In all bluntness, Legacy Interactive did a garbage job with the Emergency Room series of games. They had an idea that could have been great.... and blew it.

Software Toolworks, on the other hand, could have had a gold mine with the Life & Death series of games... if they hadn't given up on it. Life & Death II, in fact, was left buggy and almost unplayable.

Comes now my idea.

At the beginning of the game, you choose whether you want to follow the path of a nurse or a doctor.

You can actually play out going through a med school first. This is a tutorial to help you learn the basics from how to perform tasks to learning terminology. A player can take special tests to skip the entire tutorial or just sections of the tutorial.

Another aspect of actually playing the tutorial will be the aid in helping you decide on a medical specialty. From General Practice, to ER/Trauma medicine, to Surgery (my favorite). Possibly other specialties as well.

Another aspect of the tutorial will be to prepare you for interaction with others. If you are going to be a doctor, you need to learn how to work in unison with the nurses and vice versus. While there have been depictions of one side being more important than the other, the fact is, no individual could perform ALL the jobs of both professionals. Also, it would make for an interesting multiplayer type game, where a hospital could be popluated by doctors and nurses, all trying to work in unison to keep the hospital afloat. Would make for some interesting interaction socially as well as trying to work together.

What will make this game shine as well will be detail and gameplay. Gone are the days of the cartoon images of Life & Death I & II. Gone are the days of clicking images of equipment such as in the Emergency Room series.

This is the 21st century and we're a mere 4 or so months away from quad core CPUs. Time to really show off graphic and simulation quality.

While the slow pace of General Practice parts of the game will be nice to work with your investigative talents of medicine, it will be the incredible detail and "hands on" work of surgery that will interest me the most. And the gameplay and graphics quality have to be high. Following all policies and procedures for preparation for any medical task as well as performing all appropriate diagnostic measures will be important.

I'm not to familiar with current technology, but I think the simulation can be heightened by using input devices that help simulate the experience. And having the simulation react to the use of those devices as well.

For example, a pen like device with a pressure sensitive, spring loaded tip would make for an interesting tool to simulate various procedures. The spring loaded tip could allow recognition of depth, for example, in giving patients shots as well as using scalpels by determining the depth of the cut. The pen device could also be used in conjunction with a pad so the simulation of cutting during surgery or other procedures with a scalpel could be simulated.

There are a variety of directions one could take this game. Indeed, the simulation could, if in an advanced enough format, be used with actual students interested in the medical field. A form of early training that, at least in it's early stage, prepare them for the emotional experience as well as the technical experience required to becoming a medical professional. Imagine, for example, the surgery form of the simulation being played on a touch sensitive, very large flat panel monitor, laid down, screen up. Using the pen simulation device mentioned, the students can appear to actually perform surgical procedures ON the virtual patient.

Now this is something I'm anxious to see come to fruition.