Wargames at War

End Note

This is the end of the book. I could go on and on, but my editor only gave me so many pages. I talked her into giving me some more, but for a subject so vast, it's never enough. So how do you move on beyond what I have presented in these pages? The answer is simple, and obvious. You go and play the games, or study the games, and perhaps you'll get really ambitious and create your own games and simulations.

Wargames are a new form of media that have been lurking in the shadows for thousands of years. It's new because in the past there were never a large enough number of highly educated people to form a true community of gamers. This has changed in the last thirty years. Wargames are very much a side effect of widespread higher education. Computers have made the games even more accessible.

Best of all, gamers have learned how to see beyond games on military conflict. My own interest was from the social history angle, and that explains why I often (with varying degrees of success) emphasize the non-military aspects of the wargames I have designed. Yet games of war are but the tip of the iceberg in gaming. There's politics, economics and every aspect of human life you can think of, and these belong in wargames also. That games like SimCity and Civilization appeal to wargamers is an indication of this trend.

Carry on.

[[VASIF05]]

Gordon Walton and I created this mock up of the strategic computer screen for Victory at Sea. I was still putting the specifications for the programmers.

[[Assumption is resolutions...]]

Gordon Walton and I had to sort out how various different types of information for Victory at Sea could appear on the screen simultaneously. This is an example of how we mocked this up.