Download - War Games (Remote Control 2014, Utrecht)
slide #1Remote Control Conference 2014, Utrecht
Workshop: War GamesDr. Stefan Werning (University of Utrecht)
Saturday 13th December, 2014 (10-12)
slide #2Remote Control Conference 2014, Utrecht
Military Games:America‘s Army (2002-)
• Basic military training as ‚tutorial‘
• Focus on a specific form of simulated‚realism‘ – Psychophysical effects such as having to control
breathing when shooting a weapon
– Recorded original sound effects of weapons/equipment
– Simulated degradation of weapons
• Extending to different platforms– Mobile version in cooperation with Gameloft
– Arcade version incl. Lightgun peripheral
– Adapted to new iterations of the Unreal Engine
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‚Counter-Games‘
• Special Force– ‚Counter game‘ with regard to America‘s Army
– Similarly conceived as ‚recruitainment‘ andpropaganda tool
• Special Force 2: Tale of the TruthfulPledge– Differentiates friendly/hostile environments by terrain:
forests deserts
– Sold 100000 copies, then freely downloadable
– Unlicensed appropriation of the CryEngine
• Quraish– ‚Counter game‘ with regard to Age of Empires
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‚Anti-War Games‘
• September 12th
• All‘s well that ends well
• This War of Mine (2014)
• Expose ‚mechanisms‘ of militaryconflicts by mapping them ontofamiliar gameplay tropes
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Games in the discourse on war and military conflict
• Potential other discursivefunctions of digital war games?
– Establishing military terminology and abbreviations in ‘mainstream’ discourse
• Strategy games and dual-use examples like Full Spectrum Warrior
– Suggesting manageability by providing opportunities for (simulated) interaction
– De-singularizing events through iterative play-throughs
• EX: Allied landing in Normandy in Medal of Honor
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War games and public discourse:The case of the German Bundeswehr
• Helicopter Mission (1994)– Utilizes the isometric perspective popularized by
Desert Strike (1993)
– Only logistical missions
– Similarly tries to differentiate itself through addedrealism such as wind
• Luna Mission (browser game, 2000)– Controlling a reconnaissance drone
• Sports-related browser games on theyouth-oriented Bundeswehr website– Games themselves as discourse object (irrespective
of the actual ‚content‘)
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Games and the playful appropriationof (military) technologies
• Games foster systematic andalgorithmic thinking– EXAMPLE: Military strategy games
• Assessing and prioritizing quantities
• Installing stable feedback loops (e.g. economicsystems)
• Planning and synchronizing several parallel processes
• Playful interaction as a basic propertyof algorithmic media– Inherently playful forms of media use
• EX: Nukemap 3D and Nukemap
– Playful appropriation of (digital) technologies• EX: GEWar
The same also applies to non-digital games!
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The interplay between (board) game design and its military applications
• Johan Christian Ludwig Hellwig, Versuch eines aufs Schachspiel gebauetentaktischen Spiels (1780)– Addresses deficits of chess as a model
of warfare
• Projectile weapons and (information) logistics
• Leopold Reißwitz, Kriegspiel(1812)– First modular board game
– Third party takes over the‚computation‘
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The interplay between (board) game design and its military applications II
• Board-game apparatuses in military strategy– For an evocative example from the context
of the Ardennes offensive in 1944 cf. Von Hilgers, Philipp. 2012. War games: a history of war on paper. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 36f.
• Subversion of familiar gameplaytopoi– Juden Raus (1936) Pachisi
– Jagd auf Kohlenklau (1944)• Built on traditional parcours games like
Snakes & Ladders
• Addressing issues from daily news throughcheap, mass-produced games
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Military Toys
• Clothespin dolls as ‚storytellingsystems‘– Celia Pearce, „Game Theory of games“
• Little Wars (H.G. Wells, 1913)
• Johnny Seven (1964-69)– Among the first de-realising depictions of military
contexts in toy design
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Military board and card games
• Mission Command (2003/04)– Produced by the Army National Guard
– Distributed to children of distinguished soldiers of the US army (Future Soldier Footlocker Kit)
• Daring Eagle (2004)– Combination of a board and card game
– Differentiates between divisions and brigades as basicunits
– Units as tokens, weapons technologies as cards
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Identifying gameplay bias: Cold War logic
• Diplomacy (1954/59) – Overview, Rulebook
– 1914 map but played and created in a Cold War context
• Missile Command (1980)
• Q: Differences between bothforms of rule bias?
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Modifying military board games
• Risk (1957)– Also encapsulates Cold War rationality and the
logic of world domination– Original material referenced the Napoleonic Wars
(rules themes)
• Risk Black Ops (2008) Risk – Revised Edition (2008)– Resource system based on cities and capitals– Differentiated, even partially dynamic and open
mission goals instead of controlling territory– Incentivizes a more defensiv, strategic playing
style
• Risk Legacy (2011)– Sequences of interrelated game sessions– Permanent modifications to the game itself
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Design Exercise
• A) Think about how to represent aspects of contemporary military conflict in a board/card game.– Use Risk or Diplomacy as two potential frameworks or
design your own mechanism based on gameplay patterns from other games.
– Also tangential solutions are possible:• E.g. turning Monopoly into a game of financing warfare.
• B) Conceptualize or modify a board/card game as a ‘counter game’.
• C) Conceptualize or modify a board/card game as an ‘anti war game’.