who make the procurement decisions, and how much they can possibly know about the training of medics, because as someone who has been through it, let me assure you. There is NOTHING like the real thing. You will never forget it, as long as you live, even if you forget the procedures, the medical training itself, the sight of a fellow man in bits and pieces will never leave you till your dying day.
So what I'm saying is, enjoy your fucking computer games, just don't imagine they're going to help you when the shit hits the fan.
Re:yea ok (Score:2, Insightful)
Guess the armed forces should ditch all their flight simulators, too, eh? Just toss pilot hopefuls into the cockpit and have 'em figure out how to fly and dogfight all at once. Attrition rate will be a bit high, but the ones that survive training will be damn fine combat pilots!
The point isn't to replicate the full stress of tactical operations. Because the point of training isn't to kill the trainees. As long as that is the case, you'll never fully replicate any life and death situations.
Or maybe you figure FBI agents and soldiers would be more comforted by the fact that their fellow agents/medics have more book knowledge and less practical experience?
Re:Pure bullshit (Score:4, Insightful)
When I was in "C" school, and after I went to the fleet - I used to wonder the same thing. "WTF do those chair drivers know about training FTB's?" Then some time in the fleet, and actually going back to the schoolhouse as an instructor taught me the answer. "They know one well of a lot - a lot more than I do." You brag about all the things you did in training, well... who do you think made the decisions about how your course would be run?
Since nobody is claiming that it can or will... your point would be what?
Nothing helps you when the shit hits the fan for the first time. Even you admit that (multiple times) after bragging about you ate rocks for breakfast and walked to training over six miles of broken glass - and liked it. So calling out CBI (computer based instruction) for especial venom is just more meaningless noise.
The fact is, CBI and other forms of simulation *are* valuable for training. (You even brag about taking part in a simulation!) I don't know about the specific details of the training of medics, but after seeing how it's useful and has had positive effects on the training pipelines I'm aware of, you'd have a very, very hard time convincing me that medics are somehow more "special" (not that there's anyone who doesn't believe their field is "special") than others and that there's no place for it in the pipeline.