Games that inspire situational awareness

[The_Next_Generation]

Hey guys!

I am a student at Georgia Tech, and I just joined the "Humans vs. Zombies" campus-wide game. The goal of the game is to avoid being tagged by zombies (obviously). "Humans" where yellow bandanas on their arms, and "zombies" where them on their necks/heads. The game starts with one zombie who is disguised as a human on day one, and the fun continues from there

After talking with some of the founders about what inspired them to bring this to Tech they told me that it was to help new students (many of which are international) develop a sense of situational awareness, as our campus is located in downtown Atlanta.

After talking with some other people, I learned that several towns across the USA sponsor similar games (though not "zombies" specifically). I think this sort of game is an excellent way to practice your awareness-skills, how about you guys?

It would be cool to hear about a gun club doing something like this.

- TNG

 

[Lunie]

It's more common on college campuses than you might think, and many have been doing them for years.

 

[The_Next_Generation]

Lunie, you are right. I searched around online and found several other campus-based groups that do the same thing.

And why wouldn't you want to feed the engineers??

 

[Lunie]

http://www.pibweb.com/eng.html Are some possibilities...

Others could include:

Please, don't feed the engineer's ego.

Please, don't feed the engineers. (Or they may come back.)

Etc.

 

[Skribs]

I have one at work: Please do not feed the technicians as they are kept on a strict diet of doritos and birthday cake.

I've never done anything like this, but I do believe that any game which promotes situational awareness, be it a real-life simulation like this, or a virtual experience, is a good thing. Many video games just promote running around, but some actually require you to pay attention to what is going on. These are the ones I find fun, and I feel better off as a result.

 

[Texan Scott]

We used to have a good one for teaching each other not to let anyone sneak up behind them called "Wedgie". We also had one for forcing people to be accountable for safety and retention of an object called "Carry the Rock". My favorite was for teaching people not to sleep on duty, called "Crazy Sergeant Scott Will Draw Things on your Face". Good times.

 

[Double_J]

yep, we played games like that for years. This was long before the current "zombie" craze. Many good times, and lots of Oh SH______T moments when you did not pay attention.

And please feed the engineers...we like cookies, cake, pizza, coffee, ok everything. Technicians on the other hand can only be fed cake and pizza. (I say that because I spent a lot of years as a tech before jumping over the wall to engineer. much better eats. lol)

 

[bikerdoc]

At 64 I am too old to play The Z word nonsense.
But I take situational awareness seriously. When out and about either alone or with wife or friends. I will say in a whisper, _____________( fill in the blank) at 3 o clock, or whatever position. The rules are the other person says I got em, or thanks If not noticed.
(honor system)
TEXAN SCOTT, you were kind, this old school SGT would kick you in the gonads. That was back in the day before kinder gentler

 

[Fred Fuller]

We really do need to keep this thread on track and on target, as it has several influences that might too easily cause it to wander outside the lines. It's a useful insight into the situation as reported at GT and some other places, but given the nature of the topics covered here we need to keep it serious, please.

 

[HDCamel]

I played something similar back in high school. We called it "Assassin". Everyone got a target and everyone was a target. The goal was to hit your target with a balled up sock while avoiding getting hit yourself.

 

[MyGreenGuns]

PAINTBALL!!

Not close quarters, indoor stuff.

We used to play in a large wooded area with a small group.

I used to 'hunt' specific people who always seemed to be focused on the end objective (capture the flag).

It was always a good feeling when you realize the birds got quiet, so you get quiet, then someone crawls past you on their belly.

 

[Blackstone]

There's an assassins guild game at my university. Each player is given five other assassins as targets - all they are told is their name, college and subject. You can use any sort of "weapon", such as a rubberband gun, water gun, a pen labelled 'knife', you can use your imagination, just nothing real, or nothing that looks real and might alarm members of the public/those not involved in the game. Basically, last man standing wins. It did promote some dodgy behaviour, such as breaking into rooms, but was good fun nonetheless.

 

[beatledog7]

We played a similar game when I was an undergrad: "Murder in the Theater." One of our regular players had after hours access to the immense, selectively lighted, and intricately laid out theater building.

One player was selected as the murderer, but it was done by drawing cards from a deck so nobody but the murderer knew who it was. Everyone dispersed, and the murderer's role was to "kill" as many people as possible before he could be successfully identified by a pair of players. A delay of a minute or two was always in place to keep the killer from simply wiping out the group before the player could fan out.

No weapons of any kind were used--a simple touch was enough to kill. Once killed, a player became a Zombie and returned to base to await the next round.

To catch the killer, two players had to team up, hold hands, find the murderer, and jointly accuse him. If they were right, the murderer was caught and the round ended. The only way to conclude a round was for the murderer to kill all but one other player (meaning he could not be successfully accused).

You can imagine how this game built SA. The only way to know who was the murderer was to see him kill, but knowing it was not the same as convincing someone else. A supposedly zombified player could easily be the murderer; so could a player who tries to convince you that he's seen so and so kill. It was a game of trust nobody, suspect everyone, but you could never catch the killer without eventually trusting someone. Sometimes a round with 8-10 players would last hours.

 

[JustinJ]

"Humans" where yellow bandanas on their arms, and "zombies" where them on their necks/heads.

The problem i see is the game may encourage people to miss the forest to see a tree. Encouraging people to actively look for one specific characteristic may create a sort of tunnel vision.

 

[Noah]

My brothers and I play airsoft hiding in the woods. Usually we'll have 1 or 2 people hiding for ambush and 1 or 2 looking for them. I very quickly got a lot better at using cover for concealment and spotting well camouflaged people. Granted, my brother is still way better than me- I remember walking by a bush, looking down, seeing an AK barrel with an orange tip slowly poking out towards my leg, hearing a few quick snap-whirs, and then feeling a few spots of pain on my calf!

I feel like playing airsoft is great practice and a ton a cheap fun, and helps distill brotherly aggression in a mostly painless way.

I agree with some previous comments that games like the OP's might hurt overall SA and cause tunnel vision, but I would still say it would do more good than harm and sounds like a lot of fun!

 

[Ryanxia]

That sounds pretty fun and a good mental exercise.