Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

Hello RealPolice Members,

Today I impose you with a question. I have been talking with many people trying to get ideas and advice from law enforcement officers. I am working on devolping a Emergency Services Simulator. This would be a large (Computer) game that would contain Police, Fire, and EMS. All in one game. It would be 100% first person. This means it would look like you see in real life. You as a police officer in the game would start of as a "Beat Officer" you are on the streets and you are a rookie. You would only get calls that are within walking distance of you. Although you could walk anywhere allowed by your patrol area.

After making a couple of arrest and you start to move up in the department you may be
promoted and may be assigned a Patrol Car. When you receive a patrol car you gain
access to a lot of new items. You will be able to use everything in your patrol car. The
Radios, Sirens, Lights, MDC, Radar Gun (Mounted and Hand Held) are all available to use and you have full control. Whether you are using the "Directional Bar" at a accident scene in town to direct traffic or using the Wail or Yelp siren to clear traffic at a interception when responding to a Code 3 call. That is all up to you. If you pull over something you must actually get there driver license and come back to the vehicle and get on the MDC and run there name or license number. This will make the game more realistic then it telling you if they have warrants. Also each vehicle in the city will have a different plate number. Some may have no plates. Some may have plates that do not belong with that vehicle or expired plates. You never know what situation you may encounter.

The purpose of this situation is to gain advice and/or (Positive/Negative) Criticism.


I am looking for Actual Law Enforcement Officers to reply here giving me suggestions or idea about the game. Or if you are truly interested in the game and would like more information or would like to help on the team to reply here.


Thanks,
Payton.

Couple of pesos in no particular order:

1. I don't think you'd make any money off this game. You're targeting an extremely small group. (e.g. why would someone play this when he/she could play grand theft auto?)

2. I don't think you realize the enormity of the task you've assigned yourself. LE work is too varied and too vast a subject to be properly represented or encompassed by a (supposedly) complete game.

3. I don't think you've got the qualifications to make a game about LE work - just from a knowledge (or lack of) of the subject matter to begin with (not even getting into the programming and business aspects).

It's not a total far-fetched idea. There was an old 8-bit VGA game called "Police Quest" way back in the day that sounds very much like what you're suggesting. With modern day computers being literally hundreds and thousands times more powerful than the late 80's and early 90's, a game like you're suggesting would potentially be doable.

If you look at games like True Crime, Grand Theft Auto, The Sims, etc... you can get an idea of how to design your game. I was actually working on a very similar idea years ago when I had a couple friends who were getting into video game design and programming. Nothing really ever came to fruition though.

Good luck.

If realism is what you're going for in the game (making it as much like being a patrol cop as you can) then I would not be interested in playing that game. I do that for real for 40+ hours a week and have no desire to play SimCop when I get home.

I like video games because they provide an escape from every day life. Playing game where I have to find cars to stop, run license plates, record checks, and bust drivers for warrants holds no appeal to me because I don't need a simulator to know what that's like.

I bet there are not many pilots that play PC flight simulator games for the same reason.

-Citicop.

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yeah, how "realistic" would you want a game to get? for LE, what if you chose the "wrong" place to eat and now you're in gastrointestinal distress? what about when one of your shirt stays pops loose? what about when you go out clubbing after work and you get into an altercation with your partners over whose turn it is to be the wingman?

Seriously though, take games like call of duty/modern warfare - now imagine trying to make something like that with absolutely no military experience/training except what you've seen on TV or in movies and then doing it by yourself...

Why would we as LEOs play a video game when we "play the game" every day in REAL LIFE?

Why would we as LEOs play a video game when we "play the game" every day in REAL LIFE?

I don't even want to watch cop movies or TV shows, that's not escape for me. If I want to play a video game I'll go with Modern Warfare, Mass Effect or Resident Evil.

I don't even want to watch cop movies or TV shows, that's not escape for me. If I want to play a video game I'll go with Modern Warfare, Mass Effect or Resident Evil.

But think about the new options if you could program your own scenario:

Option A (the one you actually did): Politely coerce the agitated, aggressive and belligerent drug addict subject into surrendering with hands on encounter that leaves you with bruises and muscle strains. He swears at you constantly and files excessive force complaint.
Option B (that you enter into video game): Beat agitated, agressive and billgerent drug addict into submission with baton after hitting him with cruiser and take incapacitated subject to medical center. Two days of fishing while being paid by dept and they find your UOF justified.. Subject writes apology and praising letter to your supervisor from the intensive care ward. He fully recovers and credits you for turning his life around.

... or Resident Evil.

+1,000,000

IMO, a zombie outbreak type simulation training game is where it's at!

They have a mod for Grand Theft Auto IV that allow you to do some police work, just Google LCPDFR.