Some thoughts today on what it takes to become a professional wargamer. Professional wargamers are those involved in running games for decision making purposes in topics like ranging from defense to pandemics. [1/7]
What background do you need to become one? Many current professional wargamers had their start in hobby #wargaming. Board games such as Harpoon have currency in defense wargaming. [2/7]
boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1143…
boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1143…
But what happens if you are Gen X, Millennial, or Gen Z and you didn’t grow up with Avalon Hill games? As Gen X I am part of the “Nintendo generation” and board games disappeared from my childhood. [3/7]
After co-leading such efforts as the wargaming that supported the 2018 National Defense Strategy and the 2019 NATO Military Strategy, my conclusion is: while some knowledge of board game mechanics is necessary, domain content is vital. [4/7]
Professional games use much simpler game mechanics or no mechanics. Structured techniques from business consulting or intelligence analysis constitute the format of many professional “games”. [5/7]
Create an environment in professional games where participants can meaningfully access domain expertise. Participants are there for the content, not the mechanics. There are many ways to manage this. [6/7]
Bottom line: learn some mechanics but become a generalist who knows how to coordinate multiple types of experts using many approaches. Management of expertise, not board game mechanics, is the heart of professional games. [7/7]
