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Peace game to help train disaster responders
Written by: lrenders
Video game technologies have long been used in simulation-based training for military operations, but thanks to researchers at Duke University they could soon come in handy in the world of disaster response. In collaboration with Virtual Heroes, a U.S.-based game developer, the team has developed 'Virtual Peace', a simulation game to train the next generation of emergency response and international negotiators. Tim Lenoir initiated the project after becoming intrigued by the idea of using the same technology that encourages cooperation in resolving conflict. The end result is the award-winning project 'Virtual Peace', a simulation game based on the real-life emergency that followed Hurricane Mitch in 1998, one of the most powerful and deadliest Atlantic hurricanes on record which devastated Honduras and Nicaragua. Participants in the game are assigned roles that represent governments, U.N. agencies and aid groups involved in emergency response and recovery following the hurricane. The conditions for the disaster relief operation mimic those after Mitch, and expose participants to the challenges of providing effective assistance within the limitations of time and available resources. The game offers a learning experience far removed from traditional face-to-face role playing, thanks to its immersive experience, and the ability for instructors to change the situation and create unexpected crises, as well as marking points in the game for further discussion. And the technology could have far wider scope than pure training. The possibility of users joining the game from different physical locations and customising the simulation could make it an attractive tool, for humanitarian aid organisations. "In my experience in an emergency situation, you don't always know who is doing what and you may not be able to reach stakeholders at one time," says Afghanistan-born Sharif Azami, who worked for the Canadian International Development Agency and Oxfam before becoming a Rotary World Peace Fellow. "With this tool it would be a lot easier to effectively coordinate and prioritise stakeholders' initiatives."
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12 Feb 2009 17:03:20 GMT
Use of vido technology to train volunteers in relief operation managing natural calamities is a great idea to teach them how the real situation will be in a board room. It should be also used to train aid workers in a human conflict stuation where they will face a double danger to their life from attcking forces and unexpected weather changes in some regions when saving the lifes of inocent civilians. Many of these aid workers who goes to work in different countries in conflict areas are like Gods messengers helping defensless civilians in difficult times. There are history of many of these aid workers expeled from countries threaten and getting killed by govts supported armed groups becaue they don't want the world to know the civilians suffering in their own counry. A vido game highlighting all these dangers to aid workes will give them an idea how dangerous is and what are the real dangers in helping inocent civilians in some co! nflict countries like Serbia Sudan Srilaka of Burma.