Kurt Margenau on Go Buy Braid
August 20, 2008

Agreed, Braid definitely owns. And from listening to some of his interviews, sounds like he may have been reading some Bogost. ...

Kurt Margenau on The Clintons on SNES
August 20, 2008

Dude, Bill Clinton had amazing range. If you took him deep into the corner, he'd hit that 3 every time. BOOMSHAKALA! ...

wowserverslist on McDonald's Interactive Sticks it to McDo... or do they?
August 19, 2008

www.WowServersList.com - invites you to join our top list today World of Warcraft Private Servers List, Wow Servers, Mu Online, CS and More GAMES! Best games toplist. Free Trafic just for joining. All games categories. Very high number of unique visitors. ...

Win on You'll wish it had stayed dead
August 4, 2008

I did not find the game, it´s a pity. I haven´t seen the movie but it seems really good, I like Jet lit and the argument is really good too. ...

miketreanor on You'll wish it had stayed dead
August 4, 2008

Wow... I was subjected to the preview for this movie so many times (for various reasons out of my control) and ... well... yeah. I wish it had stayed dead. However, as far as I can tell this is a different Asian mummy this time! When the second level started I laughed out loud. ...

Asi Burak on Local Conflicts
August 3, 2008

Yes, linking to that previous review makes sense... Here is the full text by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich: Peacemaker, a DVD-ROM in English, Hebrew and Arabic by Impact Games (www.peacemakergame.com), for PC (Windows 2000 or higher) or Mac (OSx 10.4 or higher), $19.95, for ages 13 through adult). Rating: **** 1/2 (out of five) To a cold-eyed observer from a distance, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may seem like an open-ended strategy game of terror, counterterror, attack and counterattack. Thus it is not surprising that a company co-founded by an Israeli living in the US has produced this game, which challenges you to untie the Gordian knot and forge the peace that has escaped Palestinian and Israeli leaders for decades. Asi Burak, the game's executive producer and chief creative officer, who has a BA in design from the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem, learned about advanced systems for communication and analysis as a captain in the IDF Intelligence Corps and then left to work as an art director in a major European advertising company and study "entertainment technology" in the US. Peacemaker, which he developed with Eric Brown, challenges you to succeed as a leader in bringing an end to the seemingly interminable bloodshed. Aside from taking on technical advisers, the company hired Prof. Laurie Eisenberg, historian of the modern Middle East at Pittsburgh's Carnegie-Mellon University, who wrote a textbook on the Arab-Israeli peace process and has researched the Six Day War and the legacy of Jordan's late King Hussein. You begin by choosing any of the three languages to play the game, and then you decide if you will lead as Israel's prime minister or the president of the Palestinian Authority (but you can switch to the other side whenever you wish). This strategy game is thus unusual, as it focuses on political leaders rather than military commanders. If you succeed at being a peacemaker by building trust between the two sides, you will finish the game by winning the Nobel Peace Prize. The play is preceded by a video from genuine news footage showing suicide bomber attacks, IDF missions to halt the terror, the security barrier, closures to thwart Palestinian movement into Israel, the Rabin-Arafat handshake on the White House lawn and a few poignant moments of coexistence. An interactive map of only part of Israel (including Sderot, but nothing north of Haifa or south of Beersheba), Gaza and the West Bank is shown. Click on the various cities, towns and settlements to get your bearings; a history time line is provided as well. Your given aim, to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel that is willing to live with the Jewish state in peace, will not satisfy extremists on either side. There are three levels of difficulty - violent, tense and calm, even though the third is not often prevalent in this region - but there is no visible "agenda" that favors one side over the other. There is a dual "satisfaction meter" on the left-hand side of the bottom of the screen that gauges the degree of approval or disapproval felt by the Israeli and Palestinian population, from -100 to +100. If your decisions and actions make this rating drop too far, you will be kicked out of the action and have to start again. Thus players who take the side of extreme Palestinians who want only bloodshed or of right-wing Israelis who want to take over all of Judea and Samaria will not get very far. MK Danny Yatom, the former head of the Mossad and a former general and negotiator, played the game. "It is clear that I need to send troops to destroy the infrastructure of the militants," he said, but then he was disappointed that this "hard-line policy" led to the on-screen message: "You Lost - Third Intifada. Game Over!" There is pull-down menu of military, economic, diplomatic and other activities and subactivities you can choose from one turn at a time as leader of your people. But when you decide, as Israeli prime minister for example, to bulldoze illegally built Palestinian homes, set curfews or, alternatively, to take a conciliatory approach such as dismantling settlements, no action is seen. There are no visible attack helicopters, jet fighters or Kassam rockets, which is rather disappointing. Instead, when you click on your decision, the map momentarily turns dark, and you see the result as changes in the approval meter. The Israeli PM (whose body, like that of the PA president, is shown but without an identifiable head) obviously has more leeway and more power at his disposal than his Palestinian counterpart. Diplomacy in foreign capitals, including Cairo and Amman, and at EU and the UN; foreign terrorists; and the media have a definite impact on your decisions. The game is not very expansive, but it can be immersive. Students at Carnegie-Mellon recently won the University of Southern California's "Public Diplomacy Contest" for Peacemaker, and exploring all the options and learning the background of this endless dispute could be very educational. Perhaps Ehud Olmert, Mahmoud Abbas and Ismail Haniyeh would like to play it together. ...

Ian Bogost on Local Conflicts
August 2, 2008

Thanks Asi. I remember reading the second one, but I couldn't get the full text of the first due to a subscription requirement. It's interesting to hear that one was also as detailed as the other. It's curious that the Global Conflicts review also doesn't link to the earlier reviews of Peacemaker. ...

Asi Burak on Local Conflicts
August 2, 2008

Ian, I am writing this comment with caution and full disclosure, as I am deeply involved with PeaceMaker. However, I would like to provide more context. PeaceMaker was reviewed twice by the Jerusalem Post (one of those by the same writer). I am providing the links below, both reviews are deep and meaningful, and I am not sure why she was that concise dealing with SGI's work. Links: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P1-145003138.html and http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1195546754222 ...

BabbyJoe on "Bored housewives" play online games
July 29, 2008

i am a 27 year old housewife that plays online games and not only that, but i work for World Play Online reviewing games and being editor. I play several online games such as wow, aoc, runescape, everquest, lineage.. etc. Do NOT say there are not females out there who dont play seroulsy because most of my accts are maxed out and i am a skilled and experienced PvPer ...

Tony G. on Coupongaming
July 28, 2008

Ian, Solar SFUN is an advergame package that like most advergames, offers an interactive experience or game play with a twist on the game play VALUE PROPOSITION. We are used to playing casual games were the objective is to win. The best advergames are enough of a reward within themselves for millions of casual gamers to play. Sometimes advergames offer additional incentives which can become VALUE ADDED components or a kind of icing on the cake. When the game play component is strong, the icing is often a bonus over and above the game play. When the icing is as good or better than the cake itself, then this VALUE ADDED component can be perceived by the game player as a significant portion of the total VALUE PROPOSITION. In the case of Sungevity's Solar SFUN advergame, the VALUE ADDED component is a discount of up to $100.00. The discount could be given without requiring game play, but the value to Sungevity with respect to the branding effect of its advergame is obvious. In addition, the discount once won, should generate a viral twist for Sungevity. Who isn't going to brag about winning (or saving in this case) $100? I found another example of this type of "win your discount" within an advergame at Dell's website recently. I purchased a some equipment and when I entered the Dell "checkout", I was offered up to $100 off shipping if I played a very simple Ice Breaker style mini advergame. My son was quickly called to take the helm and within a few minutes we were winners with free shipping. Expect more of this type of VALUE ADDED icing in advergames going forward. In these instances, the consumer can have the cake and eat it too (up to $100 buck in these cases). The natural extension of these web based advergames are advergames that are offered on a local basis, in a store or other place of commerce. It is easy to imagine using your mobile device to respond to an in-store promotion by playing an advergame and when you are successful with the game play component, you get a gift, or discount on a purchase. Thank you for pointing out this nice advergame. Thank you Sungevity for offering us your Solar SFUN advergame. Tony G. ...

Patrick Dugan on Lockdown: A School Shooting Game
July 27, 2008

I've always wanted to see a school violence game that really deals with the social causes of said violence, probably not in this epoch... ...

ghostbuster on Merry Christmas (with Dinosaurs!)
July 24, 2008

I saw this staff at http://megaupload.name/ ...

George R on Wii Fit: Exercise or Simulation
July 12, 2008

It doesn't differ. Simply because people may be more inclined to exercise because of digital feedback doesn't mean it isn't real exercise, it is moreso a testament to our gratification culture. We need feedback to everything at every moment. ...

samplereality on Simulating Torture
July 11, 2008

I've played Rendition, the IF game Greg mentions, and I have to disagree with him. Rendition doesn't explore torture in a way that makes the player regret his or her actions, or forces the player into questioning official rationales for brutal interrogation methods. The game simply grows old as you search for new verbs and new body parts of your victim to abuse. I imagine most people quit playing Rendition not because they are morally disgusted by what they have to do, but just because it gets boring. For a game to fully capture the experience of interrogating someone, with its mixture of awe, disgust, contempt, and surprise (or at least I imagine), it would have to foster a kind of "I can't go on, I must go on" attitude in the player. Rendition only gets the first part right: I can't go on. For a work of interactive fiction that does make the player want to quit because they're repulsed by their own actions, but they can't quite pull themselves away, see The Baron by Victor Gijsbers, a game that truly demonstrates the expressive power of the medium. ...

credit card on Molleindustria's McDonald's Game
July 10, 2008

Compare credit cards with Australia’s leading financial comparison web site, Credit world. ...

George R on Parents: Sex is Worse than Severed Heads
July 7, 2008

Ah, but Danny you have to remember that most Americans are cool with the idea of the sword of vengeance, justice is mine, and those ideas. So even if polled on what they'd rather see their child doing, I wouldn't be shocked if having sex was ranked higher than murder. That's just a part of the ridiculous culture here. ...

DannyLedonne on Parents: Sex is Worse than Severed Heads
July 3, 2008

Don't worry, Ian. This is one issue that doesn't really have to do with videogames; the MPAA's classification of films is very similar. Anyone who has attempted honest depictions of human sexuality get handed an R or NC-17 rating while any amount of violence finds its way into PG-13 blockbusters. I suggest that USA Today release a follow-up poll: "What would you find most offensive in your child's behavior?" I for one would rather my children sever human heads than engage in human reproduction. I'm sure you'll agree. ...

Greg Costikyan on Simulating Torture
June 28, 2008

For a game that does explore torture in the sense that you mean it, see Rendition (reviewed here: http://playthisthing.com/rendition). ...

bingo on Pictures for Truth, an Amnesty International Game
June 9, 2008

I think our kids need more games like this because they dont have many educational games to play. ...

wetcoast on Pictures for Truth, an Amnesty International Game
June 9, 2008

Pity it doesn't work on Macs. I would have loved to try it out. Surely the developers could have chosen a more universal engine to create the game in, thus getting wider distribution. ...

Silent on Budget Hero
June 8, 2008

Well, actually, I have one more criticism to add. It appears, altough I could be wrong, that the game promotes the idea that budget cuts will not be enough to save the government, and that tax increases will be needed. This, by itself, will cause much anger by the pro-growth faction, but that is how the simulation is. I'm not stating these things to claim the game was wrong, it's still far better than other budget sims, but I do believe that these things may need to be pointed out. ...

Silent on Budget Hero
June 8, 2008

I do think this is already old news, but I do want to say something. I do agree with Ian Bogost, and think that there does in fact needs to be some sort of Political Influence counter that determines how many government programs/budget cuts you can implement every year, in order to try and make it realistic. Other than that, you do got people arguing that the game is biased towards liberalism, however, it just takes more creativity to try and create a conservative government that can reduce the budget. I think most criticism comes from the fact that the game is highly in favor of tax increases as a way to deal with the budget, which many people may disagree with, with taxes driving businesses away. In fact, it is very possible to have a Socialist government in the simulation as long as you tax heavily. However, this may be just taking the logic of the simulation, and then breaking it to the point of creating such a situation, and not due to any inherent bias. What I felt really went wrong in this game, however, is that there is a 'win-state' in this game. This win-state is 2070+. Before I discovered the win-state, I thought the game was claiming that it would be impossible to save the US from the national debt, which I felt is...er...pretty cynical. But once I found the win-state, I then began trying different techinques in order to acheive this win-state, caring little for the actual effects on the people. ...

Patrick Dugan on Games for Change Festival 2008
June 6, 2008

Of if you want the high-level analysis, check out these: http://playthisthing.com/games-change-vol-1 http://playthisthing.com/games-change-i-am-changed ...

Tim Holt on Pedometer Pets
June 4, 2008

Applications of the concept are endless... "Rapture Runner" - We put the fun in fundamentalist! Each step you take is a step for Him and a step towards Rapture! "Strip Stepper" - The more you walk, the more clothing they drop! "Jihad Jogger" - You come up with something, I don't want to be on some list. "Rice Runner" - Each step contributes a grain of rice to a food organization. ...

Gamer12 on Sun's Identity Hero
May 30, 2008

SUN's game? Is it a PC based game or a UNIX based? ...

mobicreed on Sun's Identity Hero
May 29, 2008

Download Latest Mobile Games, applications , themes only at www.mobicreed.com ...

Nathaniel Edwards on Ubisoft to Publish Smoking Cessation Game for DS
May 29, 2008

Yeah, that's probably going a bit too far with this whole useful gaming thing for the DS. I have no idea how an anti-smoking game would work, but even Brain Training was apparently unable to help people improve at anything but the game itself with no real effect on general life. Well, there's no reason for me to be so negative about it, people will buy it or they won't. ...

DannyLedonne on Danny LeDonne and Jack Thompson on Free Talk Live
May 28, 2008

The consensus among listeners seems to be "the show was going so well until that lawyer came on the air." However, for better and for worse, the reason that show got so many listeners is because of Jack Thompson - not me. ...

Bo Abrahamsen on Boxing Politician Games. Again.
May 21, 2008

you missed this one http://bloodballot.pressplay.dk/ ...

Ian Bogost on Budget Hero
May 19, 2008

Yes, you're right. What I had in mind was a simulation (or multiple simulations) of the experience of these different policies,not just a description of their impact from a policy level. It's a vaguely unfair critique, since this implies a different game entirely. ...

hornet on Budget Hero
May 19, 2008

Did you happen to double click on the cards? Drilling into the cards displays a tremendous amount of information, including citizen impact! ...

Casey O'Donnell on iTunes App Store can reject you for any reason
May 8, 2008

I've been following this closely, the iPhone SDK and its relationship with XNA/Live Arcade and WiiWare. It's a complicated issue. The most recent release of the iPhone SDK now supports OpenGL ES, so you can finally start making and testing those games even without Apple's approval. It's the step of getting the game onto the iPhone that requires licensing. Distribution is then tied to that licensing key. It looks like Apple's route is somewhere in-between XNA and WiiWare, with XNA only slightly less restrictive and WiiWare significantly more restrictive. An interesting similarity is that XNA and the iPhone SDK require that you use languages relatively specific to those platforms (though Cocoa will get you onto OS X as well, but C# will get you onto Windows too). XNA lets you run your game on the Xbox without anything special, which is where it is less restrictive than the iPhone SDK. The nice thing about the iPhone SDK is that if you have a license, you can remote debug on the iPhone. To do that on the Xbox you'll need a full fledged DevKit. WiiWare of course is at the other end of the spectrum. You must get a DevKit even before you can get started. At least with XNA and the iPhone you can start development and not need to port it to the hardware after receiving license to distribute. In all three cases, you are stuck though. If your game/software is controversial, then likely you'll be booted from the system without much possibility for recourse or alternative distribution. Though, it does make me wonder about the possibility of apps that become sub-platforms. So rather than writing a single game for the iPhone, you write an application with some virtual machine or engine that reads games from another remote site. From what I can tell, this would not violate license agreements. Also interesting is that for a game to get distributed on LiveArcade or WiiWare requires ESRB rating, I don't believe that the iPhone App Store is going to enforce that. The same is true with the Community Arcade (or whatever). I'm slightly concerned about the "peer review" aspect of the XNA Community Arcade, and what defines one's peers in the realm of game design, and what kinds of folks will volunteer to review. Sometimes peer review can result in fairly mediocre outcomes or the suppression of ideas that push the envelope. All in all, it seems an experiment largely in the same sort of business practices. Open up a bit, but by all means control distribution. ...

Ian Bogost on Libery City Satire
May 2, 2008

Perhaps, although the environment isn't the social model either. I think there are aspects of it in the series -- the nutrition and respect model in San Andreas, for example -- but I still remark on how relatively hidden those experiences are, compared to the remediated text and images. ...

tanner on Libery City Satire
May 1, 2008

I wouldn't say the GTA series is devoid of critique beyond the "skin" of the game. While I haven't explored IV much, I think in many ways the antagonistic environment of the series is offering a rather cogent point about the American culture of violence and police state. I particularly liked how the middle of the map in San Andreas was occupied by a giant mountain aptly named the panopticon. That seemed to provide a textual confirmation of the gameplay elements I had already felt were communicating a tension between desire and self-regulation. ...

Tele3dworld on NASA MMO Update: Brains Pulled, not Funding
April 24, 2008

I still think you have to look at this as a non-linear 3D to 3D educational environment. A Virtual Playground that inspires learning through play; just like the real world. Remember when you were child you thought like a child and learned like a child. \why cannot be the same when you are a man? We now have the tools to to do it. We should not take up the challenge because it is easy, but because it is hard. To recreate a virtual Moon and mars before the end of the decade and to enable people to explore and experience them surely is a noble deed. With NASA support we can achieve this objective, lets's just do it! Those of us who stayed for the afternoon session (app. 20) got the real deal. ...

Tele3dworld on NASA MMO Budget Cut from $3m to $0
April 23, 2008

You have to look at as a non-linear 3D to 3D educational environment. A Virtual Playground that inspires learning through play; just like the real world. Remember when you were child you thought like a child and learned like a child. \why cannot be the same when you are a man? We now have the tools to to do it. We suould not take up the challenge because it is easy, but because it is hard. To recreate a virtual Moon and mars before the end of the decade and to enable people to explore and experience them surely is a noble deed. With NASA support we can achieve this objective, lets's just do it! ...

Tim Holt on NASA MMO Budget Cut from $3m to $0
April 23, 2008

Actually there is one company/project in existence that is pretty close to working with this model, and that's Whyville. No charge, popular, already very comfortable working with sponsors and so forth. ...

Ian Bogost on NASA MMO Budget Cut from $3m to $0
April 22, 2008

Daniel -- thanks for that note. I appreciate the need for a long-term business model in serious games of all kinds. But should it really the job of the developer to propose such a thing? Do you honestly believe that qualified MMO developers are also wise, wry businesspeople with plans for a never-before attempted commercial educational MMO? Can developers propose a development budget (e.g., the originally suggested $3m) as a part of their business plan? ...

dlaugh on NASA MMO Budget Cut from $3m to $0
April 22, 2008

NASA is expecting the development partner to be able to generate a revenue stream from the project. Proposers are expected to submit business plans as part of their proposals. ...

Reinhard on We pwn free games
April 20, 2008

Dear Ian, On a rather unrelated note I will have to comment off topic - mainly because I was not sure where exactly to place this, still I thought advergames would probably be the most suitable section: As it appears, Wilkinson (http://www.ffk-wilkinson.com/de/) is advertising their latest product with a beat-em-up between father and baby (!), who are in the midst of a competition for the attention of their wife/mother (!!). Very oedipal! Looking forward to hearing your keynote speech in Berlin! Regards, Reinhard Prosch ...

tatianahunt download on DC Smackdown
April 17, 2008

I ve found the best game of the year Assassin's Creed by a few clicks. First click was from google to http://fileshunt.com (rapidshare search engine) a few min. later a was downloading the game. I hope that would help you too. ...

playbe on The Revolution will be Litigated
April 16, 2008

dear ian and hi matthew, thank you for your post over at your blog, matthew, and - i assume - quasi reply to my comment in the above. i think you missed some of the slight irony i tried to package into my reply here at WCG. thus, let me be a tad more explicit - consider this: why do you think galloway & the RSG collective translate and distribute their digital implementation of debord's game, which went by the french title of "le jeu de guerre", into the german name of "kriegspiel" (a term which is, excuse my repetetiveness, grammtatically incorrect and a typo)? let's see - because translating the term into german is, say: fun / appropriate / critical, or, as suggested over at WCG, situationism in itself? in europe, we do carefully differentiate between languages, and french is not german, and german ain't french. at least to me, language matters, and esp. titles do. why? because - excuse my lecturing tone - language is suggestive, emblematic, symbolic and a vehicle of power. i do not find any traces at http://r-s-g.org/kriegspiel/about.php as to why RSG chooses a german name for their (straightforward) port. it is not the ominous "some" who have interpreted that debord�s game is a derivative work of reisswitz's game, as you suggest; it is the RSG group whose german language game title suggests that this is the case. using a german name for an explicit port of debord's game is, unfortunately, imprecise, and misleading, and not a straightforward port. however, there is one acceptable exception: galloway & his group are making a statement. but then, this statement is, frankly, lost on me. the only western nation that has been waging war in the past couple of years, and the only nation that has been pioneering the public usage of "war" training video games is: yeah, right, english speaking. a decorum title of a digital port of debord's game thence is "game of war", a name which, by the way, mckenzie wark uses throughout his clever essay posted to the situationism blog (ian mentioned it, too). i can only hope that someone from RSG follows this discussion, too. i would love to see them involved in the conversation. take care, spw ...

Dakota Reese on My new column: Videogame Pranks
April 15, 2008

So I should apologize for posting a 1/2 formulated thought and then not clarifying right away when it was rightfully called out... Also CMS stripped out some psuedo-code that was intended to make the first part of the comment a little more whimsical. I think the irony of Josh Galloway's situation with the Debord estate highlights the point I was attempting to articulate. Here and there I've encountered a few individuals whom were openly offend when Wasik aired his laundry in My Crowd. You might say that they reacted similarly to the way McGonigal did in Re: My Crowd, but to the Nth degree. For lack of a better way to classify this hardcore pretension, I filed these people away as "Debord-ists." Now as you pointed out they seem to strive to maintain the aura of the situationism- which makes the act, more or less, ritual sacrament. Now everyone I'm currently thinking of undeniable had/has a stick up their ass, but I'm starting to wonder if there might be some legitimacy to their stance. Is nothing sacred? Why can't a prank be sacred- esp. if a prank is in the form of game and viewed through a Huizinga-esque lens? ...and the feedback loop of irony begins anew. ...

mkirschenbaum on The Revolution will be Litigated
April 13, 2008

Just left a long post on the subject here: http://www.zoi.wordherders.net/?p=103 ...

Patrick Dugan on Chris Crawford's Nine Breakthroughs
April 12, 2008

Man, I've been so close to the Storytron thing it's hard for me to get excited about it. It's been a few months away from being ready for like, three years. Seems like it anyway. I'm fairly confident that they are almost ready though, for real this time, having noted the milestones. Storytron may or may not be revolutionary in it's platform, but it is a great lesson for content creation platforms in general. I think it will find it's niche among them as well. I know of one dedicated to short form games (Mockingbird), one dedicated to virtual worlds (MetaPlace), one dedicated to serious games (TBA) and then there's Storytron, deddicated to storyworlds. Why not? I've got a post-mortem of serious game research done with Storytron coming out on SGS pretty soon, check it out. ...

Christian McCrea on The Revolution will be Litigated
April 12, 2008

Its also worth remembering that rules cannot be copyrighted under long-standing legal principles in Europe and America, but the artistic presentation of those rules can be. (This is my understanding of my early foraging into situations involving game art.) I certainly hope it gets resolved, or there is some way for RSG and the Debord estate to form a collaborative result instead of legal affront. It would be a shame to see one of my favorite thinkers and a contemporary attempt by a games scholar to do something interesting come to blows. ...

mkirschenbaum on The Revolution will be Litigated
April 9, 2008

Wow, that's an amazing (and woeful) development. To answer the question above, there's only a vague, thematic resemblance between Debord's game and the original 1820 Kriegspiel. The latter was played by laying metal bars across maps, to represent troop dispositions. Frequently it was also umpired, with the umpire determining the outcomes of combat, etc. A new edition of the 1820 rules set is available here: http://www.toofatlardies.co.uk/ ...

Acne Free In three Days on Food Force
April 9, 2008

I wanna play that game ...

Ian Bogost on The Revolution will be Litigated
April 8, 2008

Thanks for these great pointers, Steffen. I should probably note that "Kriegspiel" is Galloway's name -- Debord's was "Le Jeu de Guerre." Also recommended, Christian McCrea's detailed discussion of the matter: http://wolvesevolve.wordpress.com/2008/04/08/allegorithmic-litigation/ ...

playbe on The Revolution will be Litigated
April 7, 2008

hi ian, just a quick addendum re: the origins of the game debord had built, courtesy of claus pias' highly readable and excellent archaeology of strategy games laid out in his book from 2002, "computer spiel welten" pp. 204ff., so far;-) only available only in german: between 1780 and 1820, a number of games were invented in prussia which transformed and redefined the game of chess first towards a "tactical game based on chess" aka "war chess" (johann christian ludwig hellwig, 1780) towards what eventually became the "kriegsspiel" (sic! - double 's'). the original game of this name, first demoed by georg leopold baron of reißwitz in 1811 to prince wilhelm of prussia, used a sandbox into which a terrain had been modeled, applying the "irrational" scale of 1:2373 - i love this part - crazy baron. reißwitz and later his son, georg heinrich, kept on iterating rules and make up of the game, for example by adjusting the scale to a more reasonable 1:8000, and by tabletopping it, using topographical, modular terrain pieces to puzzle war landscapes instead of baking sand, or by employing lightweight metal figurines for representing troops. the rules - "supplement" - of the kriegsspiel were pretty complex, detailing movement and battling, and even allowing the creation of rules in itself, e.g. for "exceptional" game states (which even the kriegsspiel's referee could not decide) in the form of random generator dice. on a side note: pias points out how game elements such as the random generator as well as the numerically intricate supplement can be considered a form of mechanical computation; as mentioned, his book is an archaeology of computer games... peter p. perla in "the art of wargaming" (1990:4f.) describes how the kriegsspiel, eventually, became quite popular within the prussian officer corps, and how, in due course, it was introduced to the military in other countries such as the US, the UK, or france. dunno if debord's book mentions all this. would be quite interesting to see how his game and the kriegsspiel ca. 1820 overlap. rolf nohr from the braunschweig school of fine arts has done some research about hellwig's game. for example, a reconstruction of the 1780 game board can be downloaded from http://www.strategiespielen.de/spielplan_hellwig.pdf. hellwig's rules - written in olde german - can be downloaded from the braunschweig digital library - http://tinyurl.com/44hu36. one last thing: i don't know if you noticed - i think i remember you read german - the debordian term "kriegspiel" is grammatically incorrect. but maybe that's situationist? or am i being pedantic? yeah, i should have told debord himself. ach, never mind;-). thanks for pointing out galloway's version, i am looking forward to playing it, spw ...