Race Against Reality

You can´t be frightened of making a mistake if there are no
consequences. Team Forza tried to solve this by having players pay-with
winnings-for the damage they incur. Perhaps not surprisingly, this doesn´t
incite the same kind of fear that the threat of paralysis will. The military has
a clever way of dealing with this problem in its combat simulators: pain. VirTra
Systems, which designs and builds training devices for the U.S. military,
incorporates something called Threat-Fire, a belt that zaps the â€player†with
80,000 volts of electricity when he screws up. â€The idea is to implement
psychological stress,†says Bob Ferris, president of VirTra Systems. â€It´s not
the same as the threat of death, but knowledge of a consequence he wishes to
avoid does affect the way a person handles himself.â€

Another key element of
realism absent from any racing game is the physical sense of motion, most
notably from G-forces. A race driver can experience up to four times the force
of gravity. Try turning your head when it feels like it weighs 60 pounds.

You´re not actually moving in Forza , of course, but training on the â€simâ€
clearly has a bearing on reality. Jeannette already knew the Braselton course
well, but DeVera had never laid eyes on it, and he fared well for someone who
doesn´t race for a living. â€It was a huge help to have a full day in different
cars, getting used to the track-even if it was a videogame,†he says. â€It was
real enough that it helped me find my apexes and braking points and kept me from
getting surprised.â€

While certainly there exist more robust ways of
replicating reality, Forza makes excellent use of the techno- logies you can
actually bring home: high- definition video and surround sound. Eventually,
predicts Ferris, â€We´re just going to tap into the brain, and the whole
simulation will occur there-no screens, no speakers.†Until then, if you´re
dying for a simulated experience more gripping than Forza , you could always join
the Air Force and ask for Threat-Fire detail. But before you enlist, it´s worth
appreciating the things you can do in games that you can´t get away with in
reality.

On that first day at Road Atlanta, Jeannette conducted a little
virtual experiment of his own. Spinning the wheel to the right, he dropped the
prototype racer into first gear and started massaging the pedal. Rendered smoke
poured off the tires and clouded the plasma screen as he cranked out digital
doughnuts. â€Couldn´t do this in real life!†the young racer exclaimed. â€Well,â€
he considered, â€I could. But I might get fired.â€

Popular Science
assistant editor Joe Brown has a tuner rocket of his own: a 1981 VW Rabbit with
a 350hp engine and 260,000 miles on it. It´s not in Forza .