From Sun Tzu to Xbox: War and Videogames Page 1 - 64

Summary- A variety of modern day videogames mimic war. This ranges from the popular Age of Empires series to Call of Duty. Often times, these games have advance cinematic that vary greatly from the game's actual game play, representing the designers dream of a realistic experience. War games haven't just started appearing. Upon further examination, there is a trail of history with war and games intertwined. All around the world, war have grown with games. The oldest games that have been found in common with war is board games. These games were the first attempts of people to emulate actual warfare in a simulated environment, not unlike modern videogames. Some early wars actually resembled games. An example is during the Elizabeth Era of Britain where soldiers took turns shooting and fighting in a courteous fashion. The most famous boardgame is probably Chess, model warfare. Games such as Egypt's Senet, and Greek's Petteia. Paintings on vases depict people playing these games that are similar to Chess. The idea of war games theoretically comes from bored nobles. They do not have the resources to send people to war so their scholars invented model warfare for them. It was an idealized war that had the same suspense without the cost. China also had a board game to model war. Weiqi, or Go was invented around 4,000 years ago by the Chinese. Unlike Europe where war games were created as fun metaphors to war, in China's Weiqu was created to actually train soldiers in war. Chess's history is shrouded in mystery. It allegedley came from a form of the game in India with similar rules during the trade between Europe and the Middle East. The elephants became bishops, chariots to rooks... The importance of games to war and war to games is clearly shown through literature. Since the earliest times of civilization, literature has depicted games such as Weiqu and Chess as clever metaphors to war. Chess has also been compared to life where each piece has a office and is jumbled up at the end of their life much like the Chess pieces when putting them away. Modern day videogames spawn controversy on whether it is beneficial or detrimental to society. These may seem like new problems but it has happened as long as war and games have coexisted. Renaissance writers often argued on the very topic. Some believed that it served no purpose and posed a problem as a waste of time. Others believed it was beneficial to one's metal awareness and contributed to winning wars. The games were widely accepted by nobles and peasants alike. Ironically, games were meant to serve as a metaphor to war, but later on when there were advances in science, war was ordered geometrically to resemble a board game. The nobles used these war-like board games to explain their strategies, and plan out their attack and defense. These board games evolved into more elaborate systems in Prussia. War advisors had scholars create a more realistic version of war with plaster reliefs and terrain that were realistically scaled to model war that became Kriegspiel. These games led the children of young aristocrats to become more easily adapted to war with the exposure to war at such a young age, like the children of the modern day. This was the most apparent during World War I where children everywhere embraced warfare with a bloodlust. Many Utopian writers such as the author of Shahnama, hope for an ideal world where arguments won't be settled with war but with friendly games of Chess. This indicates the similarities of war and game.

Quote- "The best thing would be to put a couple leaders in a room and let them go at it on these things, then nobody gets killed. And we could just figure out the same things. We'd all use the same weapons. They'd just sit there and push buttons, and we'll have a simulation on this, and nobody'll die. And we'll just have to live by the results" (Halter 64).

Reaction- I found the quote above immensely fascinating. It is once again a Utopian dream that can never be established in my opinion. I believe that people would not go willingly with the results. The loser would resort to extreme violence to get what he/she wanted. This idea is based on the assumption that humans are in control of their emotions. Admittedly, the idea is wonderful. It is a world with no wars, just a friendly battle in a videogame in order to settle disputes, but it is almost impossible to accomplish. Ed Halter's writing style is very entertaining. Despite this being a history book, he adds in jokes and interesting facts that make it a very interesting read.