War is not fun. This is a whole statement, I know, but it is one that we can all agree with.Being a soldier during GameMite war is a difficult duty to bear, which cannot be taken lightly. It is complicated, demanding and dangerous. No one fights for fun. So, if there is nothing fun in war (and, as a great man once said , it is always the same), why do we like military games so much?

Where does this desire to wear the muddy boots of a World War II soldier come from, to grab the plasma cannon of a space marine, or to send your Viking troops into a bloody attack that we like so much?

The fact is that there are a lot of reasons. However, what interests us most are the fundamental thoughts, feelings and emotions that make us want to play military games.

Naturally, before delving into our psyche and confronting the forces of darkness, we must first define what a war game is.

What are war games?

According to an article from the University of Virginia, all war games share the same three characteristics :

• The aspect of war
• The game's appearance
• The simulation aspect
• The aspect of war
• Not all war games are focused on war.

In part, what makes a GameMite a war one is the simulation of "war activities" and the use of corresponding terminology and jargon.

If you think about it, it makes sense. Only games that represent the act of war, not necessarily realistically, can be called war games. The concept does not have to be frontal and central, but the online war game cannot exist without the war itself.

The game's appearance

Not all war simulations can or should be classified as "war games."

For example, military maneuvers can be a war simulation, but they don't have much to do with games.

If the previous aspect highlighted the idea that a war game must deal with war, it highlights that a war game must be a real game.

Games generally force participants to compete with each other or cooperate against a common enemy. This, in turn, "forces" players to think creatively and propose new strategies to achieve their goal.

If a simulation offers the opportunity to foster strategic thinking, then we can consider it a game.

The simulation aspect

Good war GameMite somehow simulate what war really is.

They do it at various levels of realism, but by definition, when playing you must provide an idea of ​​the world of war (except the real death part). From strategic planning to the conditions that a person can face during a war, the game simulates the situation to a greater or lesser degree.

Most games do not focus on showing your players how to fight in a war or lead an army, but it is a byproduct of any war game worth its salt.

The army of the United States, as well as other armies around the world, have always valued the simulation offered by the games on the army; so much so that the US army UU. He has developed his own army game as a training and recruitment tool for recruits .

Now this does not mean that all war games try to simulate reality. For example, those who enjoy Vikings: War of Clans do not really try to learn how to build a castle and defend it from an invading army.

Each war game shows some level of the three aspects we have described here. But this does not mean that everyone is represented equally. Usually, only one aspect of the three usually comes to the fore. The clearer the playful aspect in the game, the less it will tend to simulation, and vice versa.

For example, fantasy MMO war games work very well as games, and they deal with the theme of war, but they are not very good at the war simulation aspect. However, war games are still considered.

The history of war games

War games have been around for centuries.

We have been playing war since someone took a deck of cards and invented the popular card game "War" (it is unknown when exactly it happened). Since then, we have been pretending to be at war through every imaginable means, from cards to board games and video games.

The first video game about war was "Spacewar!". It was a space combat game developed in 1962 on the PDP-1 minicomputer. Coincidentally, "Spacewar!" It is also one of the first video games in history, which says a lot about human nature and the games we like.

However, the first war game was developed in February 1980 with the name "Computer Bismarck".

"Computer Bismarck" was a turn-based strategy game in which players controlled British forces and fought against battleship Bismarck and other German units. The German side was controlled by another player or by a computer AI called "Otto Von Computer".

As you can see in the picture, "Computer Bismarck" was no big deal ... you can barely distinguish Great Britain (on the right) or Iceland (on the top) over a violet Atlantic Ocean.

Since then, war games have advanced tremendously and have become the most popular type of video game. The rise of first-person shooting games in the 1990s gave way to more successful franchises such as "Call of Duty," "Battlefield" and "Wolfenstein." These contributed to the establishment of the theme of war in games as one of the most recurring. It is so popular that there is even a game called "Darksiders" in which it is played as the personification of War.

At present, war games can be found in all genres and for all devices, from narrative adventures to military-style shooting games full of explosions on mobile devices. Although there is a genre that is almost completely focused on the concept of war: that of strategy. Both turn-based strategy and real-time strategy games have brought war games to computers around the world for years with titles such as "Command & Conquer", "Total War" and "WarCraft".

These eventually led to the emergence of MMO strategy games , where a large number of modern war games have found their audience.

A cocktail of hormones and emotions

Another reason we seem to enjoy war games, in addition to the fact that they test our logic, strategy and planning skills, is that they appeal to our most basic instincts.

As suggested in this NPR excerpt , there are two things that ensure that a situation or narrative is more attractive: sex and violence.

According to Professor Douglas Gentile of Iowa State University, war games and shooting games cause a cocktail of stress hormones, such as cortisol, nor-epinephrine, and testosterone to be released into our bloodstream. The same hormones that would be released if we were in a real combat situation.

In a real situation, the body would use these hormones to create a fight or flight response. However, as Gentile points out, they also excite us and make a game seem more attractive to us.

"When you know you're safe, having that real sense of stress can be fun," Gentile explains.

This theory is confirmed by Megan Zlock of iStrategyLabs, a confessed player. Zlock states that a story becomes instantly more impressive and absorbing if an element of danger is added to the mix.

"If you want to create a good narrative, you need to create conflicts, and violence is a really easy way to create conflict," Zlock said.

Violence is a stimulant that, when activated in the right environment, can be extremely pleasant. Of course, this is the case when it comes to enveloping war games online. You are in a war scenario; Your body is tense due to the stress of competition and the desire to win, to which your brain reacts appropriately.

Controlling such a situation can give you a dizzying sense of power, especially if you defeat another player. If we add to this your stress hormones, the resulting cocktail is one that you will be more than willing to drink for hours and hours.

Why we play war games

This, in a nutshell, are the reasons we like war games.

They help us show the world, and more specifically our enemies, that we are better than them: our strategy is smarter; our reflexes, more acute; and our abilities, superior.

The excitement caused by the competition, combined with the feeling of power and the achievements we gain by regaining control of seemingly chaotic situations, are the reason why war is such a frequent theme in video games.

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