okansas.blogspot.com

okansas.blogspot.com
Occassional thoughts about orienteering

Wednesday, July 24, 2002

Can a video game make you a better orienteer?

There are a number of computer game versions of orienteering. WinOL is the one I'm most familiar with. I downloaded a demo version a couple of years ago and played around with it a bit.

Can an orienteering video game make you a better orienteer? If you play WinOL for 10-15 minutes a day will it do you any good? Will it do you any harm?

WinOL is like orienteering in several ways. You relate an image to a map. You can orient the map (which makes it a lot easier to relate the map and the terrain). If you get lost, it can be a challenge to relocate.

WinOL is unlike orienteering in two important ways. When you use WinOL you're not doing anything phsyical and you're not outdoors. Sitting at a computer screen is nothing like running in the woods.

I suspect that playing an orienteering computer game might be a way to practice "armchair orienteering." So, it might help you become a better orienteer. If you think it will help you, it might work (something like a placebo effect).

posted by Michael | 8:17 PM

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