Kinophile Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 https://warontherocks.com/2018/10/just-let-them-compete-raising-the-next-generation-of-wargamers/ Interesting, especially the steam/tabletop UA idea. CM would be a perfect fit. @Battlefront.com what do you think of his brief look at the current state of US military wargaming? Any BRIT/CAN folks who can relate? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger73 Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 Ender's Game, anyone? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StieliAlpha Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 17 hours ago, kinophile said: https://warontherocks.com/2018/10/just-let-them-compete-raising-the-next-generation-of-wargamers/ Interesting, especially the steam/tabletop UA idea. CM would be a perfect fit. @Battlefront.com what do you think of his brief look at the current state of US military wargaming? Any BRIT/CAN folks who can relate? Eh, there is nothing new in the linked article. The link between military and private table top playing goes back to the 19th century. Nowadays, many wargame designers work for both the military and private side (e.g., Volko Ruhnke, Designer of the COIN series). As for BFC, IIRCR, they developed a Game for the NZ forces not too long ago. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kinophile Posted October 14, 2018 Author Share Posted October 14, 2018 Eh, yes there is. Wargaming as specific, grade-able, ranked specialist path within the military's career "universe". I'm not suggesting wargaming is new. I'm fully aware of its age. Hell, apparently the Byzantines would wargame/plan things sometimes. The angle here is to professionalize it as a distinct technical Specialty. The danger of course, is of an army training its warganers, keeping them too close. It might be best that they are trained externally, or in a Coop approach (4 months Military in-house training/experience, 8 months external, industry/civilian study). Currently it seems very Ad-hoc, with little to no career structuring. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
=Marder= Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 1 hour ago, kinophile said: Eh, yes there is. Wargaming as specific, grade-able, ranked specialist path within the military's career "universe". I'm not suggesting wargaming is new. I'm fully aware of its age. Hell, apparently the Byzantines would wargame/plan things sometimes. The angle here is to professionalize it as a distinct technical Specialty. The danger of course, is of an army training its warganers, keeping them too close. It might be best that they are trained externally, or in a Coop approach (4 months Military in-house training/experience, 8 months external, industry/civilian study). Currently it seems very Ad-hoc, with little to no career structuring. Or you just take people who left the military from grunt to officer to have a wide variety of approaches to problems. With a past military back ground there is no need for side by side education and training. Just the game it self as a hobby. choose best gamer´s from competitions or let the military do competitions with prices for the best and let them compete against officers. Who dosnt want to win a life time supply of MRE´s?! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wicky Posted October 14, 2018 Share Posted October 14, 2018 British public schools introduce future officers to team play and tactics via cricket, and the overiding importance of the tea interval. INCOMING!! And that's tea 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted October 15, 2018 Share Posted October 15, 2018 B4 getting too excited at a new career path one needs to understand that the article is very "pie in the sky". It would take a revolutionary change in the military-industrial mind-set and objectives to create any such career path. The issues/challenges - you are probably thinking: 1) "Wow, this could be fun". 2) Also, "Wouldn't it be great to have a career working on COTS (commercial "off the shelf") products that could be used to train military pros?" However... 1) The military mindset is that anything that could be described as "fun' is abhorrent. Yes, it's fun to drive tanks in a mil sim. But, anyone who has played a DOD-approved military wargame that has successfully gone thru V&V will tell you that they are horribly boring and not fun at all. Why are they not fun? The defense contractors' objectives are not the same as an entertainment game producer. A defense contractor makes its money by producing massively complex wargames and sims that requires many millions of dollars worth of tech and literally hundreds of contractor specialists to make it run. These contractors hate any idea that a few guys can come up with a useful product that can be purchased for a few thousand dollars, let alone a few dozen dollar and have "gamed the system" to ensure that the barriers to entry for a small company are very very high so as to make competition from a small outfit virtually impossible. 2) While there may be very, very few COTS (inexpensive commercial "off the shelf" products are being used by DoD departments, these are for very specific tasks - like simulating aerial resupply/logistics etc. Not particularly fun. There are already professional wargamers working for the large contractors like Booz Allen. The guys I used to know there play games (usually cardboard wargames) that are fun in their spare time just like the rest of us - and have been frustrated for decades talking about almost exactly the same items mentioned in the article. Nonetheless, if you fancy a career in this field, perhaps check out: https://www.boozallen.com/careers.html 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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