Well I just started my internship at the MOVES Institute and I'm trying to come up with a project.

The Institute is funded by the navy (It's on the Naval Postgraduate School grounds here in Monterey) and it was founded to merge education with games, mainly computer ones.

You may also know them as the creators of America's Army.

Anyway, my partner and I have come up with the idea:
What about a game that played like SIm City, but took place inside of a cell (a living cell, not a prison cell). WOuld you enjoy playing it (at least instead of going to a biology lecture on how cells work)?

Please note, this is serious and I only want serious replies. Questions, comments, or criticisms are welcome.

uhhh......

"Uhhhhhhhh" what?

doesn't really sound like a game...

I dunno, sounds lame.

I mean, cell's dont have jobs, make money. Try to get *** or have any leasure time.. they just, do their thang

So you'd rather sit through a bio lecture than learn it through a game?

And for whoever polled "No", say why.

I think would enjoy it for a short while. There is some potential here, but I think I would burn out of it, sure there is allot of interesting stuff in cellular Biology, but how in depth are you going to go? Are you going to have us placing Sodium pumps in the cell wall to keep the kemeosmotic (sic) pressure right that also increase the demand for ATP units to ensure operation? Over all I think this would be a limited game, you can only go so far in playing with something as abstract as a cell before you get board. I would give this game 2-4 hours play time off hand, plus more if it is well done.

Maybe if it had some hot mitosis action :p

Well I mean, what made Sim City so appealing then? It's basically the same concept, but using a cell instead.

Perhaps I didn't make it clear, but this would be used in a classroom setting to teach (probably Bio 1 students) about cellular biology.

Please, cybrid, I would like serious replies.

maybe if it was a first person shooter... maybe a white blood cell with a M16 during an infection

maybe even make it play like a BF1942 type game...

You can't just tell us your making a Sim-City based game but instead using cells.. atleast let us hear you out on some of your ideas. What would these cells do?? How would the interact and grow or multiply. Other than that your asking for lame replies, give us something to comment.

Don't get your knickers in a twist.

I dunno, it just wouldn't be very fun, because you'd KNOW it was a sim city clone. What made Sim City so fun was its originality. That coupled with ownsome gameplay, is the win.

Also, I didn't care for AA too much, and I don't know how much they'd merge the realism over to here. Though AA was for some a wonderful game, I didn't even get to the online portion because I had to "train". Wow, how LAME is that.

If they incorporated anything like that in this game, well I'd quite certainly just laugh and move on.

And to be certain, realize this would NOT replace a bio lecture--it would merely add ot it. The teacher would probably still give a lecture, just use this to reinforce it. So in other words--why do it?

Though, it would be interesting. "The Lone Protein", an FPS. :p

That's the thing, I don't have any details yet, I was wondering if the idea seemed interesting.

It sounds sort of meh at this point

Well, I like the idea... I still think it's the best idea for edu-tainment I've ever heard.

For all those saying "Welll i don't think it would be very fun", I think you are missing the point. This is not supposed to be the next Sim-City, it's simply an educational tool for biology students. Obviously, a game like this would be better then just taking notes off an overhead or whatever.

But the point of edu-tainment is to be fun. It wouldn't be much better. At least from an overhead, you don't have to care about what you're doing, and you can go over the notes later.

If it isn't fun, what's the point in playing it? Might as well get the other work done.

I suggest a game like Black & White to base it on.

Might be funny if you make it really well. SimCity platform might be too static for the purpose, but surely you could develop it to a more dynamic direction.

Of course my opinion could be biased since I'm a biochemist...

I think it's an excellent idea. You could even go as far as having more advanced game modes, like highly-specialized cells. Ocular cells, or muscle, maybe neurons. Establishing the basic necessities to keep the cells alive and then develop the specialized function of the cell.

I would rather hear a lecture, than be mislead to think that cells have jobs and such. You can't really make a game of it, they just sit there and split up.


EDIT: Unless you mean there are little people living inside said cells

EDIT2: ...Unless it's like Ozzy and Drix. Then I might play it >_>