With the popularity of first-person shooter video games sky rocketing, innovators have looked for ways to integrate new technology into game play.

It has been dreamt of since the birth of video games: a completely immersible realm in which our actions control the character.

The team at IRL Shooter thought, why not make ourselves the main character? The Australian based company was initially funded by the website kickstarted. IRL stands for ‘In Real Life’. The uniqueness of IRL is that instead of offering a two dimensional experience, you are completely immersed in the game.

IRL offers different story lines to play in, such as the most popular, Patient Zero. Patient Zero is an original story written by founders of IRL, Dave Leadbetter and Drew Hobbs, game players have to escape a zombie hoarde all while trying to find their way to the next area of the warehouse.

All of this is completed with a 8.4 pound AK 47 replica, combat helmet, and screaming audio pumped into each combat zone. Many of the escape routes and paths to the next area are not very complicated when viewed from a controlled environment. But with all of the extra stimulants, few participants recognize the ease.

One of the most vital pieces of the operation is the location of the game. IRL was founded in Australia, the company’s brick and mortar location is in a suburb outside of Melbourne.

A specific lay out is created in order to simulate the video game atmosphere and provide a challenging environment. Countless hours are spent in the writing and creation phase of each storyline, the most popular and most successful at the moment is, Patient Zero.

IRL has tapped into a market that is considered the final frontier of gaming and live action role playing. Participating in a game is one thing but when you become the character and are immersed into a storyline with goals, objectives and moral decisions to make, people leave behind everything else in there life and are consumed. — Senior Trevor Beal

Patient Zero is an apocalyptic and zombie infused character quest. The zombie hoard continuously pursues the group of participants while they search for an exit into the next infected area.

The actual game play lasts for about an hour, immediate extraction from the game is available for those that can not continue due to health risks or pure fear.

IRL has tapped into a market that is considered the final frontier of gaming and live action role playing. Participating in a game is one thing but when you become the character and are immersed into a storyline with goals, objectives and moral decisions to make, people leave behind everything else in there life and are consumed.

That is the addicting part of IRL, it offers an escape and happy place to many, even though violence is involved.

Our society continues to modernize without fail, and IRL is just a small step in the innovation and advancement of gaming and also in human nature.

This writer can be reached via Twitter: @Beal_2015.

For more news, read the Feb. 20 article, Student Leadership: Serves the Community Food Bank.