This is a very interesting deep dive into how much wargaming has an influence on world politics.
Maybe I'm too cynical at this point, but the thing that most surprises me is the fact that other people are surprised at how deeply intertwined the game industry is with the military industrial complex.
Ok I finished the video.
My main thought here is actually... What if they're wrong? What if they have the wrong people making the wrong wargames with the wrong underpinning philosophy that goes into their production?
There are going to only be liberals working at the British Army wargames companies that this covers. There are not going to be marxist-leninists at them, there aren't going to be trots, there aren't going to be any people that have even engaged with material from these things. Maaaaybe there's one dude somewhere in there who has but for real there isn't going to be anyone.
The very philosophical foundational basis of the games they create is going to be idealism, because it's the foundation of liberalism and all of the people working for british military funded things will be liberals (or fascists, basically same thing in practice here).
What if they're wrong? What if they're getting entirely the wrong people to do this because the ideology they're fighting for is just wrong? What if the ideology they're ultimately going to be fighting against(China), marxism, is right?
They probably aren't thinking about this. They probably aren't thinking much about how most of those in power in Russia were raised in the USSR and are still highly influenced by their marxist educations either, even if they are capitalists today they have a materialist educational background under a different ideological structure.
They do not seem to consider this at all.
your country's wargames might now be something that you can get a career in. Or could determine your career in games by you deciding that you are ethically opposed to your labour being used by the sector in any way.
Interesting choice of words in that first five minutes. Use of the word labour suggests to me these dudes are socialists or sympathisers.
Quinns is married to Leigh Alexander, the lady who wrote "Gamers are Over". PMG also did this video on the Disco Elysium situation, which er... isn't exactly their finest bit of reporting.
I've been a fan of Shut Up and Sit Down (their tabletop games focused channel) for a long time but I wouldn't call them socialists.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Well most of their channel is about covering the labor aspect of the games industry. They had several videos covering child exploitation on Roblox and the company’s attempt at removing them, Valve employee conduct, and some other things i forgot. But they also got a video praising a Hong Kong activist because he epically protested Blizzard or whatever. Probably just progressives
Quinns is better well known for his channel Shut Up & Sit Down. I used to watch their videos way back in the day when I still bothered with boardgames. From the past videos I've watched of his, it definitely seems he's somewhere around or past at least the socdem side of matters. In a good way.
Haven't watched but can someone list of which games he touches on in the video?
It's more about the concept of wargaming (think boardgames) and how they're used by the military to run simulations and less about anything specific. That said, games I recall being mentioned are:
- Slitherine games (Panzer Corps 2 flashes on screen for a second or two)
- Call of Duty (specifically the mid-2000s modern warfares and the AC130 segments which are deliberately modeled to look like combat footage)
- Watch the Skies, an alien invasion megagame created by a guy who runs wargames for the UK government
- The COIN series of boardgames (A Distant Plain, Fire in the Lake) which were created by a CIA analyst.
Cool cool thanks a ton for the summary, curious about the COIN games so I'll probably watch this later
Oh hey, this event they went to was at Sandhurst, I've been and have family that trained there lmao.
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
