In Real Life

Invade Syria? A Video Game Tested That.

We’ve seen this script before. A cruel regime slaughtering civilians. YouTube clips of weeping mothers and dead children. Hesitant calls for humanitarian intervention by the Western powers. Much dithering while the body count climbs, and then more guilt about the dithering.


May 1, 2012
In Real Life

The Best Video Games Can’t Predict What Kim Jong-Un Would Do To Win War

It is curious that there are far more games on a Soviet invasion of West Germany that never happened than a Communist assault on South Korea that actually did. It is even more curious that there haven’t been more games on a Second Korean War, given how volatile the region is.


March 24, 2012
In Real Life

The Immense Pleasure Of Huge War Games

“Quantity has a quality all its own,” said Josef Stalin, as he relentlessly flung waves of Soviet tanks and troops against Hitler’s elite but outnumbered panzers. Comrade Stalin might not have believed in a deity, but even a Communist warlord would surely have agreed with Napoleon’s dictum that God is on the side of the bigger battalions.


February 8, 2012
In Real Life

Forget Call Of Duty And Battlefield. Real Military Training Needs A Different Kind Of Game

You’re playing a game like Battlefield 3 or Call of Duty, shooting and grenading left and right. And you’re thinking, “Wow, what an awesomely realistic game. The Navy Seals should be playing this.”