Video Games and the Warfighter
 20 Years Military Service
 Panzer Elite
 Combat in Iraq
 America’s Army
 Peacekeeping in Bosnia
 Twilight War
 Airborne Infantry
 Order of War
 Military Intelligence
 Sturmtruppen
 Special Operations
 Military Games Editor at
 Senior Drill Sergeant
www.gamersinfo.net
 MFA in Video Game
Production and Design
(pending thesis)
 1 – Kriegspiel
 A brief history of wargames
 2 – Modern Wargames
 Civilian wargame development
 3 – Simulations
 The development of military games
 4 – Training Can Be Fun
 The advent of game-training
 5 – Future Force
 Turning wargamers into warriors
CONTENTS
A Brief History of Wargames
 Go (Wei-Hei)
 Chess
 Based on the Indian game Chaturanga and used to
teach royalty to think tactically and plan ahead
 Koenigspiel
 A larger version of chess with more pieces and spaces
 Kriegspiel
 Divided into two types, the original with clearly-
defined rules, and the later “Free Kreigspiel” which
used a referee to arbitrate and interpret
 Used to train German officers through the end of the
19th century and influenced Wells’ “Little Wars”
Civilian Wargame Development
 Little Wars
 Written by H.G. Wells on the eve of World War I
 Started the concept of miniature soldiers for games
 The First Nerds
 Hobby wargamers painted huge armies and used
them to play large battles from the 30’s onward
 Modern Miniatures Games
 Interest in miniatures games was generally not
affected by the introduction of the PC for wargaming
 There are many more miniatures gamers in the US
than board wargamers
 Tactics
 First board wargame by Charles Roberts in 1953
 Avalon Hill created the board wargame industry
 Simulations Publications Incorporated
 Turned wargame design into a system
 Churned out hundreds of games in the 1970’s
 The End of an Era
 The introduction of the PC in 1980 killed the market
 Board wargames are now a niche market (~10,000)
 As a consequence, board wargames are now generally
larger, more graphically appealing, easier to learn
and play, and much more expensive than before
 Gaming the World Wars
 Generally used the “Free Kriegspiel” model
 Numerous flaws and deficiencies when modeling
anything larger than a single battle
 Operational Research
 First started in World War II to improve conduct of
operational and strategic warfare
 Initiated the analysis of historical battles to define
modern tactics and constants of warfare
 Mechanical Simulators
 Focus on operator simulations such as fighter cockpits
 Personal Computers
 First computer wargames are similar to board games
 Computers also make flight simulations available
 Types of Military Games
 Turn-Based Strategy Games
 Real-Time Strategy Games
 Warfare Simulations (Tanks, Planes and Shooters)
 Multiplayer Games
 Hot Seat Wargames
 Multiplayer (head-to-head) Wargames
 Massively-Multiplayer Online Wargames
 First-Person Shooters
 Strategy Games
 America’s Army
 Axis & Allies
 Armed Assault
 Close Combat
 Battlefield
 Combat Mission
 Call of Duty
 Command and Conquer
 Counterstrike
 Company of Heroes
 Delta Force
 Endwar
 Ghost Recon
 Men of Valor
 Medal of Honor
 Order of War
 Operation Flashpoint
 Panzer General
 SOCOM
 World in Conflict
The Development of Military Games
 Focus is on controls and engineering
 Pilots, astronauts, drivers, and equipment operators
 Limited feedback
 You’re either doing it right or crashing and burning
 Limited realism
 Controls are authentic but scenarios are not
 Cost
 They must be custom-made at great expense
 Specific to model
 Once your hardware changes, your sim is out of date
 Simulate anything
 Convoys, tanks, drones, leadership, and diplomacy
 Immediate feedback
 Realistic results are provided through “soft” endings
 Custom-tailored
 Scenarios can be designed to fit user needs
 Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS)
 Cheaper and faster to build and maintain
 Upgradable
 Software can be updated for new equipment
The Advent of Game-Training
 Pioneered by the US Marine Corps
 America’s Army: Operations
 Developed as a recruiting tool to get target audience
interested in the Army. Its sister project, America’s
Army: Soldiers, was designed as a roleplaying game
to teach players about army life, ethics, and training.
 Engine also used to develop training simulators for
Javelin antitank launcher and bomb disposal drones.
 Full Spectrum Warrior
 Originally designed for training squad leaders, then
used as the foundation of a popular videogame.
 DARWARS Ambush!
 Convoy team trainer using PC with 3D graphics and
realistic scenarios with multiple vehicles managed by
human observer-controllers.
 Engagement Skills Trainer (EST)
 Shooting skills training using video scenarios and air-
powered weapons with focused light emitters (FATS)
 Virtual Convoy Operations Trainer (VCOT)
 Realistic crew stations with authentic vehicle
controls and weapons and video panels for displaying
the combat environment; designed for small teams
 Tactical Iraqi
 Uses the Unreal Engine (same as America’s Army) to
teach Iraqi Arabic to soldiers deploying to theater by
evaluating their speech in conversation with “locals”
 UrbanSim
 Simulates an urban environment and simulates major
events such as terrorist attacks, elections, and civil
unrest, forcing the players to make decisions that
will impact the groups involved
 Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and
Instrumentation
 Maintain over 100 applications in which soldiers can
drive vehicles, fire weapons, and pilot unmanned aerial
vehicles in battle spaces as large as 10,000 km2
 Responsible for deploying 70 systems of 52 computers
each in locations in the United States, Germany, Italy
and South Korea (yes, over 3,500 Army gaming PCs!).
 Among their projects is a virtual reality simulator that
allows trainees to walk around in a closed environment
with a training weapon and goggles as interface devices
Turning Wargamers into Warriors
 Still recruiting gamers
 America’s Army expanded to consoles and still going
 Treating soldiers with PTSD
 Using training tools to stimulate responses to events
 Training tools becoming real tools
 Console controllers adapted to operate drones
 Massively-Multiplayer Online Training
 The Army is working on an interactive training world
 Combat texting
 Blue Force Tracker uses a game-like map and icons
along with the capability of texting other units
 Game development is not a glamorous profession
 Developing games doesn’t mean playing games
 You must be a hardcore gamer to develop them
 Educate yourself – classes and outside reading
 Stay current on new trends and technologies
 Join the IGDA and other game-centric organizations
 Network – conferences (GDC), LinkedIn, SIGs, etc.
 Leverage your outside skills and experiences
 Military training simulations are an expanding field
 PEO-STRI
 peostri.army.mil
 DARWARS
 darwars.org
 Game Production Svcs
 gameprodsvcs.com
 Raydon
 raydon.com
 America’s Army
 americasarmy.com
 Gamasutra
 Gamasutra.com
 Creative Heads
 Creativeheads.net
 GameDev
 gamedev.net
 Game Career Guide
 Gamecareerguide.com
 Tom Sloper
 sloperama.com/advice
Chris Keeling
[email protected]