It has been known that surgeons are using the Wii technology to train for their profession, evidently making them learn up to six times faster. Next year, holders of another honorable profession, the police, Swedish police to be exact, will be able to use a PC game to train for difficult situations, a project that will come to a cost of 3 million Euros.

The project, called SeGIMT (Serious Games for Incident Management Training) will be developed by a total of 9 companies and schools, including Saab, Chalmers University, University of Skövde and Lindholmen Science Park. Per Backlund, CEO at Sevenatus has previously developed a simulator to help the Swedish rescue service, using the Source engine from Half-Life 2. “The idea is to use different gaming concepts. Gaming technology used for visualization, but most importantly gameplay - Those kinds of components can create a traning situation that is motivating”, Backlund says.

SeGIMT has not released any specific details about the project, but it is said to integrate knowledge from real events. Since simulation in real life is difficult and expensive, a game, quite possibly a RTS, is said to help the police in future crisis situation.

The Swedish police received a lot of critique after the European Council meeting in Gothenburg the summer of 2001. More than 50 000 people had gathered for a peaceful demonstration but the situation got out of control and ended with over 500 people being arrested and one man being shot by the police.