Chris Engle Wrote In 1990 I did a game to replay the events of the 1989 fall of communism. A very inspiring event I thought. In the game a certain Ukranian Colonel refused to fire on Eastern European protesters which lead to a Colonel's conspiracy inside the army. My military brother in law said that this could NEVER happen. A few years later, the Ukraine was independent and the Red Army stopped a communist coup attempt. So much for what we KNOW. Dylan Wrote Chris' gave an example of how non-mathematical modeling through a matrix game can penetrate to the essence of a situation. I find this insight to be the most valuable experience in playing a matrix game. Not wanting to go into the politics of the situation, I realized that the Gore campaign was using a matrix argument to question the outcome of the Florida vote. Argument: Gore wins the Presidency because 1) He won(?) the popular vote, and in a democracy that's what should count. 2) That the ballots are tainted and miscounted in Florida 3) Gore wins the court case because there was election chicanery with black voters. Whether you agree or not is another question, but the structure is a matrix argument. You could disagree by down rating the argument, or by making a counter argument and having a conflict round. The flexibility of the matrix could lead to a productive exploration of political, ethical and social issues. As a didactic tool it could be very useful, people have to come up with three reasons for an argument. Groups could discuss the reasons given, vote on the strength of the argument and then roll the die for closure. In a class discussion the class could vote on the best argument. In either case, the Action and the supporting reasons are open to scrutiny and discussion. Another side benefit is the structure of matrix games leads to both exploration and closure. Matrix arguments could be used outside of a formal game. Even in clarifying ones own thinking on a problem or issue the technique would have value, especially if one makes arguments and counter arguments. As a species we are more likely to look for evidence for our positions than one that disproves our ideas. This is real a neat system. Back to Table of Contents -- Matrix Gamer #20 To Matrix Gamer List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Chris Engle. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com