|
256-bit encryption
$500,000 protection
|
WAR GAMES
Twice a month, about 50 defense and intelligence
officials gather in a building in Virginia. They
chat informally about “what if” scenarios. For
example: what if Russia attacked other parts of Ukraine?
For half the players, such games are part of their job.
Currently, about 10 officials play a board game called
"Persian Incursion”, which deals with "if" Israel were
to bomb Iranian nuclear sites.
A note for
those of you who are reading this article: Persian
Incursion can be ordered from Clash of Arms, a
Pennsylvania firm that makes all kinds of games.
Playing a
war game is like receiving an intelligence briefing. It
forces players to grapple with myriad cascading events,
revealing causal chains they might not imagine.
Board games foster the critical and creative thinking
needed to win (or avoid) a complex battle. During
official gaming sessions, analysts challenge players'
reasoning an then incorporate the insights into
briefings for superiors. One reason why board
games are useful is that you can constantly tweak the
rules to take account of new insights, says Timothy
Wilkie of the National Defense University. With
computer games, this is much harder.
Paul Vebber, a gameplay instructor in the navy, says
that in the past decade the government has started using
strategy board games much more often. Since the
games do not help predict outcomes, the Pentagon has
forecasting software, which it feeds with data on
thousands of variables such as weather and weaponry,
supply lines, training and morale.
The Centre
for Naval Analyses has also created several new games
the past two years. These are for official use only.
Even training for combat itself can be helped by games.
Harpoon, a game about naval warfare, has proved so
accurate in the past that hundreds of Pentagon officials
say they will play it when the next version comes out.
|
