The Nomadic Hack and Slash

Good day, gentle readers. We haven't seen much of each other lately, and there's a reason for that, which I will get to in just a moment. 

First, however, I want to give you the delightful news that your asses are going to be stuck here with me on a weekly basis for a thing we sometimes call an "editorial column". This means I'll say some stuff, and some of it will be my opinion. Which of course, does not reflect the opinion of Gameranx as a whole, or any of the other members of the fine writing staff here. Or even necessarily my own opinion from a few months ago, because truly, what are we if we cannot be open to new information and let such things pass through our judgment, like contaminants through the semi-permeable membrane of a Brita© filter, allowing the pure waters of knowledge to circulate through our consciousness, but arresting the arsenic and lead particulates of lies and pseudoscience? 

Answer: I don't know. I'm just going to abandon that metaphor because it sucks, and get on with things. 

The main reason that I haven't been all that visible here lately is because of GameSave, which is a crazy project I started with a friend of mine, Willow Brugh. GameSave is basically a program which revolves around creating games to help train people in disaster response.

Now, before anyone gets all upset about "gamification", let me assure you that this is not aimed to force any corporate monetization agendas upon our precious social media outlets, nor is it trying to sneakily undermine the entertainment aspects of gaming by the desire to turn every game into a "learning is FUN, kids!" scenario, because I well and truly believe that these two things are bullshit. I mean, sure- using the "G-word" (I can't type it again without barfing, sorry. There was a related drinking game at GDC this year which is partially responsible for this) to generate revenue streams for your dev house, or as a marketing tool is fine, I guess. And creating games for school scenarios to help engage students a bit more in the learning process is actually a pretty good idea, I think. Any way we can learn stuff better and faster can only be good, though it's maybe not the best way for every single student. 

What we are talking about specifically is using games to help first responders and emergency personnel/volunteers acclimate their brains to the somewhat unnatural thinking processes that are required for the job. Imagine going into a crisis, knowing that lives are at stake, and the decisions made in the next few hours will affect those lives. Clearly, a strategy is required, but what about when things change suddenly? Roads become damaged, bridges collapse, fires and floods happen. All of these things mean not only modifying or even completely changing the strategy, but doing so almost immediately. On top of all that, there are so many different ways for information on these changes to reach you while you're already working in the thick of it that it's no wonder people who do this kind of work can get burnt out much earlier than the average desk job worker.  

The part of our brain that deals with "strategery" and related critical, analytical thinking does not always work naturally with the part of our brain that handles quick decisions and the fight-or-flight response. Yet, both of these thinking processes must not only happen simultaneously for those working to respond to a crisis situation, they must actively cooperate and inform one another. And what comes to mind most immediately for me, in terms of something that involves both a premeditated strategy and the ability to adapt rapidly is an RTS.  

This is not a completely new idea, of course, and there's been a lot more interest in pursuing more research in this area- not just "Does game-based learning work?", because we already know that it does, but "HOW does it work, and which specific aspects do what for which part of the brain", which is really cool. Because it could turn out that Starcraft 2 already makes you a better emergency manager, or Torchlight makes you a better accountant, or Halo makes you a better… soldier.   

And that's the other thing—digging up this kind of information can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it could mean better disaster response, or more fiscally responsible corporations. On the other hand, it could mean more war, and unless you are actually the head of a privately owned mercenary-based war contractor, this is bad news for you, one way or another. However, I personally don't believe that the pursuit of information, regardless of what it produces, is necessarily bad. The more we know about how we work, and how the universe is, the more we can try to screw ourselves, it's true. But it also means more ways that we can try to save ourselves.  

When Willow and I came up with the idea for GameSave, we didn't realize that it would become so gigantic, but it has, which is awesome. It's also monopolized our lives. In the past three months, I've learned more about crises, emergency response, and disaster aftermath than I had in my entire life prior to this. Every time we feel like we've figured out one way to mitigate one problem, multiple new ones sprout up in its stead, kind of like Heracles' Hydra. But the only way out is through, and we're far from alone in pursuing this line of problem solving. The encouragement we've gotten from friends and family, the academic games community, emergency management personnel, and even a nod from the White House has kept the twin fires of inspiration and perspiration burning beneath GameSave's collective butt, and for that we are eternally grateful.