Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Kriegsspiel was a revolutionary innovation in the training of military officers. Despite
its simplistic rules that replaced gun battles with die rolls, it actually improved the
strategic skills of the officers who played it. Kriegsspiel allowed its players to try dif-
ferent battle strategies and explore their strengths and weaknesses without any
consequences. It also gave them a chance to step into the shoes of their adversaries
and think through strategies from their perspective. After a series of successful mili-
tary campaigns throughout the nineteenth century, many nations in Europe and
beyond adopted war gaming as a method for training military officers.
takinG Games seriously
some nations had trouble taking war games seriously. They did not understand how a
comparatively simple game that used dice to resolve combat could possibly be relevant
for the chaos and complexity of real-life battles. The history of war games is riddled
with interesting anecdotes of success and failure caused by taking war games seriously
or ignoring them. in 1960, U.s. admiral chester nimitz asserted that the conflict with
Japan during the second World War was so thoroughly tested in war games that the
only unanticipated event was the appearance of the kamikaze fighters. in contrast, the
russians ignored their own war game results early in the First World War and suffered
a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Tannenberg. (For more information, see the history
of war gaming on the website of the historical miniatures Gaming society: www.hmgs.
org/history.htm .) an important lesson from the history of war games in preparing for real
military conflict is that games with relatively simple and quite unrealistic rule systems
can still accurately capture the essence of the real situation they represent and can be an
excellent learning tool.
Serious Video Games
People have designed video games for serious purposes since the 1980s, originally
as educational tools. Unfortunately, in the rush to embrace new technology, many
early educational games proved to be a disappointment, and the term edutainment,
once popular, is now avoided. Too many of the early educational games were noth-
ing but thinly veiled multiple-choice tests. This produced games whose gameplay
was constrained and uninteresting. (Of course, there were exceptions, such as the
highly-regarded Oregon Trail. )
NOTE an excellent
modern game that
teaches fractions is
Refraction. You can
play it online at
www.kongregate.com/
games/GameScience/
refraction.
Modern educational games are better designed, and now they're used in schools
and at home to teach everything from mathematics to typing. They integrate their
gameplay more closely with their subject matter, and they use the power of emer-
gent mechanics to teach principles, not just facts.
 
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