I daydreamed for years about making a World War II game that starts in 1933, so that the alliances that just about every WWII game takes for granted would not be guaranteed. The idea was to show people that the era was truly chaotic and the story we are so familiar with was not inevitable. The Japanese and the British could team up to ri…
I daydreamed for years about making a World War II game that starts in 1933, so that the alliances that just about every WWII game takes for granted would not be guaranteed. The idea was to show people that the era was truly chaotic and the story we are so familiar with was not inevitable. The Japanese and the British could team up to rid the world of communism, for example. I also wanted to show how much that war was, in many ways, a scramble for resources, not least of all food. But having done that, I wanted to also introduce economic aspects... which led to colonialism... and from there to the racism that affected all the major powers. I eventually realized that such a level of realism would probably make the game beloved of neo-Nazis, and I never really figured out a way around that.
So I highly empathize with your point that certain types of war games can't teach what you want them to teach.
That said, any thoughts about Twilight Struggle? Not quite a nuclear war game, as nuclear war = defeat. But also not quite an anti-nuclear war game, either.
I daydreamed for years about making a World War II game that starts in 1933, so that the alliances that just about every WWII game takes for granted would not be guaranteed. The idea was to show people that the era was truly chaotic and the story we are so familiar with was not inevitable. The Japanese and the British could team up to rid the world of communism, for example. I also wanted to show how much that war was, in many ways, a scramble for resources, not least of all food. But having done that, I wanted to also introduce economic aspects... which led to colonialism... and from there to the racism that affected all the major powers. I eventually realized that such a level of realism would probably make the game beloved of neo-Nazis, and I never really figured out a way around that.
So I highly empathize with your point that certain types of war games can't teach what you want them to teach.
That said, any thoughts about Twilight Struggle? Not quite a nuclear war game, as nuclear war = defeat. But also not quite an anti-nuclear war game, either.