Prof Stone said: "If our research proves that it works come 2009 we will start trying it out on real soldiers.

"It could be rolled out across all the services. It would be Brit soldiers who would benefit."

He explained: "In very basic layman's terms it is a computer game with smell.

"The smell system we are currently conducting research into is very new.

"We are looking into whether it is worth doing, to introduce smell into our games training. We need to make sure it is going to help troops and is not just a gimmick.

The scientists are also looking into defence mental health, with Prof Stone adding: "Smell is so closely linked to emotion and memory, it's something that we need to take seriously.

"We have got a number of virtual environments already in place and are now adding smells to it to see what effect it has on training."

Prof Stone also thinks the device could be up for sale for the general public in a number of years.

As Kieron Gillen of Rock, Paper, Shotgun noted, we can hope this technology makes its way to a wider audience, "if only as it’ll allow us to claim that a game stinks in a more literal sense."

British soldiers could be trained on a computer game with smell [The Telegraph via Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The MOD already uses modified videogames to train ground troops but researcher have just invested £20,000 to investigate whether adding the sense of smell to a game experience can significantly enhance its realism and hence its value as a training aid.

"Smell is so closely linked to emotion and memory," says Professor Bob Jones of Birmingham University, "it's something that we need to take seriously."

If the research proves effective, it may not be long before games consoles adopt the technology.

"There is no doubt in my mind that the games companies are looking for an inexpensive version for the domestic market," said Jones.

"I think it could be translated into the computer games market in two-and-a-half years."

Just imagine - by 2011 you could be playing Gears of War 4 with two little Microsoft-branded plugs up your nostrils. I bet that armor really starts to stink after a couple of hours out in the field.

British soldiers could be trained on a computer game with smell [Daily Telegraph]

In Fable II you can train your dog in four ways:

Mechanically: You can buy books to use to teach your dog to do things like fight. Molyneux's dog, for instance, will fight anything that is knocked to the ground.

Behavioral: By using your expressions you can train your dog how to react around people.

Attention: The amount of attention you pay to your dog affects how well he heels, how he behaves in town and how far he roams from you.

Finally you can augment your training with punishment and rewards.

But it is possible to shift the paradigm, so why don't older institutions follow suit?

For one thing, they don't consider games "academically respectable," Bartle asserts. For another, computer games staff don't get included in research assessment submissions, because there are no first-class journals specific to the medium — and, of course, major universities just don't see any money in it, he says.

Bartle, who is currently a Principal Fellow and Visiting Professor at the Department of Computing and Electronic Systems at Essex University, explained ruefully: "None of this would matter if it were without consequences. Unfortunately, there are consequences."

Modern universities focus on training in the way that vocational schools do, says Bartle, while older ones have a tradition of education.

My first reaction is 'Well, duh.' Academia is built on tradition and regularity (there is a reason 'disciplines' have that name), so trailblazing a new path is not the easiest of tasks. Even a move to shift perceptions of 'standard' disciplines is likely to be met with suspicion and skepticism. On the other hand, many of those older or less progressive institutions are sloooowly coming around. But the process isn't going to happen overnight, and I wouldn't expect to see 'training in the way that vocational schools do' at an Ivy League institution near you any time soon. I'm also not convinced that's necessarily a bad thing - just as students flock to particular institutions to study under renowned experts in well-established fields, why wouldn't we expect the same out of people wishing to study gaming?

MUD Co-Creator Bartle Criticizes Gaming And Academia Divide [GameSetWatch]

The three titles are called Rapid Onset, Sudden Thrust and Vital Passage, which is a Freudian trilogy if I've ever heard one. Seriously, the DIA's Bruce Bennet told Wired that the games are more effective than daylong powerpoint torture sessions at getting training and a message across. And I can dig that.

DIA aren't the only ones using video games to train analysts. The Army has a game training interrogators that is entitled "Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Tactical Proficiency Trainer Human Intelligence Control Cell," which is based on Far Cry's architecture.

Fascinating and enjoyable read, of course. And, ulterior motive, I know someone who also might kinda sorta do spooky intelligence shit and that person's monitored my Interwebs traffic before, so I'm wondering how soon after I post this that I'll get an email from ... oh Holy Jesus that was fast.

US Spies Use Custom Video Games to Learn How to Think [Wired]

XOS Technologies, a company that specializes in gearing technology to the needs of coaches, worked with EA Sports to produce the PlayAction Simulator that LSU has used this season.

"What they've done is they put our plays into the video game and then they put in our opponents' defenses," said Crowton, the Tigers' first-year offensive coordinator.

The game looks and plays just like the popular Madden NFL and NCAA football games, though all the goofy stuff such as player celebrations, cheering crowds, mascots and bands have been removed.

I don't follow football (at all), but I can see the utility of such a system (does this fall into the category of a 'serious game'?). XOS hopes to offer the game to all of their clients in the coming year.

LSU players use video games to prepare [MSNBC]

Microsoft ESP enables the innovative use of visual simulation for immersive learning and decision-making, supports PC-based commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software, and enables simulations to be built faster and more cost-effectively.

Hard to tell how it will work just yet, but Microsoft does have a history of making visual programming tools very easy to use for ordinary developers. The price? $99 for the SDK.

Microsoft ESP Debuts as a Platform for Visual Simulation
[CNN Money]

Many people have been saying this for a long time, and i think we approach the point that more armies will see that 'Gaming' is not only fun to do. you can learn from it. - just like we did today. In the last years, technology has taken an enormous jump. the current weaponry has been benefiting from this fact, and its inevitable that normal troops will be trained with special simulation equipment. this can vary from radar observance to real field duty procedures. Gaming has been around us for many years for our pleasure. But yet since a few years, many countries have learned that gaming could be more than just recreational fun.

While real exercises are very expensive, simulations are quite cheap in comparison. Although today's artificial intelligence is possibly not sufficient for proper training, todays available simulations tecnologies are hard to neglect.

Field report : Gamers fight real Soldiers in VBS2. [ArmedAssault.eu]

The corporate world is about to get its game on. Newly founded TrainingPort Strategies plans to develop video games and sims for white collar workers. Company founder Joe Biglin says they'll;

help corporations improve employee skills and capabilities through the use of engaging educational experiences.

zzzzzzzzzzzzz.................

The "corpo video games" run the gamut of boards games to "fully customized, highly visual fidelity simulators." Heh, sounds like a blast! A step up from instructional videos, but way worse, because you are actually required to pay attention. Brian Ashcraft

White Collar Games [QJ.Net]

Gamasutra reports that Full Spectrum Warrior is being used to treat PTSD in war veterans.

"The idea being to be in the high-stimulus environment for a long period of time, maintaining low psycho-physiological arousal," commented Dennis Wood, a doctor at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, California where the treatment is currently being tested on noncombat personnel. "The person then can take that learning in the therapeutic environment and transport it out or generalize it to day-to-day life."

I am all for this. Not only because it devillainizes games to have them be used therapeutically, but because I've seen this particular method work. My father is Vietnam veteran and avid gamer, and he maintains that gaming has helped in the treatment of his PTSD immensely. Eliza "Third-Gen Nerd" Gauger

More here [Gamasutra, pic from Aeropause]

There are few things more instantly satisfying than a tiny, well-made game. Exquisite bonus: getting to choose the color of your lightsaber.

The creator of Jedi Trainer has a nice little website that hosts a slew of his games, a note about game sponsorship, and the requisite bragging about his girlfriend. I spent way too long on his Cupid game, so I can vouch for the pure playability.

To get the full effect of Jedi Trainer, first pull your Sun Chips-encrusted Threadless t-shirt over the front of your head in the Reverse Cornholio maneuver. Then utter your battlecry ("FOR THE BORED!") and rock that high score.

I knew you could do it. Eliza gauger

Jedi Trainer [LostVectors, via Digg]

A military sim trainer without weapons? Tactical Iraqi focuses not on body counts, but body language. Soldiers learn things that might be offensive in the US are not necessarily in Iraq and vice versa.

Developed by the USC's Information Sciences Institute, the game differs from previous sims that focused solely on language. Tactical Iraqi must navigate language, cultural gestures and taboos. So far, 300 soldiers have used the system and several thousand more are expected to have by the end of the year.

The game contains no weapons or combat situations. Rather, soldiers must gain the trust of Iraqi communities in helping to rebuild. "I got a kick out of removing the weapons and replacing them with gestures," says the program's technical director Hannes Vilhjalmsson.

In Iraq, things like introducing oneself with out introducing others and showing the soles of one's feet are considered rude. Vilhjalmsson recalls when an Iraqi man gestured at a female troop by rubbing his fingers together. The gesture meant friendship. Situations like this can lead to misunderstanding in the volatile war-zone.

"An 18-year-old who joins the military might be in a foreign land for the first time and think that everyone does it like we do in America," says Marine Lt. Christopher Seeley.

We've got our fair share of FPS titles, how about a few First Person Interaction games? Civilians learn how to interact with various types of people. Because Lieutenant, it's not only new recruits that think that way.

More Here [Wired]