skip to main content
Article Podcast Report Summary Quick Look Quick Look Video Newsfeed triangle plus sign dropdown arrow Case Study All Search Facebook LinkedIn YouTube Bluesky Threads Instagram Right Arrow Press Release External Report
Peter PerlaChristopher WeuveMichael MarkowitzRobert RubelStephen Downes-MartinMichael MartinPaul Vebber

Summary

As part of the Transforming Naval Wargaming project, CNA and the War Gaming Department (WGD) of the U.S. Naval War College (NWC) had an extended discussion regarding failure modes in professional military wargames. This paper is both a summary and an extension of those conversations regarding “wargame pathologies.”

Any wargame can be broken down into a series of constituent parts, or elements. These elements are:

  • Objectives
  • Scenario
  • Database
  • Models
  • Rules and Procedures
  • Infrastructure
  • Participants (Players, Controllers, and Observers)
  • Analysis
  • Culture & Environment
  • Audience(s).

One way of looking at the problem of wargame pathologies is to divide a wargame into these constituent elements and analyze each one as a potential source of pathologies. This approach, which we call Game Element Analysis (GEA), has several advantages:

  • It breaks the problem into smaller parts, which is especially useful if several designers are each responsible for designing different parts of the game.
  • It promotes comprehensiveness, by making sure that all parts of the game are at least considered as potential failure points.
  • It can easily be included in a systematic game design approach, because it is based on the fundamental structure of a game. It requires no new game design procedures.

This paper is intended as a practical guide in implementing GEA. To that end, in the remainder of this paper we will take a detailed look at each of the wargame elements, starting with a short description of the function of the element in the game, its failure modes, and a list of key questions for the designer to ask when examining each element.

*Originally published in September 2004, this paper was reprinted in December 2024.

Download report

Approved for public release: distribution unlimited.

Details

  • Pages: 55
  • Document Number: CRM D0010866.A3/1Rev
  • Publication Date: 9/1/2004