From Sun Tzu to Xbox: War and Video Games

Nukes and Cyber-War

Interesting interview over at Guardian Gamesblog with Malcom Davis, a lecturer in Defense Studies with the Defense Studies Department of King's College London on how well military video games compare to the real thing.

Which weapons from current warfare don't seem to be used in videogames in your opinion? Why do you think that is?

I think one type of warfare missing from computer games, which may be used in the future is the weapons of mass destruction or effect (WMD/E) including chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and enhanced-explosive (aka CBRNE). These are proliferating at an accelerating rate, and there is greater risk that rogue states - such as Iran or North Korea - with access to such capabilities would use them in future wars to offset the technological superiority of Western military forces, or potentially transfer such capabilities to non-state actors like terrorist groups. In every sim I have tried (be it on PC or XBox 360) I have yet to see this type of warfare represented, or seen friendly forces having to take precautions against its use.

Interesting that these weapons haven't entered gaming, although there are of course nukes in Civilization and probably a few RTS games. Wonder if its because it would be too much of a "wild card" to the gameplay? Cuts into the notion of heroics?

Also interesting is his take on cyberwarfare:

In the lead-up to the 1999 Kosovo Conflict, and the 2003 Iraq War, Western military information systems came under intense cyber-attacks from hackers either within the Serb and Iraqi militaries, or contracted by their respective governments. The Chinese and the Taiwanese regularly engage in cyberwarfare exchanges across the Taiwanese Strait. China has 'People's Information Warfare Battalions' whose sole job it is to wage cyberwar against China's opponents. Cyberwar is going to be a key aspect of future conflicts as we are information-dependent and an enemy, which may not be so information dependent, can use cyberwar to launch strategic attacks on this opponent's military and society.

Now that would be an interesting game, although it wouldn't really allow for the macho cinematics of most military titles.

 

Link: "What is missing is the chaos of battle": what a military expert thinks about modern combat games from Guardian Unlimited: Gamesblog.

I, Videogame

Don't know if this will be coming to the US or not, but Discovery Channel International in Asia, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, Norway and elsewhere currently features the five-part documentary miniseries I, Videogame. In addition to interviews with such luminaries as Ralph Baer, Henry Jenkins, Will Wright and Alexey Pajitnov (inventor of Tetris!), it also features yours truly talking about--guess what--the relationship between war and videogames. Reportedly it will be airing in "170 countries throughout Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa in spring 2007."

I haven't seen it yet, but I hear from others it came out very good (it was co-produced by World of Wonder, the mucho-hip documentary outfit responsible for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Party Monster and much more). The design seems tight and they've got a cute if poky flash-game promosite. From what I remember, I was wearing a short-sleeved purple shirt, still had on extra poundage from writing the book, and was in bad need of a haircut. In short, I look the role.

Link: I, Videogame - Discovery Channel.

Al Qaeda in Second Life?

I generally loathe the "[insert topic here] in Second Life!" journalistic premise: methinks it simply a 3D update of the old "[blank] has a website!" craze of 1995, or the "[blank] has a blog!" mania of 2004.

But who can resist this hook? Terrorism in Second Life! No, not griefy, let's-pretend terrorism as was recently practiced by the self-proclaimed SLLA (or Second Life Liberation Army), but actual, real-world, first-life terrorist groups like Al Qaeda using Second LIfe and other MMORPGs to keep in contact, launder money and even operate virtual terrorist training schools (talk about distance learning).

OK, so it may not have actually happened yet. But Game Politics points to this speculative article by a counterterrorism expert about the potential for such dastardly stuff to happen inside Linden Lab's glorified chatroom.

(The real genius is GamePolitics' spot illustration of a Mac Classic toting machine gun and cartoon anarchist bomb, reproduced above. Brilliant!)

Link: GamePolitics.com » Blog Archive » Real Terror Cells Inside MMO Virtual Worlds?.