Let’s face facts here: being sent to fight a war sucks. Being sent to cover a war, or some other volatile hot spot, is just as bad. As much respect as I have for our troops, you’re not going to see me risking my ass in Afghanistan for a story in the L.A. Times.

For those that do want to put their lives on the line, however, at least one journalist is making the training process a bit more accessible. Tony Maniaty, who worked as a war correspondent covering the civil war in East Timor in 1975, has come up with an idea to create a video game that simulates actual war coverage. The intention is to help train newbie journalists that plan on going out to report in such dangerous locations, and hopefully cut down on the number of media casualties.

According to the BBC, the concept was apparently thought of when Maniaty was watching his two sons play Far Cry 2. In particular, there was a scene where the player has to talk his way past a roadblock instead of shooting through. The proverbial lightbulb then lit up in his head, where instead of using a gun, the player would use a video camera.

After getting the idea, Maniaty contacted the filmmaker Robert Connolly and game designer Morgan Jaffit to come up with a proof-of-concept demo. Now, the project seems to be making its way as a full blown title. Two different versions are being planned for release: a retail version for those “turned off by the violence in some FPS games,” and an instructional version meant to be used by teachers and those unable to afford the training offered at larger news corporations. The title of the game is set to be “Warco,” which was the nickname given to war correspondents during WWII.

A training tool like this is definitely something that can be useful for rookie writers. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, almost 900 media workers have been killed while on duty since 1992. War coverage is no joke. Sure, Anderson Cooper may make it look easy, largely because he’s the journalistic equivalent of Chuck Norris. Even he isn’t untouchable, though.

Obviously this isn’t a true replacement for actual on-site training, but if it helps to cut down on unnecessary deaths, then it’s all the better. The military already uses video games as training tools for its soldiers, and there are more cases of them being used for learning coming up all the time. It only makes sense for media to be next in line. Hell, if they had such things back when I was taking Journalism courses in college, I probably would have enjoyed them a lot more.

I’m still not going out to cover Afghanistan, though.

[via BBC]