NEW EPISODE: The Games Behind Your Government's Next War
Added 2024-09-05 15:05:06 +0000 UTCAnother lighthearted documentary from your friends at People Make Games!
This time Quinns explores the disconcertingly-familiar world of government-funded, military wargaming and its relationship with the commercial games industry.
We go on a real journey with this one.
Also... I know we say this a lot, but this documentary took so much time and energy to get over the line. We simply could not have done any of this without your support on Patreon. Thank you for having our backs!
Comments
Stumbled on this repost about a wargame played last year on the possibility of nuclear war between Israel and Iran https://thebulletin.org/2024/10/a-wargame-suggests-how-a-war-between-israel-and-iran-might-go-nuclear/#post-heading Am halfway through watching this video and thank you for including your/PMG reactions as part of this, "neutral" or "objective" is impossible.
Annie Koh
2024-10-07 23:19:48 +0000 UTCIs there a list of sources you used? Some of the articles mentioned sounds interesting. I found the Three Witches one: https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1245&context=nwc-review And the Influence Wargaming Handbook can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/influence-wargaming-handbook
Mathijs
2024-09-19 12:37:49 +0000 UTCpls fix the autofocus on your camera, it was so distracting :c But awesome video, honestly what a thorny subject, couldn't think of a better team to cover it!
AndreGG
2024-09-18 02:51:01 +0000 UTCYou've left very little wiggle room between "morally cataclysmic" and "our [British] role in the creation of Israel through to arming it today". I question your understanding of the necessity of Israel, as well as of the actual history of your nation's involvement. Do you get that, unlike in games, it is not all the same in the end who wins and who loses in the real world?
Felipe Chor
2024-09-18 02:46:12 +0000 UTCI'm a Indigenous affairs journalist from the states and I was initially intrigued by wargames as a way to simulate reservation politics, as I report on issues tribes go through to access federal funding, state and private economic pressures, and the myriad of environmental issues. It’s sad that the findings for such research are not reliable. I think it could be a way for tribal governments to utilize finite resources more efficiently, and to shine a light on the long shadow of colonialism.
Taylar Stagner
2024-09-16 18:14:50 +0000 UTCHey folks, just wanted to say I *loved* this video. I'm a Brit living in Finland who also works in the games industry (As an artist). I was definitely more anti-war and wary of the military a few years ago, but after Ukraine and *especially* living about 200km from Russia in a country with a bad history of expansionist empires, I've definitely seen more of a benefit to investing in our own military capabilities. Honestly, if I was living in the UK I would probably be trying to enter the more military side myself, (Not sure I an really help national security in Finland as a non-citizen :P) and I'm not sure how useful an artist would be. But I wanted to say, I completely understand the complexity of the topic, the shifting of opinions, and I feel I have a fairly rounded understanding of both sides on this, so I really appreciate you folks putting out something like this, knowing it is both important, complex, AND might ruffle some feathers. Had to support you folks after watching it <3
Sam Santala
2024-09-11 06:32:48 +0000 UTCi'm a little torn but i decided to cancel my membership. on the one hand i'm genuinely glad you decided to cover this super important topic. but i think there's so much more you could have and should have done to engage from an anti-war and anti-imperialist perspective. i feel gross knowing that my money (however tiny) was used to show this side of the industry in such an equivocal way, with the platform that PMG has. there's a whole world of critical games studies that explicitly investigates and engages with games' role as weapons of empire, and how they operate in the context of nationalism. i think it would have made all the difference to me for some of those voices to be present here instead of literally only representing voices from within the wargaming industry 🙃 all that said, i hope you continue to make great documentaries, and continue to cover this topic with nuance. i'll probably be back
Isobel Shasha
2024-09-10 23:46:15 +0000 UTCChilling. Great work, guys.
ChatN
2024-09-09 16:14:55 +0000 UTCI find it interesting that many designers still use pen and paper for prototypes when it feels so much quicker to me to use TTS. Prepare the basics once and the iterations are in a big amount of cases just trivial.
Leberschnitzel
2024-09-09 07:13:32 +0000 UTCI’d love to see a follow-up conversation between Quinns and Cole Wehrle. Given that Cole’s work (and interests) exists at the nexus of the war gaming ‘hobby’ and the creative renaissance of boardgaming, I would be fascinated to hear his perspective.
Brett Rolfe
2024-09-08 14:01:39 +0000 UTCSame here ! I started designing a "serious game" as part of my job in climate and migration research, and so much of what you covered has crystallised a bunch of things I've been wondering about.
David
2024-09-07 21:32:18 +0000 UTCThe same here, basic level for now but I am sure that will grow. Great work Quinn and Anni!
Alan Pritchard
2024-09-07 19:55:49 +0000 UTCTotally understandable and especially for such a long video. But rather than keep them to myself I wanted to help you out :) Great video btw. But then again, all your videos are great! Much love ❤
Optional
2024-09-06 21:14:24 +0000 UTCThanks so much!
People Make Games
2024-09-06 21:11:07 +0000 UTCNot a stupid question! Unfortunately we don't have a version of the video without the swearing, I'm sorry about that. Thanks for showing the videos to your students though, that's lovely to hear :) -Chris
People Make Games
2024-09-06 21:10:57 +0000 UTCThanks so much for pointing these out! They've been fixed, alongside a number of other small errors. We sometimes rely on a third party service to write the captions after a video has been published and they're sometimes prone to errors until I've gone through and fixed them. -Chris
People Make Games
2024-09-06 21:10:05 +0000 UTCTwo subtitle corrections: 31:41 PMG' audience or gamers -> PMG' audience of gamers 52:48 nuclear bonds -> nuclear bombs
Optional
2024-09-06 19:51:16 +0000 UTCHello, I have a potentially stupid question. I am a high school Game Development teacher. I have shown several PMG episodes and clips in my classes and would LOVE to show this one, but being a teacher in America is... Complicated sometimes. Is there a more "clean" language cut of this. I can go in an chop this up for my purposes, but if I can shave a little time off my prep it would be great. I doubt any content would be an issue, but I am sure I could get dinged by some parent over profanity. Thanks again for the amazing work you guys do!
Brian Bautista
2024-09-06 18:27:42 +0000 UTCJust wanted to say this video is the one that convinced me to sign up for the patreon. Excellent work
Adam Chess
2024-09-06 05:56:21 +0000 UTCI really appreciate your willingness to take on the role I think responsible journalists have with a subject like this, which is not to remain a hypothetically objective party, but to ask the questions that need asking, not only relay what is shown or said but what it could mean, and be willing to stake some positions about it. With all the wargame field's conflicting factors and interests, asking about the moral implications *and* whether we can even actually trust the information these games supposedly produce are really good conversation starters, and I'm definitely going to be thinking about this a fair bit. Thanks for making the kinds of things you're making, especially where there isn't nearly enough being said.
DefinitelyNotLazav
2024-09-06 01:41:11 +0000 UTCWhen you started showing slitherine games, I started to feel really uncomfortable because I own a lot of their wargames and play them often. This is a difficult, but very useful conversation to have.
Bruno Sauvagnat
2024-09-05 16:05:50 +0000 UTCQuite the curious experience watching the video while at work, where we (among other things) we run cybersecurity roleplays and tabletop games for companies and others. We started doing this, because me and a fellow colleague pushed for It as a potential business opportunity while I was still in-training and, It was in no small part inspires by watching shut up and sit down every week religiously during my time un uni. Great work as always with the video :)
Luis V.
2024-09-05 15:46:25 +0000 UTC
