Help the Pentagon Design a Wargame

Started by DicedT, September 17, 2012, 09:45:18 AM

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DicedT

Put this on the new blog: http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelpeck/2012/09/17/help-the-pentagon-design-a-wargame/

I also let Consimworld knowl. I'm curious to what suggestions the wargamer community can offer.

Michael

bayonetbrant

The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers


Jack Nastyface

M,
I also posted some comments (just before a meeting) that regrettably lacked proper editing.  I do my BA in English Lit. very little credit (perhaps I should comment in iambic pentameter?)   In any case, not one of my better posts.  I will stop stalking you if you wish, but I DO admire the work you do.

J Nf

Now, the problem is, how to divide five Afghans from three mules and have two Englishmen left over.

DicedT

Jack, if you only knew the number of typos I make (I can spell, but I'm not a great typist). It was a very thoughtful and informed post. Keep up the good work.

Michael

ArizonaTank

I am interested to see what comes out of this.
Johannes "Honus" Wagner
"The Flying Dutchman"
Shortstop: Pittsburgh Pirates 1900-1917
Rated as the 2nd most valuable player of all time by Bill James.

James Sterrett

Me too.  We've turned the final draft over to the National Simulation Center, who, in theory, will pass it along to PEO-STRI, who, in theory, will set up a contract to have it built, probably by a sub- (or sub-sub-)contractor.  At any of these stages it could get mangled *improved* from what we tried to write up.


Smuckatelli

James, any chance that you can pass a copy of the draft to Trasys?

James Sterrett

Yes - will try to remember to send it to you tomorrow.

taijeronv

Add some military/Taliban flavor to SimCity and voila.  Wouldn't it be cool to do some CAS in SimCity?

Besides the game doesn't teach anything, that's what the instructor is for.

TJ

Mr. Bigglesworth

Quote from: taijeronv on April 02, 2014, 02:22:05 PM
Add some military/Taliban flavor to SimCity and voila.  Wouldn't it be cool to do some CAS in SimCity?

Besides the game doesn't teach anything, that's what the instructor is for.

TJ

Heresy.

Instructors provide information. They may also provide methods of using the information. The rest is up to the student to learn/figure out.

Militarys have a top down structure for coordination of parts. People in this mind set tend to think you pour the desired knowledge into the heads of students. Learning is emergent. The student puts things together based on their experience. Their interests. You do not control the mental constructs they come up with.

The same holds for the people they interact with out on the battlefield.

I would help if I did not have to do other work and I got an ok from some Canadian authority that they don't mind.
"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; "
- Shakespeare's Henry V, Act III, 1598

taijeronv

Ok maybe I didn't explain myself.  And you sound like a high speed academic good for you.

I've been doing this a long time.  The wording in Mike's article was that the game was going to teach the student something, as if there were no instructor interaction.

I don't know your background so I won't get to upset.  And you probably know all the wonderful theories about adult education etc.  For all I know you may have trained and educated cadets, officers, NCOs, and soldiers like I have.  In my experience it "helps" to have an instructor present.  I don't teach them what to think I teach them how to think.  You should watch me sometime, when it comes to teaching this stuff I'm pretty freaking good.  Most of my kids don't have any experience whatsoever.  I may not control their mental constructs as you put it, but I can damn sure put things in the proper context.  There is no autopilot learning when it comes to this stuff.

I can't remember who it was but some high speed sims guy thought they could take the instructor out of the loop, now that's heresy.  At least when your talking about what I teach and how I teach it.  No computer game is as good at teaching this stuff as I am.  The game provides the science, but it does not teach the art.

I've been training AND educating soldiers for over 30 years.  What Mike said in this article, and I know he didn't mean it this way, was akin to saying "give them the manual, the manual will teach them everything they need to know".  Ok great, give them the computer game, lock them in a room for a few days, and voila instant knowledge, that's a bunch of crap.

I don't pour shit into anything.  I ask them why they think that hill is key terrain, and not the other two.  I ask them why they feel the need to clear a room with a machinegun, or why they fail to use cover and concealment when there's a perfectly good clump of trees a few meters away.  Sometimes I show them what a shaping operation really is because all they've experienced is reading about it.  Sometimes I will ask them to explain why they isolated the objective, even though they didn't know they were doing it.  Sometimes we go off on a tangent because one of the cadets did something really "creative", but then we break it down isolate the elements that went into that particular decision, and file it for future use. 

Maybe what I said IS heresy, I'm sure a bunch of you can back that up with stats, research, and tons of papers.  But I do know one thing.  My kids are lucky to have an experienced instructor to help guide them.

Rant mode off.


TJ

Mr. Bigglesworth

Good explanation, we understand what each other are talking about. I bet you are good.
Cheers.
"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; "
- Shakespeare's Henry V, Act III, 1598

Apocalypse 31

Quote from: taijeronv on April 03, 2014, 12:26:08 AM

I can't remember who it was but some high speed sims guy thought they could take the instructor out of the loop, now that's heresy.  At least when your talking about what I teach and how I teach it.  No computer game is as good at teaching this stuff as I am.  The game provides the science, but it does not teach the art.


Couldn't agree more.

The simulation is nothing more than a referee; rolling the dice and enforcing the rules.

The adult learning model is where this becomes high payoff. Students are armed with the principles, but have to apply them to the situation at their own will.