What we have in view is something completely different. The game at its present adolescent stage of development is capable of faithfully modeiling the narrow range of the measurable, the realm of the scientific method. It embodies a very 19th Century, mechanistic world-view. Insofar as warfare is analysible and predictable and not random violence, it is a science. But there comes a point in any science where the objects under scrutiny take on a life of their own, neccessitating the margin of unpredictability ever present in all our calculations so that while the range of outcomes can be foretold, the order of their occurance cannot, and any given attempt may have any conceivable result. Theoretically a force of a given magnitude is required to lift a known weight, but in reality, once that power is unleashed its effects are essentially chaotic and follow their own laws, which are not penetrated by mere observation. Science can only describe the limits of that unknowable chasm between theory and fact, that realm which is poetry's rightful sanctuary. That moment when the marching and preparing are done and the machinery of war tears and sunders its opponents. flinging its bits into the air and churning up the ground, is like the history of an accident: no two accounts will be the same because the scope of events has gotten beyond human scale. With the adrenalin of danger flowing, no human can calmly and objectively perceive events near and far across the battlefield in their proper perspective and relation to the whole. But if, in spite of the distractions of me moment, the commander remains mindful of the theory and can place himself in the right place at me right time, which is just that place where scientific theory breaks down and humanistic values, intuition, feelings and spirit are required, he can wrench the unique and non-synthetic fabric of momentary reality toward victory. He has combined the science with the an of warfare. "The history of a battle is not unlike the history of a ball." as Wellington said of Waterloo. The scientific aspects of a wargame, the chance tables, sequences and prescriptions for use also do their best to describe the range of possibilities in the specific instance and do not venture further into the unknown. The essentially mystical element of the die roll is juxtaposed in mutual dependency with me analytical. The die serves as the unknown quantity which, on the human scale, always appears as if it were handed down on the winds of fate -- it thus preserves the chaotic perspective of the battle field and forces an intuitive or poetic basis in the ultimate moment of crisis, an adoption of the calculated risk, which alone can grant success. "Un coup de de's jamais n'abolira le hasard." -- Mallarme. (A throw of the dice will never do away with chance.) But science has failed to provide mankind with understanding. With all their ability to incorporate and display data and its bubbling activity in a giant, complex mathematical equation, wargames still fail to show us events as those peered to the participants, or why historical events came out like they did, because in the games, within the context of mechanism, the right moves -- or the moves the designer wants to suggest -- are all too obvious, and the blunders of history stand out in naked relief. This leads gamers to the erroneous, if not dangerous, view that either Napoleon was a fool, or that they have surpassed his genius. The only way to dissuade gamers from this view is to so distract them with considerations other than simple maneuver and firepower, that we can trick them into making the obvious mistake, the historical mistake. Let them kick themselves, then they have learned! With these other considerations lie me future transformation of the game. Most importantly, how does one's culture and upbringing alter one's perceptions of reality? To an Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy, abstractions such as logic and mathematics are overwhelm6d by others such as honor and "face." Why, at Stalingrad, did Paulus turn against the evacuation of Sixth Army7 Was this the intervention of Pride? Did his promotion to F.M. make his fighting to the last a matter of personal honor? Was this, perhaps preferrable to being rescued by the "upstart" Manstein? In short, did von Paulus' "cultural outlook," his upbringing as a Junker, effect his thinking? Were not, in fact, these shared and felt perceptions an even stronger influence than simple rationality or good tactics, because they were more immediate? Finally, how can we go about isolating these illusive impulses toward "irrational" or even self-destructive actions? How can we chart the effects of culture and peers on the actions of a man under pressure? I believe these kinds of questions are of the first importance for our future games. When you see this sort of issue raised in a game, you will never be able to go back to the simple wargame. In fact, as those other, humanistic systems evolve, you will not notice that we have been removing the wargame out from under them. In the formal structure of an ancient Chinese House we would find, in careful study, a reflection of the values of the culture from which it sprang. A more familiar example of the same phenomenon might be found in the structure of the central core of Bach's John Passion. lThat the introduction can ba a vivid and convincing motion picture of a passage through the clouds -- that content grows upon structure -- is the concern discussed by Dave Isby. As Nicholas Harnoncourt points out, "The chorale 'Durch dein Gefaengnis,' is the central point in the 'core' of the entire work. Around this chorale, are arranged symmetrically, like the wings of a baroque palace, choruses with the same, or very similar, musical character." Chorale 27 -- Ach, grosser Koenig Chorus 29 - icht diesen, sondern Barabam 31 -- Betrachte, meine Seel' 32 -- Erweege, wie Chorus 34 -- Sei gagnuesset Chorus 36--Kreuzige, kreuzige Chorus 38--Wir haben ein Gesetz Chorus 40--Durch dein Gefaengnis Chorale 42 -- Laessest du diesen Chorus 44--Weg, weg mit dern Chorus 46--Wir haben keinen Koenig 48--Eilt, ihr angefochtnen Seelen Chorus 50--Schreibe nicht Chorale 52 -- In meinas Herzens Grunde It is those similar structural characteristics held in common between the baroque composition and palace which we seek to isolate, and demonstrate, in a 'Glass Bead Game.' By internalizing and utilking the baroque frame of mind, system of organization, and notions of heirarchy the central point representing God in creating a new baroque work of art, in public performance -- whether it be a musical composition or architectural design, we would throw fresh insight onto genuine artistic creations of the period. Thus, the finite output of Western Culture could be kept forever new. "There is something in it of Divinity more than the ear discovers: it is an Hieroglyphical and shadowed lesson of the whole World, and creatures of God. Such a melody to the ear, as the Whole World, well understood, would afford the understanding. In brief, it is a sensible fit of that harmony which intellectually sounds in the ears of God." -- Sir Thomas Browne: Religio Medici (1643) "The sign language and grammar of the Game constitutes a kind of highly developed secret languege drawing upon several sciences and arts, but especially mathematics and music (and/or musicology), and capable of expressing and establishing interrelationships between the content and conclusions of nearly all scholarly disciplines. The Glass Bead Game is thus a mode of playing with the total contents and values of our culture; it plays with them as, say, in the great age of the arts a painter might have played with the colors on his palette. All the insights, noble thoughts, and works of art that the human race has produced in its creative eras, all that subsequent periods of scholarly study have reduced to concepts and converted into intellectual values, the Glass Bead Game player plays like the organist on an organ. And this organ has attained an almost unimaginable perfection; its manuals and pedals range over the entire intellectual cosmos; its stops are almost beyond number Theoretically this instrument is capable of reproducing in the Game the entire intellectual content of the universe." -- Hermann Hesse In the future, gamers will present their own game mechanics before the gaming audience and then prove the little enamelled tiles depict reality, by demonstrating principles of the art being gamed specifically. as they are employed in successful play. As it is now, designers are an elite few who monopolize the presentation of game mechanics before the gaming public. But this will change, when game systems can be described with more exact terminology. Anyone conversant with the terminology could design a game description -- perhaps publicly at the annual games -- not just playing someone else's design. Designers now can describe elaborate game systems to each other, then "play" them without need of more than a few reference works [the tactical study] and a few spare counters, at most. So equipped, one could check for flaws in a "game design description." Perhaps that critiquing group will always be an elite, along with the competitors in the annual games. But the economics of the selection process will be removed, eventually [as the game passes into the Universities, its only a foothold at this stage being, predictably, MIT] and will branch out into all the disciplines, in the humanities. Back to Wargame Design Vol. 1 Nr. 1 Table of Contents Back to Wargame Design List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1978 by Operational Studies Group. 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