He says his hobby of photographing vehicles progressed naturally into 3D modelling them for games. Modding is a way to re-build empathy and understanding with the women and men in uniform.įellow modder Matthew, a South Londoner who plays as ObsidianGames, says that the roleplaying community is roughly divided into three types of people: real-life members of the emergency services, people who aspire to jobs in uniform, and others who just have “massive respect” for them.Īway from his keyboard, Matthew is part of the expansive British emergency service vehicles “spotters” community, who enjoy observing and photographing emergency vehicles (like trainspotters with trains). “Not many other YouTubers bother to post these more routine calls, so it's somewhat of a niche that people seem to quite enjoy,” he says.Īsked to describe the appeal of the roleplay community, Albo says it’s a way to positively engage with the emergency services, who he feels get unfairly subjected to public criticism on the internet. His YouTube clips often show highlights of low-adrenaline action, including officers pulling people over for texting while driving and breaking up a scuffle between Just Eat delivery drivers. When he makes an arrest, Albo expertly reels off the “You do not have to say anything…” caution. This means there is no wild, high-speed ramming in their car chases – instead, multiple drivers may pull off a boxing manoeuvre to slow the suspect down. Albo and his friends aim to replicate real-world policing procedures as closely as possible when they play, for example following the real-world “GOWISELY” codes to carry out stop-and-search procedures and the College of Policing’s pursuits policy for responsible car chases. In these situations, some gamers play as police while others role-play criminals and victims. “When playing in a multiplayer environment, you can scale up the realism as you're interacting with other real people,” he says. But Albo says that it is playing online, in multiplayer scenarios, that gamers have taken modded roleplay to the next level. He also runs a YouTube channel that specialises in recreating real-life policing scenarios in the game and has 27,000 subscribers.Īnyone can download LSPDFR mods and play on basic single player missions, which involve driving around the city, pulling over speeding drivers and deploying tools such as custom two-way radios, breathalysers and speed-guns. Albo estimates he has spent 4,000 hours making emergency service mods.

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