Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Videogame Driving Skills Don't Apply In Real Life

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the neither-does-katamari-damacy dept.

the digital nomad writes "When driving cars in videogames, you're often forced to see everything from a third-person perspective. Now, what would happen if you tried to drive while limited to that odd view in real life? These folks decided to find out."

5 of 241 comments (clear)

  1. Night Driver FTW by plover · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I still credit the training I received for playing long hours of Night Driver with saving my life in 1981. I was cresting a hill late at night on a two-lane country road when I was suddenly faced with an oncoming car in my lane. Using the exact same right-left swerve that I practiced so many times in the video game, I avoided a head-on collision by hitting the shoulder just in time, and got off the shoulder before sliding down the ditch.

    The real question should be "Would I have still missed him had I not played so much Night Driver?" There's no way to answer that, of course, but for now I'll stick with the "my anecdotal evidence runs counter to your theory" attitude.

    --
    John
    1. Re:Night Driver FTW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      same thing here - driving skill doesn't apply because the input controller is totally different, but the vehicle handling experience is pure gold.

      the problem is that in the current driving school they teach you to drive in the fairly non standard conditions, at low speed and with good grip. you never get to experience what a car will do when understeering, oversteering, skidding, or on low traction surfaces. that on the assumption that you should always drive safely.

      but you can foresee everything and always be safely driving - going on 20mph on interstates is unsafe as going at 150mph, as you're a sitting duck waiting to be tramped from the random right-overtaking truck.

      the only way you get to experience the rubber effect of a car suddenly recovering from oversteering is in games. and that saved my ass:

      I was overtaking a car, he was at 40mph and the road speed limit was 55, so I started overtaking him when suddenly one car coming out from a garage invaded the lane I was using for overtaking (which was totally clear without any other car incoming)

      I hit the brakes with to much force, while turning to return into my lane, and that caused my smal subcompact car to oversteer and this is where a gamer experience came into place: instead of panicking and braking even more, I downshifted and floored the throttle, while counter steering, preventing the car to spin out. which is still something that an unexperienced driver could pull out, but then I anticipated the sudden grip regain putting the steering wheels straight so that when the suspension rebounded from the sudden force now again affecting the wheels, the car was on a neuter configuration and didn't had any sudden change of direction.

      by then I had slowed enough to safely get behind the car I was overtaking and dodging the one that invaded the lane. and this happened in a fraction of a second - you can't think about this sort of stuff, you need to have the experience of how car handles while on extreme situations and you just don't get that on real life.

      sure, if I had that playing need for spede by now I would be dead, thank god I played a lot of simulators of low power cars, much like mine

    2. Re:Night Driver FTW by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I know you've joking about Rad Racer but it reminds me of a game that really did help me once.

      So as for the main title, i.e. @"Videogame Driving Skills Don't Apply In Real Life" ... I totally disagree with this idea. Games really do help.

      When I went to America (for the 1st time), I got a hire car. Problem was I had never driven on what I consider the wrong side of the road! (I'm from the UK). That plus I had never driven an Automatic car and I had been awake for over 24 hours straight, which made my first faltering few miles scarily interesting (to say the least) until I happily found the first hotel, which I jumped at the chance of stopping at.

      The next day I took a cab into the city and during my initial exploring I by luck found an arcade and so I spent over 2 hours solidly playing Crazy Taxi, driving like a psycho around every road. After 2 hours solid my brain was reprogrammed enough so that I automatically took left and right turns correctly for American roads etc... I wanted to get to the point it was totally second nature for me to do the right thing.

      That game helped me so much. After that point it was automatic for me to drive ok on the roads and my 2 week holiday out there, I didn't even attempt to make one mistaken turning after my training on Crazy Taxi.

      So games really can be very helpful.

  2. Forced? No. by GPLDAN · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You were very rarely forced into 3rd person, it just gave you an advantage of situational awareness, wrt other cars and seeing into corners. And it was better, because the perspective of 1st person was so shit because of tech (640x480 and even 1024x768 does NOT cut it), and so now - take EA Need for Speed SHIFT or GT or Forza, those games give you working cockpits that still have enough resolution out the windscreen to see into corners and feel speed properly, and dirve in a more realistic manner.

    The death of 3rd person is coming, the tech is now here to simulate proper driving - so we are doing something in real life that was anachronistic to begin with....

  3. Re:WTF? by MartinSchou · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The other way around doesn't necessarily hold true. And even the best of the best can have problems against the hardcore gamers:

    Video

    This is a Danish language video, but it pitches Tom Kristensen, Mr. Le Mans, eight time winner (a record) in the 24 hour Le Mans, including six times in a row against a Danish hardcore gamer and national champion in GT for the PS2. Game is GT for PS2 on the Le Mans circuit.

    Granted, not exactly a fair match-up, as Tom doesn't have much (if any) experience in that game, but he manages to do a 3:23 lap, which is pretty much what he expected to do before they played. By comparison the qualifying times for the 2009 Le Mans was 3:22.888 for pole position.

    The gamer ended up at 3:15, which is an insane lap of Le Mans. Obviously not doable in real life, and I suspect most gamers would be scared shitless the first time they ended up in a situation where they feel the back-end sliding a bit, but the point remains - gamers can beat the pros at the games.