On the game of war, the role of networks, simulation, design and copyright

1. By RSG

2. Guy Debord

4. “The cinema seems to me
to be over”

5. Michael Curtiz (director). The Charge of the Light Brigade, 1936. Film still.

6. Strategic and Historical Games

7. The Game of War (1978).
Source: Becker-Ho & Debord, A Game of War (London: Atlas Press, 2007).

8. (reissue edition) Gallimard, 2006 (first English translation) Atlas Press, 2007

9. Kriegspiel. Source: Debord & Becker-Ho, Le jeu de la guerre.

12. 1st Shift
• Chess - Medieval Warfare
• Game of War - Napoleonic Warfare

14. Guy and Alice Debord playing the Game of War (photograph: Jeanne Cornet)

15. 2nd Shift
• Napoleonic Warfare
• Modern Warfare / World Wars
• Post-Modern Warfare / Urban conflict /
Counter-Insurgency / Unclear combatant
identity

19. 3rd Shift
• Network-centric warfare
• Soldiers are reorganized into flexible,
interconnected pods
• Networks as weapons

20. Why go back to the
1800’s?
• Tried to establish simulation (and gaming) as
a theoretical practice
• Necessary in this development to proceed
historically, step by step
• So after Chess (ver 1.0) The Game of War
would be the next logical step (ver 2.0)

21. "...the [game] exactly
reproduces the totality of
factors that deal with war,
and more generally
the dialectic of all conflicts."

27. http://r-s-g.org/kriegspiel
RSG production team for "Kriegspiel":
Alexander R. Galloway, producer and programming
Carolyn Kane, research
Adam Parrish, programming
Daniel Perlin, sound
DJ /rupture and Matt Shadetek, music
Mushon Zer-Aviv, design
Presentation based on text by Alexander R. Galloway and Mushon Zer-Aviv.

28. Simulation
• Top-down
• Modeling the global rules of the system
• Abstraction
• Generalization
• Construction of algorithms

29. Simulation
• The game designer
• the strategist
• the army general
• the law-maker
• the ruler

30. Representation
• Bottom-up practice
• Writing
• Image making
• Game play
• Participation of normal users, artists,
storytellers and activists

31. Playing both sides
• On one hand - Create simulation
• On the other - find the exploits
• Lay the rules...
• ...and then learn how to excel within them

32. Board vs. Software
• The game designer is the legislator
• In board games rules are enforced by the
players
• The same players who try to break them
(cheat)
• Computer algorithms embed both rules and
enforcement
• Debord’s book had several errors

33. Challenging Boundaries
• What are the boundaries of simulation?
• Are they defined by game rules?
• Are they defined by software?
• Can the rule-breaker (hacker) becoming the
rule maker (game designer)?

34. Guy and Alice Debord playing the Game of War (photograph: Jeanne Cornet)

35. Ceased & Deceased letter "take all necessary technical
from Alice Debord measures to prohibit internet
(April 1st, 08): access to this game"