dr.hal -> RE: Attention Wargamers! This post is for you! (9/1/2016 2:12:47 PM)
|
I agree, this is certainly an interesting thread! When I first read the intro post, I thought political considerations are a strategic level game play area, while the accurate military reconstruction dives into the tactical, where the political has little place. However then I thought about the book I'm currently reading: "Act of War" about the USS Pueblo and its capture. Here, if one wants to see how politics enters the tactical, is a great example of how political thinking impacts a very tactical situation. So I really put "paid" to my own initial thoughts. In many war-games the political considerations are merely an input into the background of the game play, such as "country X has declared war" much like in "Silent Hunter 3", but I think there could be so much more if the designers were really seriously interested in incorporating a political element. It certainly would be a more dynamic game if that came about. However, this thread has also touched upon the moral aspect of any game, such as playing the German side in a game where your efforts are in "support" of Hitler and his policies (in the abstract for sure) and at times I have a problem with that. A more relevant example to this forum is the support of Japan, and thus its policies in such places as China and other parts of its "Empire" (Korean comfort women comes to mind). If those aspects of reality were incorporated into a game, I would be hard pressed to play that side, as I could not support that political dimension! One final point if I may, many years ago when I was in Scotland, I had the game "Victory in the Pacific" which is the board-game forerunner of this great game. I had (still have) a very good friend who happened to be Japanese and I thought wouldn't it be great if he played the Japanese side and I played the Allied side. Well I tried to introduce him to the game and he certainly found it interesting and complex, BUT refused to play the game. He said "this makes the sacrifice of so many people into a game and dishonors them" thus he would not consider playing it. It is a prospective that I had never considered, as I always thought that game (and any war game) gave me a better insight into the sacrifice those individuals, who fought in the actual period, faced. To this day I still am not sure if there is a clear answer to either point, is wargaming dishonoring the dead or an attempt to understand their deaths?
|
|
|
|