Hi, I am doing my Mphil in electrical engineering at the University of the West Indies. The area is computer simulation games for learning/teaching purposes. I am looking for ideas in this area to implement, and of course I thought that expert games programmers could help me out. One idea I had was to implement a multiuser system where users can collaborate in groups to interact with an enginnering related simulation game ( in essence all games are simulations ... ) across a computer network. Maybe I am deriving too much inspiration from movies like The Matrix, The Thirteenth Floor and Existenz But I am really looking for some interesting and innovative ideas. Imagine that you were a student and you were offered the oppertunity to learn in such an environment. How would you want such a system to be? So, taking the view of game programmers, and as a user, I am really hoping to get some great ideas! Also if you know of any internet resources in this area ( sim games research and human computer interaction, cutting edge games programming etc. ) then I would be most grateful if you kindly let me know about them. Thanks a whole lot! Umesh Persad upersad@tstt.net.tt

What sort of level are you aiming this simulation at? School? College? University?

There was a game out not so long ago (called Mindrover or something like that) in which players designed a robot vehicle and then sent it into an arena to battle other robots. Maybe you could take something like this, adapt it to suit your purposes, and add a cooperative play mode where people can design robots in teams. The end result might be something a bit like Robot Wars (in case you havent seen it, its a TV show in which teams of people build robots and then smash each other up in an arena)
The tricky parts would be designing an editor detailed enough to suit your purposes, and writing a very accurate physics engine to handle all the different possibilities.

Tanks for the geat idea. I think that most likely I''ll focus on learning at the University level.