Connections North 2024 AAR

The seventh annual Connections North interdisciplinary (war)gaming conference was held at McGill University in Montreal on February 17. Some 78 people registered for the event, a comparable turn-out to other recent year. The full programme can be found here.

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The first panel of the day offered critical reflections on matrix gaming. Matrix gaming has become increasingly popular as a quick and cheap method for both educational and analytical gaming. Is it overused? What are its strengths and weaknesses? What are best and worst practices?

Madeline Johnson (Canada Revenue Agency) started us off with an overview of what matrix gaming is, for attendees who might be less familiar with the approach.

This was followed by two in-person presentations, by Jim Wallman (Stone Paper Scissors) and Sean Havel (Defence Research and Development Canada), as well as four short pre-recorded contributions by Tom Mouat (Defence Academy of the UK), Joe Chretien (US Army War College, ret.), Catherine Jones (University of St. Andrews) and Carsten Roennfeldt (Norwegian Defence University College).

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Many excellent points were made by the presenters. There was broad agreement that good matrix games are heavily dependent on having “the right people in the room,” in terms of both expertise and diversity. There were some concerns that they are overused, in part because they are so easily developed and executed. Concerns were expressed about the potential effects that facilitators can have in distorting game outcomes. Finally there was considerable discussion of modifying the approach, whether as an ancilliary to other techniques, to increase analytical rigour (by introducing more structured systems or processes)—or, conversely, by adopting even more narrative-based approaches with even less formal structure. Underlying all of this was broad agreement that game objectives come first—only once you’ve decided on these, and also considered various practical considerations (participants, time, budget, etc.) can you begin to consider whether a matrix game approach is useful (or not), and if so how it might be used or adapted.

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The second panel, chaired by Stephen Downes-Martin (US Naval War College), explored gaming deception. Stephen also talked about the new wargaming deception working group, a collaborative effort by Connections US (which will have a session on deception at their 2024 Wargaming Conference) and the Simulation & Wargaming Study Group of the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO).

Next, Alex Karasick (Canadian Joint Warfare Centre) offered some thoughts on how deception is modelled in wargames. Central to this was what he termed the “paradox of deception,” whereby the more formally you try to integrate deception into a game design, the less it works.

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I also presented some thoughts on the topic, drawing a distinction between “modelled” deception (in which deception is a game effect) and “executed” deception (in which one player is actually attempting to deceive another player). We are Coming, Nineveh! involves a bit of both.

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Finally, Scott De Jong (Concordia University) talked about his ongoing work on gaming deception. He emphasized the need to rethink how we conceptualize deception; to more fully examine the “grey ecosystem” in which disinformation is created, disseminated, rebroadcast, and accepted; and to think more about non-traditional spaces (including games and play).

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At this point, Connections North did something different—instead of another panel, we broke for an extended (3.5 hour) lunch break and “Connections North Expo.” The latter involved game demonstrations and displays from Archipelago of Design, Calian, Defence Research and Development Canada, HMCS Venture, Stone Paper Scissors, Concordia University, McGill University, and Sheridan College. In addition, students from my POLI 452 conflict simulation course put on a poster display session in which they discussed their serious gaming topics. This proved to be especially popular.

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Our last panel of the day, chaired by Ben Taylor (Defence Research and Development Canada) examined wargaming and policy gaming in Canada: retrospect and prospect. The various panelists—Philippe Beaulieu-Brossard (Archipelago of Design), Anthony Robb (Canadian Joint Warfare Centre), Julia Smith (Simon Fraser University), and Christian Caron (Canadian Army Simulation Centre and Calian) offered their thoughts on progress made, obstacles , recruitment and development, and diversity and inclusion. A lively discussion followed.

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I think there was broad agreement that despite progress, serious challenges remain, and that (war)gaming and other serious gaming in Canada often remains too dependent on the presence of a few sympathetic or knowledgable people in the right places, who are at risk of moving on, being replaced, or retiring. We also have a way to go in promoting in forging links across related communities, and in building greater diversity and inclusion. The medical simulation community, for example, is far ahead of wargamers in measuring educational impact and refining techniques—and yet we rarely interact. Manual wargamers rarely interact with digital game developers. We don’t do enough to reach out to game-adjacent methodologies, like red teaming.

We also could do more to encourage historically under-represented groups. Only 20% of our panelists at Connections North this year were women, down from 33% last year. However, we also have no travel support to offer, which makes it more difficult to recruit contributors. On the other hand, 37% of our attendees were women, perhaps the highest ever at any Connections conference. Most of these were students, so hopefully that is a positive sign in terms of growing the field and fostering new talent.

In the summer we will start thinking about Connections North 2025. If you’re interested in helping (or hosting), drop us a line!

Photo credits: Rex Brynen, Matt Caffrey, Mathieu Primeau (Via LinkedIn), Jim Wallman.

Two weeks to Connections North!

There are only two weeks to go until the Connections North professional (war)gaming conference, which will be held at McGill University in Montreal on February 17.

Registration for the conference is via Eventbrite. Registration closes on February 16, so don’t leave it until the last minute!

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Connections North 2024 registration now open

Registration for the Connections North interdisciplinary (war)gaming conference is now open (via Eventbrite). The conference will take place on Saturday, February 17, at McGill University in Montreal.

CONNECTIONS NORTH is an annual conference devoted to conflict simulation, wargaming, and other serious games. It is intended for national security professionals, policymakers, researchers, educators, game designers, university students, and others interested in the use of serious games for analysis, planning, education, and training.

Connections North is part of the global network of Connections professional wargaming conferences in the US, UK, Netherlands, Australia, and Japan. Along with many others, we are cosponsors of the Derby House Principles on diversity and inclusion in professional wargaming.

Save the date: Connections North 2024

The next Connections North professional (war)gaming conference will be held on Saturday, 17 February 2024 at McGill University in Montreal. The anticipated sub-zero temperatures makes this the perfect conference to attend if you got overheated attending NATO WIN 23 or Connections UK.

Further details and a registration link will be posted closer to the date. This year the programme will include substantial time for game demonstrations and short workshops, so if you’re interested in offering one of these please get in touch.

Connections North 2023 report

The annual Connections North professional (war)gaming conference took place at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa on June 9.

This was the seventh Connections North conference since 2016, and the first time we had met in person again since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. Details of previous conferences can be found here

As the name suggests, the conference embraces a broader array of serious games in addition to wargaming, something which reflects both the smaller community in Canada and our view that there is substantial overlap in key design and implementation principles across most game topics, military and non-military alike. We also try to maintain a distinctive focus on the issues that confront Canadian (war)gamers, as well as others working in smaller policy communities or resource-constrained environments.

The conference followed our earlier online Workshop on Serious Gaming, held virtually back in April in conjunction with the Canadian Defence Academy. This is something we hope to do annually as an introduction to the field.

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So that everyone has a sense of what others are doing, the conference starts every year with a round-up of (unclassified) wargaming activities in the Department of National Defence, and in serious gaming more broadly.

Canada Gaming Roundup I: National Defence

• Ben Taylor, DRDC (chair)
• Bruce Chapman (DRDC) (slides/pdf)
• Christian Caron (Canadian Army Simulation Centre) (slides/pdf)
• Anne Reiffenstein (CDA) (slides/pdf)
• Anthony Robb (CFC) (slides/pdf)
• Tony Chainho (CJWC) (slides/pdf)

Canada Gaming Roundup II: Policy Gaming

• Tom Fisher, Imaginetic (chair) (slides/pdf)
• Stefanie Game, Imaginetic (chair)
• Jason Garcia (Policy Horizons) (slide/pdf)
• Bianca Popa (CRA) and Madeline Johnson (CRA) (slides/pdf)
• Philippe Beaulieu-Brossard (Archipelago of Design) (slides/pdf)
• Brian Train (video)
• Scott DeJong (Concordia University) (slides/pdf)
  

An extended lunch period followed. Participants were able to network, visit display tables (by PAXsims, Imaginetic, Calian, and Archapelago of Design), play a demonstration game of We Are Coming, Nineveh!, or visit the War Museum’s new “War Games” exhibit.

Game Lab: Gaming Ethical Challenges

Before lunch, participants selected one of three “gaming ethical challenges” design briefs. After lunch they formed teams of 5-8 and were given one hour to come up with some game design ideas. These were then briefed back to the entire conference in a series of 3 minute timed “elevator pitch,” each of which was followed by a few questions from our panelists.

• Wendi Winter, CDA (chair)
• Rex Brynen (McGill University)
• Stefanie Game (Imaginetic)
• Anne Reiffenstein (CDA)
• Shannon Lewis-Simpson (CFC)

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The final session of the conference focused on developing future game scenarios appropriate to Canadian policy concerns. Topics addressed included the general importance of scenario thinking in foresignt analysis, the development of scenarios for the DND/CAF capability based planning process, and identification emerging issues that needed more serious gaming attention in Canada.

Building and Gaming Future Scenarios: Canadian Perspectives

• Madeline Johnson, CRA (chair)
• Claire Woodside (Policy Horizons) (slides/pdf)
• Andy Lee (DRDC) (slides/pdf)
• Stefanie Game (Imaginetic) (slides/pdf)

Overall we were very pleased with how it all went. There were 81 conference registrations, of whom 74 attended on the day. Of those who registered, 46 were government of Canada (33 DND/CAF, 13 other government departments), 9 were students, and 26 were “other.” Around 18% of our attendees were women, as were 33% of our panelists. (The former number is down a bit from the past, likely because we had fewer students than when the conference is held at McGill University. Usually, around half of my conflict simulation design class are women.) We were extremely pleased that Calian Group—which supports wargaming and exercises in the CAF and elsewhere—chose the conference to announce that they are joining the growing list of cosponsors of the Derby House Principles on diversity and inclusion in professional wargaming.

The Canadian War Museum was an outstanding host for the event, and we would like to thank them for all of their assistance. We would also like to thank Defence Research and Development for their financial support this year.

Garvin: Connections North AAR

At the No Dice, No Glory blog, David Garvin provides a report on the recent Connections North professional (war)gaming conference.

I will also be posting a report (with links to many of the presentations) to PAXsims in the near future.

War Games at the Canadian War Museum

The Canadian War Museum in Ottawa will be hosting a new exhibition on wargaming from 9 June to 31 December 2023.

From historic board games to modern military simulations, war games are as ancient, varied and complex as war itself. 

In this wide-ranging exhibition, learn how war games evolved over time — from early strategy games to massive multiplayer online battles — and how militaries use gaming as a training tool. Hear thought-provoking perspectives from professional gamers, researchers, designers and veterans.

War is not a game. Yet war games offer insights into our relationship with real and virtual armed conflict. 

We’re especially pleased to report that among the items included in the exhibit will be a Western Approaches Tactical Unit convoy escort game developed by our very own Kit Barry, as well as AFTERSHOCK: A Humanitarian Crisis Game.

Participants in this year’s Connections North professional (war)gaming conference (June 9) will get a chance to tour the exhibit during the conference, as well as an invitation to the launch event.

Connections North 2023 conference programme

The Connections North 2023 professional (war)gaming conference will be held at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa on Friday, June 9. The conference is intended for wargamers and all other serious game professionals, and anyone else interested in how games can be used to support education, planning, and policy analysis.

Additional information and registration details can be found at the link above. Conference registrants will also receive an invitation to attend the launch of the Museum’s new wargaming exhibition on the evening of June 8.

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Workshop on serious games (report)

On April 18, Connections North held a half day online introductory workshop on serious gaming, in collaboration with the Canadian Defence Academy, Defence Research and Development Canada, and PAXsims. The workshop was led by Dr. Ben Taylor (Defence Research and Development Canada) and myself (Rex Brynen, McGill University). There were over sixty participants, of whom about two thirds were from the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces, and the remainder attendees from other Canadian government agencies, academics, game designers, and others.

The workshop was intended as an introduction to serious gaming, in advance of the annual Connections North professional (war)gaming conference in Ottawa on June 9. Given the geographic size of Canada, we thought an online workshop would best facilitate participation from coast to coast to coast. The workshop wasn’t recorded, but most of the slides can be found below.

The first session on “why serious gaming?” provided an overview of the value (and limitations) of serious gaming, and offered a range of examples to highlight the many different applications of gaming as an analytical and educational tool.

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The second session addressed serious game approaches and reviewed the centrality of balancing fidelity vs playability, as well as manual vs digital games; different ways of undertaking adjudication; players turns and actions; representing time, space, and other metrics; hidden and imperfect information; incorporating uncertainty; distributed gaming; and seminar and matrix gaming.

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The third session looked at the process of serious game development.

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Following this we had an hour long “show and tell” session, in which a variety of Canadian wargamers and other serious game designers discussed their work with workshop attendees. This was divided into two simultaneous breakout rooms: one devoted to wargaming of military operations, and another addressing a broad range of other serious gaming examples. We are very grateful to colleagues from the Canadian Joint Warfare Centre (CJWC), Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC), the Canadian Defence Academy (CDA), Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), Archipelago of Design, and Imaginetic for contributing to these sessions.

Finally, we identified a variety of key resources and points of contact for further learning and professional development.

Overall it seemed to go very well, and we hope to see many of the participants again in Ottawa in June at Connections North 2023.

Connections North 2023 registration open

Registration is now open for the Connections North professional (war)gaming conference. This will be held at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa on 9 June 2023.

CONNECTIONS NORTH is an annual conference devoted to conflict simulation, wargaming, and other serious games. It is intended for national security professionals, policymakers, researchers, educators, game designers, university students, and others interested in the field of the use of serious games for analysis, planning, education, and training. This year’s conference will address:

• The state of serious gaming across Canada, with two panels devoted to national security gaming and other educational and policy gaming respectively.
• Gaming ethical challenges.
• Building and gaming future perspectives: Canadian perspectives.

In addition, there will be time available for networking, game demonstrations, and touring the War Museum’s new wargaming exhibition. We also promise that the temperatures for this year’s conference will also be a little warmer than the sub-zero chill of our usual February date!

We are grateful for support from Defence Research and Development Canada and the Canadian War Museum for the conference. Connections North is a proud cosponsor of the Derby House Principles on diversity and inclusion in professional wargaming. Information on previous Connections North conferences can be found here.

UPDATE: The conference programme is now available here.

Connections North save the date: 9 June 2023

The Connections North 2023 professional (war)gaming conference will be held in Ottawa on Friday, 9 June. Further details will be shared on PAXsims when available.

Our venue in 2023 will be the Canadian War Museum—which also plans to launch a wargaming exhibit that same month.

Connections North 2022 conference videos

Presentation videos from the 2022 Connections North professional (war)gaming conference are now available on the PAXsims YouTube channel (look for the “Connections North 2022” playlist).

Connections North Day 2 preview

The Connections North 2022 professional (war)gaming conference is now just over a week away. We’ve already provided an overview of what is in store for Day 1 (February 19), so let’s now have a look at Day 2 (February 20).

We will be starting off with a panel on coopération dans le jeu sérieux, chaired by Tom Fisher (Imaginetic). Here we will look at how to forge closer cooperation between anglophone and francophone serious game designers around the world. The session will be bilingual. Our presenters will be Louis-Martin Guay (Université de Montréal), Benjamin Williams-Rambaud (Université Clermont Auvergne), and Patrick Ruestchmann (Serious Games Network-France).

Next, Brian Train will be chairing a session on influence gaming. How do we game social, political, and diplomatic influence in an age of digital communications and social media? What models and approaches have been developed to address this central feature of politics, politics, and conflict? Discussing this will be Sean Havel, who played a key role in recent influence wargaming at Defence Research and Development Canada, together Graham Longley-Brown (LBS), and Jim Wallman (Stone Paper Scissors)—both of whom have been part of a larger Dstl project examining the topic.

Our third session of the day is a bit of an experiment, a mix of semi-serious wargaming vignettes and improvisational comedy modelled after a well-known British and American television show. Whose Game is it Anyway? will feature Stephen Downes-Martin (US Naval War College), Ben Taylor (DRDC), Jim Wallman (Stone Paper Scissor), Yuna Wong (IDA), with yours truly (Rex Brynen, McGill University) acting as the host. Have ideas for “Scenes from a Hat,” “Let’s Make a Date,” or “Party Tricks”? Email me!

As is always the case, our final session of the conference will provide an opportunity for both a hot-wash of this year’s programme as well as an opportunity to be Looking Ahead. What should we be doing in the coming year? What might we do for Connections North 2023? Brianna Proceviat (Canadian Joint Warfare Centre) and Madeline Johnson (Global Affairs Canada) will be co-chairing and facilitating the session, and Stefanie Game (Imaginetic) will be telling everyone a little about the Connections: Next Gen conference on March 12-13.

The full programme can be found here, and conference registration is via Eventbrite.

Connections North Day 1 preview

With the Connections North professional (war)gaming conference fast approaching on February 19-20, so we thought we would give you all a preview of what is to come.

On February 19 we will be starting off with our usual Canada gaming update panels, designed give conference participants a sense of who has been doing what in wargaming, policy gaming, and serious gaming across Canada. Tony Chainho will discuss the work of the wargaming team at the Canadian Joint Warfare Centre, Robert Engen will bring us up to date on gaming at Canadian Forces College, and Murray Dixson will review wargaming at Defence Research and Development Canada. After that, Mia Consalvo (Concordia University) and Neil Randall (University of Waterloo) will both be offering perspectives on the state of game studies and serious gaming research across Canada, Philippe Beaulieu-Brossard will tell us about the work of the Archipelago of Design, and I’ll be talking about gaming at McGill University, including my conflict simulation design course.

Our next major topic will be Gaming Coalitions: Beyond Generic Blue. In many conflicts one (or more) of the participants may be an alliance or coalition. At a first approximation, we can design games in which coalition forces can behave as if they were from a single national military force. Traditionally these are called BLUE or RED. On further examination, coalitions are much more complicated than that, but how do we represent multi-national coalition forces in games? We will hear thoughts on this challenge from David Redpath (CJWC), who promises us he’ll be controversial; Jim Wallman (Stone Paper Scissors): Tom Mouat (UK Defence Academy); and Wayne Buck and Aaron Beam (NATO ACT).

Our final Day 1 session on Institutional Uptake will focus on the the value and use of gaming from the perspective of sponsors, clients, and senior policy-makers. Our presenters will be MGen Bill Seymour (Canadian Joint Operations Command) and Martin Roy (Global Affairs Canada). The session will be chaired by Stephen “Three Witches of Wargaming” Downes-Martin (US Naval War College).

The Connections North conference programme has been designed again this year to not only promote the use of wargaming, policy gaming, and other serious gaming across Canada, but also to highlight the particular issues and challenges faced by (war)gamers in smaller defence and policy communities. Not everyone, after all, has the resources or global engagement of the United States. We hope, therefore, to see colleagues from small- and medium-sized countries there to share their own perspectives. There will be plenty of time for informal discussion during the half hour breaks (and breakout rooms) between panels

You’ll find the latest version of the programme, including bios for all the speakers, here. Registration is free, via Eventbrite.

Also, stay tuned for our forthcoming summary of Day 2 events!

Connections North 2022 registration open

Registration is now open for the Connections North 2022 professional (war)gaming conference, to be held online on February 19-20 (Saturday-Sunday).

CONNECTIONS NORTH is an annual conference devoted to conflict simulation, wargaming, and other serious games. It is intended for national security professionals, policymakers, researchers, educators, game designers, university students, and others interested in the field of wargaming and other serious games.

Themes to be addressed this year include:

• Canada gaming update (two sessions)
• Gaming coalitions: beyond “generic Blue”
• Institutional uptake of serious games
• Promotion de la coopération dans le jeu sérieux
• Influence gaming
• Whose game is it anyway?
• Looking ahead 

Registration for the conference is required, but is free.

UPDATE: The conference programme is now available.

Please share this announcement within your networks.

Connections North is a sponsor of the Derby House Principles on diversity and inclusion in professional wargaming.