Week 8 - War and Games

McLeroy (2008) detailed a brief history of military gaming. Of note, the 1st century AD miniature battlefields and replicas have been in use throughout most of the succeeding centuries. In the mid 17th century, Weikmann developed a warfare board game, “Konigspiel,” to assist visualization of forces. This and subsequent warboard games allowed players to estimate battlefield actions using probability and other analytical mathematics. The last century saw further advancements in warboard games that increased ability to see more global implications of war actions.

Computers begin to help play these warboard games in 1948 by doing all the math and allowing the players to focus on the tactical movements. When computers became more adept, their calculations surpassed human abilities.It was only natural that computers were used by the military for simulation and training. In particular, McLeroy reported on DARWARS Ambush. This Army game provides scenarios for the soldiers and allows them to problem solve in a stress free environment.

The Associated Press (2003) reported that the Army, CIA, and the Army were using or planning to use video games to recruit and train personnel. Most of the games seek to interface more selectively with prospective and new recruits since most of this population knows how to use a game pad. Of course there is the advantage that there is no health lost and no heavy equipment involved. At least one application hopes to train leaders. The CIA game hopes to teach their analysts to look at the world from the perspective of the terrorists and to learn to expect the unexpected. Characteristically, the CIA was not planning to release its game commercially.

The elements of surprise and better technology have often been the deciding factors in victory. Thus nations who value education and technology have survived to write the histories and others have faded. It is no surprise that military and technology are intertwined. It is impossible to say which came first. The benefits of increased technology and education, not to mention a well trained veteran workforce, continue to benefit nations in peacetime as well. Therefore, nations will continue to fund military and consequently technology. Technology sometimes backfires and wars always backfire for at least one of the participating governments. Video games are in flux development. It would be nice if we could get to the point that the actual battles could be virtual, with no blood spilled. But then there would be the issue of cheating.

In hopes of providing its armies with better skills and coping, the US Army provides some of its recruits with a role playing simulation. The Full Battle Rattle is a movie about a a role playing simulation, located in the Mojave desert, where actors and setting provide a simulated Iraq. It traces the progress of an Army battalion for 3 weeks in this setting. I was able to locate the actual video used by the military that describes the Fort Irwin Mission. Please click on the link to view:

NTC Mission Video

I didn’t see the movie, but watching the video brought a couple thoughts to my mind. Mainly I worried whether the simulation would make the soldiers more or less humanistic. It should reduce the culture shock somewhat. I also worried about the mental toll on the actors there. I just wonder how it would affect your life to pretend you were in a war day in and day out. There was one light note for me. I saw an IKEA dresser in one scene. Even though the simulation isn’t a video game, it is a technology that has role players, soldiers who are pretending to be soldiers, settings that are realistic, and scenarios that may or may not be quest like. Just like a video game, the soldiers will win the simulation and move on to a higher level, i.e. the real war game.

Derene (2008) reported on a situation of life following art, i.e. real war technology following video game technology. Specifically, the Lightweight Stabilized M240 WeaponSystem, a swiveling rooftop gun mount for Humvees had an interface that was similar to a game controller, and in fact had an alternate interface that was a military spec version of an Xbox 360 gamepad. This interface is ideal for military use because it is portable, durable, and ergonomic. While there is a temptation to criticize this development as a high jacking of something fun for something violent, in truth, children have historically played with weapon replicas. And if they don’t have something handy, they will invent something. I am surely not the only one who saw a player piano roll (now antique) as being quite similar to Peter Pan’s sword if you took off one of the ends and all the paper. The duels were great by the way. And if the weapons are better user interfaced, well it is our technological advantage for the moment. The other side will soon have it too.

But the toll of war is never told in the games. Alexander (2009) reported that the video game Six Days in Fallujah was withdrawn by Konami after the game’s real world Iraq setting caused questions and controversy. The game was initiated when returning Marines asked Atomic Games to tell their story through the "most relevant media," a video game. According to Wikipedia, part of the problems stemmed from the significant immersion in the game . . .to the point that it seemed real. Benito (2009) the game developer, explained the setting, "These are scary places, with scary things happening inside of them." He describes the game as plunging into the unknown, with darkened interiors, and 'surprises' left by the insurgency. The goal was to create high suspense and terror. Apparently, the controversy against the game comes from the idea that the situation should not be trivialized in a video game and that it could lead to Muslim retaliation. The game is still in development by Atomic but will not be carried by Konami. I think this game is very interesting because the game seems to be trying to make a serious statement. The very attempt moves video games from mere entertainment to social commentary and the controvesy that the game has generated might be considered a validation of that fact.

I don’t know if the game will make a difference. But some of the truth about war needs to be told. Real war sucks. There is no reset. In real life, we are not well equipped to deal with the actuality and finality of violence. Video games can give better war survivability by training for cooperative play, increased cognitive and problem solving skills, and user interface mastery. Simulations may or may not increase coping. However, to this point games are not really likely to provide coping skills and moral decision making skills for real war. War is an adult activity and requires serious adult coping skills for dealing with death and treachery.