Training Simulation is not a Video Game

Oh, that’s just a video game.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard that comment, when someone stops at our trade show booth. But training simulation is not a video game.

Here’s why.

About “Fun” and “Work” and “Serious Games”

In his book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer [1], Mark Twain described “turning” work into play when Tom persuades his friend Ben to want to paint Aunt Polly’s fence, and then pays Tom to let him do it. Back in 1884.

Much more recently, there’s been lots of news about adding elements of “play” to “work”. Practically, what’s called “gamification” typically incorporates video game “principles” to make training more “compelling” by improving “engagement”. And that’s how we come to have what are called “serious games”, i.e. video games with a “purpose”, to differentiate them from video games that are just for “fun” [2].

There are even “simulator games” that you “play” by pretending to be a farmer in the cabin of a tractor, or a truck driver in the cabin of an eighteen-wheeler. And for many people, this is indeed “fun”.

Well what about training simulation? Is that the same, or different?  Let’s find out.

Different Objectives

Daniel Pink makes the observation in [3] that “Our basic nature is to be curious and self-directed”. And although video games and training simulation are both “absorbing” for that very reason, their objectives are different.

Video games are all about having fun.  Training simulation, on the other hand, is all about, well, training and for our purposes, that means developing a skill.

Are you (still) having fun? Then keep playing (and forget about eating or sleeping).

But are you doing simulated work well enough? If not, then keep at it. If yes, then stop right now, because it’s time to “graduate” to real work, and continue your training at the controls of real heavy equipment.

Different Motivations

Video games are all about top scores and winning.

Training simulation, on the other hand, is all about, well, training. So you work and work and work until your simulation results meet the “benchmarks” defined by your training program. In that sense, you are just “competing” with yourself, because what counts is achieving target proficiency.  Remember: the ultimate “win” is “leaving behind” the simulated world for the real world.

Different “Work”

At the heart of typical video games is the exploration of an imaginary world to “discover” characters, weapons, treasures, etc. that help you “keep going” (and not “die”). To that end, there are “puzzles” that once “solved” are “solved” forever, requiring no additional effort. And the “work” proceeds based on trial and error that is risk-free: if something bad happens, go back a step, or start over again and begin a new “life”. For that reason, you proceed at your own pace, typically as quickly as you can.

Training simulation, on the other hand, is all about, well, training and unlike a puzzle that’s unsolved until it’s solved, a skill is developed over time, so you will (hopefully) go from doing something poorly to doing the same thing well, and that takes as much time … as it takes. This is often called “deliberate practice”.

Different Simulation Graphics and Physics

When it comes to heavy equipment, interaction is at the heart of training simulation, including:

• how a pallet slides off the forks of a simulated lift truck
• how a load sways as it’s moved by a simulated crane
• how material (dirt, rock, etc.) falls out of the bucket of a simulated excavator

And when that simulated interaction is sufficiently realistic, there is training transfer, i.e. what you learn in the simulated world truly helps in the real world.

Well on today’s smartphones, you can certainly have fun playing an excavator video game with your thumbs, but that won’t help you learn to operate a real excavator. And that’s because the simulation graphics and physics are “cartoon-ish” (and, of course, you don’t operate real excavators using thumbs).

Well what about playing an excavator video game on a PC, with joysticks and pedals? If the joysticks and pedals have the right “look and feel”, then you can certainly be learning about the operator controls in the cabin of a real excavator. But to be fair, that’s just the beginning, in the same way that learning to turn a steering wheel to the left and right is just the beginning of learning how to drive a car.  And if the simulation graphics and physics aren’t sufficiently realistic, then there’s little more that you can learn.

That’s why training simulation, on a PC with perhaps the very same joysticks and pedals, requires simulation graphics and physics that faithfully reproduce interaction and, as we’ll see in the next section, comprehensive feedback.

Different Feedback

Feedback in the video game is “immediate”: flashing lights and “happy” sounds!

Did you find the treasure? Did you “die”? And there’s typically a consolidated “score” that makes it easy to compare how you’ve done to everyone else. Is my score the top score? If yes, then I won! (Remember that motivation comes from competition.)

In contrast, feedback in training simulation is typically presented only after the simulated task is accomplished, in addition to anything you see and hear along the way (engine throttling up/down, collisions, etc.).

And that feedback must be comprehensive, with “Performance Indicators” to measure how quickly and how carefully the simulated work is performed, for example:

• how many times did the pallet (accidentally) slide off the forks of the simulated lift truck, to teach you to pick up properly (forks perpendicular, centered, etc.) and then tilt back
• how much did the load sway as it was moved by the simulated crane, to teach you to move loads in a controlled way, so with little to no sway
• how “far” material falls out of the bucket of the excavator into the truck box, to teach you to keep the bucket low (to just clear the sideboard of the truck) to better control how the truck is loaded

There’s no single “score” because, in the real world, working too quickly can mean working dangerously, so training simulation teaches you to work carefully first, and then quickly, thanks to lots of drill-the-practice. So you begin by being careful and slow … until you’re careful and fast. (Remember: you’re training to meet benchmarks.)

The Bottom Line

Video games are all about having fun. Training simulation is all about … training.

But as you continue your simulator-based training, you’ll (hopefully) discover that doing better and better (as made evident by improving simulation results) means having fun too!

To comment on anything you read here, please write to “info@simlog.com” with “blog” in the Subject, to direct your message to me.

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References

[1] Twain, M., The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, American Publishing, 1884.

[2] Brown, A., “Taking Games Seriously”, Military Training & Simulation Magazine, April 14, 2021, https://www.halldale.com/articles/18141-taking-gaming-seriously.

[3] Pink, D., Drive: the surprising truth about what motivates us, Riverhead Books, 2012.