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Workshop: War GamesDr. Stefan Werning (University of Utrecht)

Saturday 13th December, 2014 (10-12)

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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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Taking a step back …

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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’.

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Thanks a lot for

your interest and

participation!