Hiding in Plain Sight: Connecting Commercial and Professional Wargames

John Curry will discuss how the hobby have influenced developments in professional gaming.

About this event

The talk is focused on the theme of how the hobby have influenced developments in professional gaming. Highlighting that the hobby games introduced concepts such as tabletop landscape, miniatures and political gaming. I then outline the wargaming evangelists who have influenced the direction of professional gaming, with the examples of HG Wells, Donald Featherstone, Colonel Dupuy, James Dunnigan and Paddy Griffith. I will then demonstrate how Matrix Games and Confrontational Analysis has spawned a whole series of professional wargames. My analysis suggests that professional gaming should openly acknowledge the need to borrow good practise from other disciplines, as well as the hobby sector. The world is facing critical threats and games are being played to help inform decision making and prepare leaders. If developments from hobby wargaming can improve the value of these professional games, this is of potential benefit to us all.

Bio

John Curry is a senior lecturer in games design and cyber security at Bath Spa University in the UK. As editor of the History of Wargaming Project, he has authored/ co-authored/ edited over 100 books on wargaming. He publications included Gaming Disease Response (with ED McGrady), editor 2nd edition of Peter Perla’s Art of Wargaming, editor Graham Longley Brown’s Successful Professional Wargames: A Practitioner's Handbook, co-authored Matrix Games handbook and co-authored Handbook of Cyber Wargames.