I do so like news stories that show game technology being used in innovative non-game ways. There is that whole part of the industry that works constantly to make simulation cheap and believable, so it is nice when somebody uses that tech to do something a bit more important than hiding behind a bus and shooting at a space monster.
In this case, university researchers built a Source engine mod that teaches people about fire safety. Two important lessons were learned from this study:
1. Fire Safety (for some test subjects)
2. Don’t use gamers for your serious game engine-based study (for the researchers)
See, non-gamers will treat your serious Source engine experiment as a serious Source engine experiment. But gamers will treat it like, well, a videogame, which apparently means they happily run into fires. I do not know what videogame they learned this in, but my go-to guess for idiotic situations like this is Postal.
My favorite part of the article by far is the ending, which states that “gaming technology has also been adapted to simulate lab accidents, teach people about cooking safety, and to help people overcome arachnophobia.” Okay, I know the first two games are Half-Life and The Sims 2, and that “adapted” is shorthand for “loaded a quicksave”. But I have no idea what the arachnophobia game could be. In my mind it uses a proprietary controller with thousands of hairy legs.
The article is definitely worth a look, especially if you want to see what a Source engine fire safety simulator looks like. Hint: It does not look like a game of the year candidate.
Related Links:
Black Mesa: Source: Oh Right, That Still Exists
The Ten Greatest Fire Levels in Gaming History, Part 1
Avatar: Into The Inferno - The First Hour Or So
