Registration is now open for the annual Connections interdisciplinary wargaming conference to be held July 23-26 at the Center for Applied Strategic Learning at National Defense University in Washington DC. Connections serves the professional community of practice around wargames, conflict simulation, and serious games. Let me...
read more
Just blitzed my way through Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, a slab of late summer fiction sure to be of interest to many here at Play the Past. This is Cline’s debut novel, though he’s also known for the 2009 film Fanboys. The two titles of the works alone ought to give you some tip off as to what’s in store. Set in the...
read more
“To a wargamer,” writes Greg Costikyan in the just published collection Tabletop: Analog Game Design, “wargames are not abstract, time-wasting pastimes, like other games, but representative of the real. . . . You can learn something from wargames; indeed, in some ways you can learn more from wargames than from reading...
read more
The men of the “A” companies of the 2nd Light Infantry had been hearing odd noises for the last half hour. One of the sentries said that he too had heard the noises and all he had seen was a local farmer out early driving some cows. That seemed to explain things, but the noises persisted. Then the lead sentry to...
read more
There is a story that circulates among wargamers about a German Kriegspiel being played out at a command post somewhere in France in 1944, when reports of an Allied attack along the lines of what was being simulated in the game began arriving at the headquarters. The general staff ordered the game to continue, updated with realtime...
read more
Collaboratively edited and authored, Play the Past is dedicated to thoughtfully exploring and discussing the intersection of cultural heritage (very broadly defined) and games/meaningful play (equally broadly defined). Play the Past contributors come from a wide variety of backgrounds, domains, perspectives, and motivations (for being interested in both games and cultural heritage). More information on all of our contributors can be found here. A full rundown of our community and commenting policy can be found here. If you are looking to get in contact with us (for whatever reason), point your browser here and drop us a line.
