Hi, I'm an experimental psychologist interested in using games as a medium for the study of behaviour. I've had a go at something which passes as a game (just!) and which should produce results with some scientific value. It is based on well established principles that have been used in traditional laboratory studies of learning over many years. If you'd like to take a look it can be found at www.virtualpsyclab.net At the end there is a box for comments and if you've got anything to say, from a gaming or participant PoV you can add something there or contact me by email at the address on the virtualpsyclab site.

Chrs, Steve

Well, it is slightly scary, but only slightly for "artistic" effect. I should say though, no game characters, clones or otherwise, were actually hurt in the making of this game 

Thanks for the previous advice and to all who have had a go at Sgt PCMan (www.virtualpsyclab.net). Maybe I can ask for a bit more advice and issue a small challenge?

I've had quite a few people try this out and hardly any have been able to complete the experiment. This might be due to boredom or lack of motivation, it does take 25min, but everyone signs-up with their eyes open. However, due to the feedback I got, I suspect it may be due to task difficulty so I've put in a practise phase so participants can get the hang of the keyboard controls. Even so, it has to be said, the completion rate is dismal.

My question, is it really too hard? If so, can you think of a good way to help explain this to a non-gamer so they might be able to pick up the ideas more quickly. Maybe they could play another game with similar controls before starting - I could link them to it from my site.

My challenge, if you would like to try the game, can you complete it 100%? Obviously during development I know how this works so I have a distorted view of the difficulty level. It would be really useful to know that it is possible to play the game to completion when coming at it for the first time.

Chrs, Steve.