serial consign

[the game of war / from alexander galloway's 2007 talk at mediamatic / photo: silvertje]

Once you start peeling back the layers of discourse that cut through game culture, one of most developed discussions you'll find is on the relationship between gaming and the military (see my previous post Information and Warfare). Ed Halter dedicated an entire book to exploring the Military-Entertainment Complex with his 2006 text, From Sun Tzu to Xbox: War and Video Games and he continues to blog about the topic at War and Video Games.

Alexander Galloway is no stranger to "gamer theory" and gave a talk this past fall at Mediamatic where he presented a Java prototype of Guy Debord's Game of War that his Radical Software Group had been working on (see Anne Helmond and Michael Stevenson's posts for more info on this presentation).

[my moderately successful attempt to fortify my borders]

As per the endorsement of Iman Moradi, I recently started dabbling with Weewar, an online turn-based strategy game that allows you to get in touch with your inner imperialist. In the game, each player starts out with a few bases, troops and currency to levy an army. The game map is broken down into hexagonal plots of land, with a range of possible terrains each being ideal for or off-limits to specific unit types. Each player must scramble to capture bases (which boost financial assets) while protecting their territory.

The simple maps, limited unit types and lo-fi graphics are quite refreshing and in many ways the game has more in common with the original "wargame" Kriegsspiel than most contemporary military simulations (i.e. the razzle-dazzle gameplay of Command and Conquer). Best of all, gameplay moves along quite quickly due to an automated email system that informs players when it is their turn.

Weewar has been enjoying a lot of success over the last few months - it was recently nominated in six categories for the 2007 Browser Game of the Year and boasts a community of more than 25,000 players. I wholeheartedly recommend the game for research into simulated warfare and/or compulsive procrastination.