Ethics in Strategy Gaming, Part 1: Panzer General
You can skip almost this whole hand-wringing article as the &quot;why&quot; is articulated right here:<p>&quot;the focus on Rommel and more generally the German side (many wargames feature prominent German military motifs and use German military nomenclature) cater to a genre that customarily finds more interest in playing the underdog, relying on [the player’s] brains rather than overwhelming force, and accepting the challenge of reversing the historical result.&quot;<p>Combine that appeal with uniforms designed by Hugo Boss and it&#x27;s a no-brainer why the Germans are the most popular force to play in wargames. There are some VERY interesting tactical&#x2F;operational challenges for the Japanese and the Soviets, depending on where you look in the war, but neither force is quite so well-dressed as the Waffen SS.<p>This article is like an extremely-long-form version of Twitter outrage...the same mentality that is targeting otherwise-fun-looking content (Ghosts of Tsushima, Cyberpunk 2077) and wants to beat us all over the head with how bad we are as people for enjoying it. It&#x27;s tiresome.<p>&quot;What sorts of subject matter are appropriate for a game? Before you rush to answer, ask yourself how you would feel about, say, a version of Transport Tycoon where you have to move Jews from the cities where they live to the concentration camps where they will die.&quot;<p>Man, I hope this guy never finds out what sorts of sociopathic stuff Rimworld players get into...<p>&quot;If, as I dearly hope, you would prefer not to play such a game, ask yourself what the difference between Panzer General and that other game really are. For your actions in Panzer General will also lead to the deaths of millions, at only one more degree of remove at best.&quot;<p>See what I mean? The next thing you know, he&#x27;ll be writing about how we shouldn&#x27;t play a real-world map in Civilization as the Europeans, because their explorations led to millions of deaths from colonialism. Slavery shouldn&#x27;t be a featured game mechanic either, for the same reason. If you play as the Spanish&#x2F;English&#x2F;French&#x2F;Germans and you research Slavery, then you are a BAD HUMAN BEING. Maybe games should send a message to a centralized server, alerting Big Tech so your media accounts can be flagged, and your bank account terminated?<p>I have ancestors who survived genocide, and ancestors who survived chattel slavery. I enjoy wargames, in all of their varying degrees of focus, without the ridiculous navel-gazing.