Episode 20: Putting Console Controllers on Your Resume

Unlocking Games

We’ve talked often before about how games can use a GUI to teach you a skill or task useful in real life. But is another angle on this idea true too? Is expertise using the buttons on a console controller transferable to actual job skills? Militaries around the world certainly seem to think so. More broadly, it might make sense to design interfaces around skills and aptitudes that users have already learned elsewhere. Gamers often learn how to use a controller at a very young age, when their brains are more plastic. So let’s take advantage of that.

Notes:

• Example of a 3D Mouse
• The Origin of Spacewar!, J.M. Graetz, 1981, Creative Computing Magazine
• Consolidation of Motor Memory, Krakauer & Shadmehr, 2006, Trends in Neurosciences
• A matter of time: rapid motor memory stabilization in childhood, 2014, Developmental Science, Esther Adi-Japha
• The transfer of skill from a computer game trainer to actual flight, 1992, Daniel Gopher
• Raytheon Announces Revolutionary New ‘Cockpit’ For Unmanned Aircraft
• Raytheon taps video games to pilot drones, Business Week, 2008 (cached at archive.org)
• Game Controllers Driving Drones, Nukes
• Syrian Rebels Now Have a Tank Powered by a Playstation Controller

Games mentioned in this episode

• Duck Hunt
• Spacewar!
• Wii Sports
• Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
• Tearaway: Unfolded
• Super Mario Brothers
• Space Fortress
• Asteroids
• Steel Battalion
• Battletech: Firestorm