Wargaming

Why is war gaming so popular? Is it the fact that the aim of the game is to run around killing people? Something, which appeals to the majority of the male population. Fair enough, being able to let your anger out through the game by killing a few people is fun at the beginning. But isn't it just the same thing over and over again. It is this repetitiveness that I find unappealing. But somehow it has managed to keep the attention of many players. Is it the feeling of having control and power, defeating your opponents and commanding an army that drives each player?

Another question to ask is, does war gaming promote war? Or is it just purely a form of entertainment? What about the game America's Army? This was one game which was developed to influence people to join the army. It was designed as a training program and claims that playing the game will give you a greater understanding of what being in the army is all about. But is this possible? Can a game really give the player a true sense of what it would be like if they were actually in that environment. I don't think it can, how can a game prepare you for a war. It seems to me that this game was brought out to entice people to join the army, giving them false expectations of what it is really like, it allowed them to experience war without the consequences. So is it safe to say that in some way, America's Army promoted war? It presented war in a false light. It used the entertainment factor of the game to recruit players while claiming that it was purely a training exercise, but can what one learns in playing a game based on war be of any benefit when faced with the real situation?

As mentioned in a previous post, I believe that one can learn many things from playing games. Such as learning processes rather that valuable knowledge and that these process can be adapted to be used in real-world situation. But when it comes to the topic of war and war games, I don't feel that even the processes learned throughout the game will be of any benefit when faced with an actual war. Which brings me to the conclusion, that war games don't really have any other purpose other than providing another form of entertainment in games. Not that there is anything wrong with being purely focused on entertainment, but if this truly is the case, it makes the reasoning behind creating the game America's Army questionable?