Indeed! I use This War of Mine in teaching quite a bit, as it is one of the few successful "anti-war war games," and is a useful framework for thinking about what it means to undermine the control fantasy in a (still playable) game. Maybe I will write something at length about it at some future time, as it is something I've played and pl…
Indeed! I use This War of Mine in teaching quite a bit, as it is one of the few successful "anti-war war games," and is a useful framework for thinking about what it means to undermine the control fantasy in a (still playable) game. Maybe I will write something at length about it at some future time, as it is something I've played and played over the years, and watched how others play.
My main "issues" with it are that a) the "source material" it is based on is pretty sketchy (their model of the "civilian experience in war" seems based almost exclusively on like, one LiveJournal post or something, if I recall correctly, which includes some aspects that I suspect are fictional or extremely non-representative), and b) it can be very tempting to learn the strategies for maximizing character success in the game in ways that, in my view, serve to reinforce the control fantasy as well as undercut the game's main message (there is a devastating loop, from a gameplay perspective, when you use the "soldier" character to simply murder people — as he feels little/no remorse and is very capable of doing it – and then bend all of your efforts towards becoming a liquor baron, which can provide you with unlimited resources and then trivializes the gameplay). The latter, admittedly, takes a lot of deliberate activity to pull off (like, you have to read the Wiki), and is probably not part of the standard experience. But these are things I've thought about a bit.
Thanks for your thorough response! As someone who teaches anti-war war classes, I have a low bar for appreciating efforts to make war less (rather than more!) appealing in video games; I was just happy this existed. Strange that it hadn't occurred to me to actually play through it. Will do now. Thanks!
Indeed! I use This War of Mine in teaching quite a bit, as it is one of the few successful "anti-war war games," and is a useful framework for thinking about what it means to undermine the control fantasy in a (still playable) game. Maybe I will write something at length about it at some future time, as it is something I've played and played over the years, and watched how others play.
My main "issues" with it are that a) the "source material" it is based on is pretty sketchy (their model of the "civilian experience in war" seems based almost exclusively on like, one LiveJournal post or something, if I recall correctly, which includes some aspects that I suspect are fictional or extremely non-representative), and b) it can be very tempting to learn the strategies for maximizing character success in the game in ways that, in my view, serve to reinforce the control fantasy as well as undercut the game's main message (there is a devastating loop, from a gameplay perspective, when you use the "soldier" character to simply murder people — as he feels little/no remorse and is very capable of doing it – and then bend all of your efforts towards becoming a liquor baron, which can provide you with unlimited resources and then trivializes the gameplay). The latter, admittedly, takes a lot of deliberate activity to pull off (like, you have to read the Wiki), and is probably not part of the standard experience. But these are things I've thought about a bit.
Thanks for your thorough response! As someone who teaches anti-war war classes, I have a low bar for appreciating efforts to make war less (rather than more!) appealing in video games; I was just happy this existed. Strange that it hadn't occurred to me to actually play through it. Will do now. Thanks!