My first actual entry will be an interesting one I think. This was intended to be a single post but quickly became a two parter.
Many people play video games and the industry surrounding it has surpassed the movie industry, in America and abroad, in terms of total revenue. Along with this has emerged the vein/genre of gamers known as casual gamers, think Angry Birds and social games like Farmville. Congrats, if you play/have-played those games, you're a casual gamer. This has brought even more people into the gaming enclave as a result. However I bet most would find it extremely interesting that games are sometimes used as research tools.
For this entry I will have to do a bit of explaining I feel. First, I am a self-professed gamer, and it is actually one of my primary means of relaxation and entertainment. I've spent years immersed within the gamer sub-culture as it is very much a part of my life so my knowledge of games, while admittedly not perfect, is rather extensive. Then again what is literally perfect in this world, eh?
For the purposes of this discussion I'll be looking at a particular type of game: sandbox games. The term sandbox game is derived perhaps best from the analogy of a child playing in an open sandbox, where said child is free to do what ever they want, and is only limited by the constraints of their imagination and tools at hand, to create new things out of the sand. Thus sandbox games are games with open-ended and open-world environment, which historically have allowed for interesting experiments to take place within their digital environments.
While sociology seems to have been somewhat reluctant to adopt this sort of testing methodology (as far as I know its not a common form of research testing within sociology but I could be wrong), psychology research often can involve small games or the use of video games as a mean of conducting more open ended testing.
The situation I shall use for my analysis arose in a gaming group that I commonly play with. This group (which shall remain nameless for the sake of anonymity) focuses its attentions and efforts on a milsim (short for military simulations) game series called Arma, and recreating an authentic military structure and experience in a relaxed atmosphere. This type of group is what has become colloquially known as a realism unit within the gaming community. This unit, in particular, has three distinct divisions: the main infantry body broken down into three teams of 8-12), and three smaller support-role oriented divisions: aerial division (for transportation of troops, assets/materials, and close air support [CAS] and other air support functions), a small recon/sniper team (5-6 people) and a heavy weapons/support section (typically dealing with machine guns [7.62 mm in size, and up], mortars, and heavy anti-tank weapons).
If you're already rolling your eyes its admittedly not for everyone, so stuff you opinion and focus on whats below.
The group is currently comprised of a mixture of civilians, military (both active/former duty service men), and active duty/former police, and its membership is comprised of a mixture of people from across the globe, but is primarily composed of US, and Canadian.
The game series (the Arma series) itself is produced by Bohemia Interactive Studios, and is derived from their Virtual Battlespace commercial software series, which is commonly in use with many militarys across the world as part their training of soldiers. As a result, while a very-accurate simulation, is not without its problems: such as limiting game mechanics or game-isms to make the experience of playing more enjoyable and tolerable...Remember folks, games are meant to be fun and simulations of real life can be very boring!! So some sacrifices (in terms of realism) are sacrificed for the game to be more playable and fun in general.
Anyway, enough background-ing.
----------------------
The particular incident in question happened recently during our regular Wednesday gaming night. Wednesdays are typically reserved for missions, basically scenarios that are written by group members to follow a narrative story (as much as one can have in a chaotic and random open-world sandbox game). Mission nights usually follow/involve a theme that is picked for that particular month, or help to emphasize a key-point from our Monday "training" nights. We typically play on a variety of maps to change up the different possible scenarios, environments, and the like. For a working definition of a map think of it as the level, world,
stage, or zone that shall be played on. Thus a map encompasses all the playable physical land,
(land, water, bridges, buildings/structures, trees, and terrain
features, ect that can be played on), and objects that can be interacted
with while playing.
The mission in question occurred on the Zargabad map for Arma 2. Zargabad is a facsimile of a nondescript town in the Middle East region, featuring a sizeable built up urban area as the central city named, unironically, Zargabad), and smallish outlying villages/compounds in a mostly desert-ish landscape. Map features of note include airable lands to the north and northwest of Zargabad proper, a small military styled base to the north east of Zargabad, and numerous oil fields/pumps to the south of Zargabad. The mission involved two different teams, or what is commonly known as a TvT (team vs. team) environment and
is a deviation from group's largely PvE (player vs enemy-AI) focused missions.
------------------------------
For this particular scenario the group as a whole was divided into
two main groups: Blufor (Blue force); and Redfor (Red Force). Blufor was
divided into two distinct subgroups: local police (numbering 4-6 people
in size), and US Marines (around 8-10 people). Redfor was also divided
into two distinct subgroups: citizens (around 8+ people), and
insurgents/terrorist forces (3-5 people). These subgroups effectively
became each player's given role for each each instance of the
scenario/mission.
Throughout the entire night, the scenario was run
multiple times (4 or 5 times total). Before each new instance/start of the scenario, players were swapped in/out of the
various groups and roles to ensure players had gotten to play each subgroup/role at least once.
The scenario for the mission
As US forces in the area begin their withdrawal from the region, the transfer of duties over to the local government and its agencies has begun. Elections are being held within the town of Zargabad, as part of the transition to a new government system: a large influx of civilians are coming from outlying areas to the city of Zargabad to participate in the voting process for the election of the new government.
Insurgent activity is expected to be high within the town of Zargabad proper. The current situations provides insurgent forces within the area them with a prime target and opportunity given the increased visibility from media (international and local both), military, and political interests afforded to this event. Terrorist activity, snipers, and IEDs and VBIED attacks are likely.
Blufor: Police are to secure and maintain a small cordon zone around the main building in which voting will take place. Marines are to enter into the area and provide support, working alongside the local police forces, to ensure that the voting process remains uninterrupted.
Redfor: civilians are to head towards the voting center and vote. Insurgents are to disrupt the process as much as possible through violent means; once an insurgent dies however they loose their "insurgent" role and revert to being a citizen upon respawn (a term denoting a new life after dieing within a game), and proceed to follow the above rules and conditions for civilians.
Blufor RoE (Rules of Engagement): Police: Do not fire unless fire upon. Marines: Do not fire unless fired upon or your life is threatened.
Redfor RoE: Insurgent: None. Civilians: Go forth and vote, and be annoying.
---------
Thus, each group was given a loose set of rules on how to operate and behave, and the game was launched for us to enact our roles. And boy did we ever..
More later on
~WhtsTh@?
No comments:
Post a Comment