Brain in a VATSIM

Some of you need to go read the latest news-post at Penny Arcade today. It’s not written by one of the two regulars there (the guys who do the cartoons) — it’s a guest-post by a game-developer, about possibly the weirdest online alternate-reality gaming culture I’ve ever heard of.

There are a bunch of people in their basements playing Flight Simulator, and a bunch of people in their basements pretending to be air traffic controllers, running an application that simulates a radarscope. All wearing USB headsets, they are connected to a big network called VATSIM where they talk to each other and simulate realistic air traffic procedures as accurately as possible. And some of them are drinking.

And there’s more.

LARPers ['Live-Action Role Players' -T] may spend an entire weekend in the forest, but this crowd reads thick FAA manuals for fun.

Wow, just … wow. I’m dumbfounded. That’s so amazing/hilarious/awesome/scary.