Featured Image Credit: BBC Click
Topics: US News, Technology, Gaming
Ali Condon
Immersing yourself in a virtual reality world sounds all fun and games, until you're dropped into your living nightmare.
That's what US teachers are encouraged to try out in a simulator created by the Army and Homeland Security Department prepare them for school shootings. Take a look:
The 'game' is called EDGE, or Enhanced Dynamic Geo-Social Environment, and it cost $5.6 million to be made.
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Initially, EDGE had been used to help train fire and police departments - the go-to first responders - for school shootings.
But in 2018, it was announced that the simulator would be updated and made available to teachers to train them for the day they pray never comes.
In EDGE, you can play three different roles; the teacher, the shooter, and the police officer.
While the shooter's aim is to randomly kill as many targets as possible, the teacher's objective is to calm panicked pupils and get them to a safe space, while the officer must find and kill the shooter.
The 3D game includes panicked teachers and students who try to flee the scene for their safety, the sounds of children screaming, and loud gunshots.
Voluntarily putting yourself in a situation that you hope never comes true doesn't sound too appealing, but game engineers didn't build the game to make it fun.
Chief engineer of EDGE Tamara Griffith told Gizmodo: "With teachers, they did not self-select into a role where they expect to have bullets flying near them.
"Unfortunately, it’s becoming a reality. And so we want to give them that chance to understand what options are available to them and what might work well for them."
The simulator also gives players the opportunity to try out different tools like automated locks on doors and intercom systems to show teachers what sort of security options might help them out best in a real mass shooting.
When it was first announced that the simulator would be rolled out among teachers, the overall response was... disappointment.
Spending over $5 million on creating a simulator to help the reaction to school shootings rather than using that money to take more preventative measures didn't exactly go down well.
One person tweeted at the time: "The United States is finally addressing its school mass shooting problem by strictly regulating weapons like a sensib- Oh. Instead they're creating a tactical FPS experience to train teachers."
Another noted: "Call me crazy but the idea of the government spending millions to build a virtual reality school shooting simulator, for better or worse, is dark!"
In 2022, there were 647 mass shootings in the United States, according to Gun Violence Archive, resulting in more than 44,000 deaths due to gun violence.
Nonetheless, the simulator is now finished and available to vetted organisations to train staff for their nightmare scenario.