Training game
In short A game used to build or maintain the practical skills a job demands.
Definition
A training game is a game used to build or maintain the skills a job demands, especially where practicing in reality is dangerous, expensive, or rare. Militaries, airlines, hospitals, and emergency services are its main users. Where an educational game aims at understanding, a training game aims at performance: the trainee should act faster, more accurately, or more calmly in a specific situation afterward. That is why training games lean on simulation and repetition, and why success is measured against an outside standard rather than a high score. Many began as commercial games adapted for drills, and some made the journey the other way.
Not to be confused with
- Educational game
An educational game aims at understanding a subject, while a training game aims at performing a task well under real conditions.
- Simulation
A simulation is a model that can run without anyone being trained; a training game adds scenarios, goals, and assessment around the model.
- Serious game
Serious game is the wider category; a training game is the kind of serious game whose measure of success is workplace performance.
Where the game lives
- rules: used
- goals: used
- feedback: used
- uncertainty: used
- choice: used
- play: dropped
Training needs the uncertainty of real situations and the chance to make choices again and again. Free play is what it gives up, because the session is assigned and the result is checked against a standard.
used dropped · What the six structures are
Examples
Marine DoomU.S. Marine Corps Modeling and Simulation Management Office, 1996
A modification of Doom II used to rehearse fire-team coordination and communication.
Full Spectrum WarriorPandemic Studios, 2004
A squad-tactics game developed with the U.S. Army and the Institute for Creative Technologies, released both as a training tool and a commercial game.
In the essays
No essay takes this term on directly yet. Its neighbors in the guide are linked above; the newsletter announces new essays.
Sources
- BookSerious Games: Games That Educate, Train, and Inform. Thomson Course Technology, 2005. Includes chapters on military and corporate training games. Reading list
- BookDigital Game-Based Learning. McGraw-Hill, 2001. Reading list
- ArticleFrom Visual Simulation to Virtual Reality to Games. IEEE Computer, 2005. Traces how military simulation and the games industry converged.
- ArticleDoom Goes to War. Wired, 1997. Reports on the Marine Corps' use of a modified Doom II.