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Imagine my surprise when Google Analytics told me a visitor was coming from a PDF file! Thanks for the mention of Fardh al-Qanoon. This article intrigued me into wanting to give Persian Incursion a try.
Thanks for the mention and a good evaluation of Persian Incursion. Very interesting to read about the other games as well.
Interesting evaluative article. Some wargames have educational value, but not all. The clever trick is working out which games are the more valuable ones. Good piece of work.
Bill: I don’t think a game has to be accurate to be used for teaching, provided it is briefed/debriefed properly. On a couple of occasions, for example, I’ve set the computer game Tropico (in which the player is the rather cartoonish leader of a small island republic) as an assignment, and then had students critique its representation of politics and economics in a developing country. It worked very well–but I certainly wouldn’t use Tropico as an analytical tool to understand (say) Cuban or Jamaican politics.
Hi Rex. Yes. Great article. Thanks for sharing that outside the Journal… In the article, you make a distinction between games that are ‘analytical tools’, and one that can be ‘teaching tools’ in that one can fail to be an analytical tool, but still be used to teach. What do you see as the criteria for each?
Oh, that should be an interesting conversation!
Very nice!
Interesting that you cited Tom Grant’s critique of Labyrinth: He has invited me to do his podcast, so I’ll be following in Brian’s august footsteps!
Best regards, Volko
Nice article! I especially like that the mention of the complexity in Persian Incursion gives me an excuse to beat one of my favorite drums ;-) That being my belief that bridging the gap between “cardboard” and “digital” games will open up new and exciting avenues for bringing together best of both worlds (e.g., digital games that remove the need to roll hundreds of dice and physically manipulate markers to track status, while maintaining the flexibility and transparency that often make board gaming a preferred choice).
Thanks for the mention of A Distant Plain!
Heh — so that’s a book review?
I know, I know, the future is just not very evenly distributed…