[NON BLOG] The Ease of War
Mar. 16th, 2005 09:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldOne thing that I've done since I've gotten home Internet access again is sign up for an online simulation game of the history of the 22nd century, as new great powers (and in some cases, hyperpowers) have formed in the non-Western world and human technology has advanced to the point of supporting interstellar colonization. I joined late and I'm playing France; I don't know of a causal connection, but who knows? For the time being, it's enough that my country's doing well at home and that it's one of the first countries active in the Alpha Centauri planetary system. Right now, there's a possible Third World War situation on Earth (briefly, an India with a blue-water navy and nuclear weapons is on the verge of a shooting war with a Brazil equipped with orbital-bombardment weapons on the issue of Indian naval deployments to Cuba). I've offered my offices as a neutral mediator and made sure that the potential combatants knew better than to attack la France d'outre-mer.
The game is a reasonably complex simulation, with a lot of variables and a lot of possible values for each variable. In its way, it compares well to my favourite simulation games. The actively pro-Brazilian bellicosity of the Netherlands, unique in 22nd century Europe, reminds me of simulation games' major flaw, that is, the tendency for ahistorical bellicosity. It's unlikely that an immensely prosperous and largely demilitarized Netherlands would risk devastation in a Third World War over matters which wouldn't be of any concern to it; it's unlikely that early 16th century France would have been able to overcome European opposition to the annexation of southern England and Europe east to the Rhine; in both cases, it's unlikely that the populations of the aggressive states would have supported these policies given their serious costs. When your life isn't on the line, gambling everything is rather easy.
The game is a reasonably complex simulation, with a lot of variables and a lot of possible values for each variable. In its way, it compares well to my favourite simulation games. The actively pro-Brazilian bellicosity of the Netherlands, unique in 22nd century Europe, reminds me of simulation games' major flaw, that is, the tendency for ahistorical bellicosity. It's unlikely that an immensely prosperous and largely demilitarized Netherlands would risk devastation in a Third World War over matters which wouldn't be of any concern to it; it's unlikely that early 16th century France would have been able to overcome European opposition to the annexation of southern England and Europe east to the Rhine; in both cases, it's unlikely that the populations of the aggressive states would have supported these policies given their serious costs. When your life isn't on the line, gambling everything is rather easy.
