56 See “American Civil War Video Games,” at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_Civil_War_video_game.
57 See “Battleforge News,” at: www.battleforgenews.com/Battleforge-News/7/Build-Unique-Armies-and-Team-Up-for-Epic-Battles-in-a-New-Fantasy-RTS-Game.html, and many similar discussions online.
58 Dunnigan, Wargames Handbook, pp. 239–55.
59 D. O. Ross, “Investigating the Fundamentals of the Third Generation Wargaming,” Rome, NY: AFRL/Rish, 2–8, p. 3, at: http://scholar.google.co.il/scholar%3Fq=Investigating+the+Fundamentals+of+the+Third+Generation&hl=iw&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart.
60 Devry University newsletter, at www.devry.edu/assets/pdf/degree-programs/simulation-game-programming-careers-guide.pdf.
61 Watts, “Diagnostic Observations on Theater-Level War Gaming,” pp. 15–16.
62 H. N. Schwarzkopf, It Doesn’t Take a Hero, New York: Bantam, 1992, pp. 336, 337, 348 .
63 See, for the technical details, “Bleriot XI,” at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bl%C3%A9riot_XI.
64 See, for the history of flight simulators, Flight Simulator, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_simulator; also Halter, From Sun Tzu to XBox, pp. 147–9.
65 See W. E. C. Crossman, “Dry Shooting for Airplane Gunners,” Popular Science, 94, 1, January 1919, p. 13 , at http://books.google.co.il/books%3Fid=HykDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=%22dry+shooting+for+airplane+gunners%22&source=bl&ots=INsoMTg9sL&sig=r9thuUNu6 mg6DH17C8Ikg4–clk&hl=iw&ei=SA9uTZrnNYKj8QPahvj4Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22dry%20shooting%20for%20airplane%20gunners%22&f=false.
66 See, on AFWET (Air Force Weapons Effectiveness Testing) program, Wilson, The Bomb and the Computer, p. 89.
67 See, for the history of the game, “Pinball” at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinball.
68 C. Crawford, The Art of Computer Game Design, 1982, Chapter 3, at: http://arcarc.xmission.com/Magazines%20and%20Books/Art%20of%20Game%20Design.pdf.
69 See, for what follows, S. L. Kent, The Ultimate History of Video Games, New York: Three Rivers, 2001, pp. 18, 64, 67, 116–17 .
70 La Correspondance de Napoléon 1er, Paris: Plon, 1863, vol. XVIII, p. 218, no. 14707.
71 See T. Donovan, Replay: The History of Video Games, Lewes: Yellow Ant, 2010, pp. 9–11 .
72 Chris Crawford, quoted in Halter, From Sun Tzu to XBox, p. 87.
73 J. M. Graetz, quoted ibid., p. 76.
74 Kent, The Ultimate History of Video Games, p. 139.
75 Donovan, Replay, p. 25.
76 Ibid., p. 95.
77 See ibid., pp. 43, 234.
78 Talk at Epcot, March 1983, at: www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1983/30883a.htm.
79 C. A. Anderson and K. E. Dill, “Video Games, Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior in the Laboratory and in Life,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 4, 2000, pp. 772–90 .
80 Medal of Honor (2010 video game), at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medal_of_Honor_(2010_video_game)
81 List of best-selling video games at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games.
82 See Gears of War at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gears_of_War.
83 Doom (video game) at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_(video_game).
84 BGF 9000 at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BFG_9000.
85 See on this T. Lenoir, “All War is Simulation: The Military-Entertainment Complex,” Configurations, 8, 2000, pp. 289–335 .
86 Richard Garriott as quoted in Donovan, Replay, p. 147; Halter, From Sun Tzu to Xbox, pp. 302–3.
87 Battlezone (1980 movie game) at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlezone_(1980_video_game)
88 “War Games,” The Economist, October 12, 2009.
89 Halter, From Sun Tzu to XBox, p. 50.
90 See America’s Army at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America%27s_Army.
91 B. Kennedy, “Uncle Sam Wants You (to Play this Game),” New York Times, July 11, 2002 .
92 M. Macedonia, “Games Soldiers Play,” Spectrum, March 2002, p. 35 .
93 See, on the last-named, Forward Looking Infra Red at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_looking_infrared.
94 See, for these simulators, Halter, From Sun Tzu to Xbox, pp. 152–4, and Dunnigan, Wargames Handbook, pp. 340–3. Dunnigan’s list is also available online at: www.strategypage.com/prowg/default.asp?target=pwpdefenseprojects.htm.
95 Simulator Sickness at: www.siggraph.org/education/materials/HyperVis/virtual.env/percept.iss/simulate.htm.
96 See, on this entire subject, P. A. Hancock and J. L. Szalma, eds., Performance under Stress, London: Ashgate, 2008 .
97 See on this J. Der Derian, “The Simulation Syndrome: From War Games to Game Wars,” Social Text, 24, 1990, pp. 187–92 .
98 Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game, New York: Tor, 1991 [1977] .
7 The females of the species
To play or not to play
Ever since God created Adam and Eve women have always formed about half of humanity, as they still do. Yet an extraterrestrial being watching participants at almost any kind of wargame, past, present, and presumably future, would never guess that this is the case. Female reenactors form perhaps 2–3 percent of the total. As it happens, the number who served in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War and in the US armed forces during World War II was similar.1 Many groups, seeking authenticity, do not allow women to join at all. Some appear to regard them as an evil that may or may not have to be tolerated.2 Others, to the contrary, are constantly on the lookout for female recruits who could fill the ranks of their cantinières (canteen women, dating to Napoleonic times), medical corps, signal service, or secretaries. One British group of reenactors has even established an ATS (Army Territorial Service) unit specifically so that women are able to join and play along in a “historically accurate role.”3
According to the best available book on the subject, most women get involved in the hobby in the wake of their male relatives or boyfriends.4 Most are found at the larger, more public, and less authentic events; reenactments that try to capture the fatigues of real war, such as operating under difficult weather conditions or camping outdoors, tend to attract fewer women than the rest. But it is not just a question of avoiding physical effort and what are sometimes somewhat Spartan living conditions; as far as the available figures go, women playing computerized wargames also form a small minority.5 Based on the surveys, Dunnigan says that, at the time when he was selling his hexed wargames by the hundreds of thousands, the number of women who showed any interest in them only amounted to perhaps 1 percent of the total.6 Women who participate in the more physical wargames are rare, but they do exist. It is said that in Taiwan 10–20 percent of airsoft players are female.7 That seems rather high: one American player put the figure at 2–10 percent.8 Several websites I have found either seek to bring in more women or complain that the game needs more of them.9
Going further back in time, in 1890 a French female journalist by the name of Séverine d’Estoc (meaning, “of the rapier”) was challenged to a duel by a man about whom she had written a scurrilous article. She, however, preferred to have a man fight in her stead, a fact that brought the wrath of the Paris League for the Emancipation of Women down on her head. The outcome of the affair is not on record.10 One American woman, Ella Hattan (1859− after 1909), was an accomplished expert at fencing, including the very specialized art of horseback fencing. Advertised as “The World-Renowned Jaguarine, the Ideal Amazon of the Age” she gave many demonstrations of her skill against male opponents. However, in an age when duels fought with edged weapons were common she does not appear to have participated in a real one.
In 1817 one newspaper in Georgia carried the following story:
Last week a point of honor was decided between two ladies near the South Carolina Line, the cause of the quarrel being the usual one – love. The object of the rival affections of these fair champions was present on the field as the mutual arbiter in the d
readful combat, and he had the grief of beholding one of the suitors for his favor fall dangerously wounded before his eyes. The whole business was managed with all the decorum and inflexibility usually practiced on such occasions, and the conqueror was immediately married to the innocent second, comformably to the previous conditions of the duel.11
Fighting females seem to have been more numerous in the eighteenth century. The weapons they used included not just pistols and stilettos but quarterstaffs as well.12 In 1792 two Englishwomen, Mrs. Elphinstone and Lady Almeira Braddock, held a pistol duel at London’s Hyde Park. After Elphinstone’s ball had pierced Braddock’s hat they switched to swords and went on fighting until Mrs. Elphinstone in turn was nicked in the arm. With that the affair came to an end. In 1715 the Countess de Polignac faced a certain Marquise de Nesle over the affections of the Duke de Richelieu, a younger relative of the famous cardinal, said to be the most charming nobleman at Versailles. The encounter was watched by an enthusiastic crowd of men and women. Depending on whom one believes, it ended with the marquise wounded either in the breast or in the ear. However, the injuries were not serious and nobody was killed. Yet fights between high-class women were rare; contemporary wisdom had it that actresses and prostitutes were especially likely to duel. Thus the opera singer Julie d’Aubigny (1670–1707), known as La Maupin after her husband, was said to have fought several duels against young aristocrats. She and her paramour, a fencing master named Seranes, also gave dueling demonstrations for payment. In them she put on male garb without, however, concealing her sex. In 1898 a novel about her was published, complete with a drawing of her dressed in such clothes.13
In 1552 two young women from Naples, Isabella de Carazzi and Diambra de Petinella, dueled one another for the love of a gentleman, one Fabio de Zeresola. Much later, an imaginary rendition of the fight was created by the Spanish artist José de Ribera. His Duelo de Mujeres hangs in Madrid’s Museo del Prado.14 Earlier still, most women involved in judicial duels had champions fight on their behalf (as did many men). However, here and there it is possible to find women fighting men. A 1467 German-language manual sheds a somewhat lurid light on the question. The author, one Hans Talhoffer, was a well-known fencing master. The Fechtbuch, or fighting book, in question was one in a series of six he wrote and published and the only one of them that contains a section on women. Apparently aimed both at those who organized the fights and at the combatants themselves, the volume contains detailed instructions concerning the tactics each party should employ. The wood-cut illustrations that accompany the text show the man being handicapped by being buried up to his waist in a pit. This had the effect of leaving the woman free to decide on the beginning of combat and, in case she succeeded in evading his grasp, bringing it to an end.15
There is no record of ladies fighting in tournaments. Indeed tournaments, as far as is known, are among the very few wargames in which no women took part at all. By contrast, Rome did have some female gladiators. We know that they volunteered for the arena, trained for it, and perhaps fought in it. Judging by what Petronius says in the Satyricon, having them on the program was considered a special treat. Of them, a modern female scholar says that they were “one element in a picture of . . . imperial luxury and decadence.”16 Possibly they were placed in between the main acts as a sort of lighthearted relief, much as modern cheerleaders are. A shard of red pottery, discovered in Leicester, England, and reading “VERECUNDA LUDIA LUCIUS GLADIATOR” (Verecunda the dancer, Lucius the gladiator) supports this interpretation.17 The shard has a hole in it and may have been worn on a necklace. Perhaps it records a love affair between a male and a female member of the same troupe.
Augustus, who socially speaking tended to be on the conservative side, issued a ban on women gladiators. The prohibition, which paralleled the one on high-class men, was probably aimed at high-class women, the only ones considered worth taking notice of. The emperor’s intention must have been to prevent them from degrading themselves, and by extension their male relatives on whose shoulders the burden of running the empire and keeping the population in its place ultimately rested. Several subsequent emperors repeated the prohibition, apparently to no avail. Others, including Nero and Domitian, took a special delight in arranging gladiatorial shows in which women as well as men participated, sometimes having them fight against dwarfs.18 Looking back, it is hard to decide which of the two practices − barring women from the arena or permitting them to make a show of themselves and fight in it − was more degrading to them. Perhaps this conflict explains why the tug of war between the two views went on for about two hundred years. Not even Septimius Severus, who issued a decree on the subject in AD 200, was able to make it stick.19
Fighting apart, women were often seen in the arena. They were mutilated, executed, thrown to the beasts, or made the centerpieces of sexual demonstrations in which they were forced to copulate with beasts.20 One statuette shows a naked woman tied to the back of a bull being mauled by a tiger which is biting − what else? − her breast. When it came to punishments the Romans were exceptional in that they rarely hesitated to treat women as badly as they did men. However, the fact that among thousands upon thousands of known gladiators’ tombstones, mosaics, reliefs, and objects of every kind and source, only one shows two women (distinguishable by their names as well as their hairdo) engaged in actual fighting probably indicates that they were not very common. Even the grave discovered in London in 1996, which some consider contains the remains of a female gladiator, is open to other interpretations.21 The fact that Latin never developed a term for a female gladiator points in the same direction.
Going further back in time, Herodotus in his ethnographic survey of the Mediterranean world mentions two tribes, the Machlyes and the Auseis. They lived in the area around Lake Tritonis in what today is southern Tunisia.22 Once a year, he says, a festival was held in honor of the goddess Athene. As part of the festivities, two groups of maidens were made to fight with sticks and stones. Some were injured or even killed. There must have been something to the story because Augustine, a native of the area, was still inveighing against the custom 850 years later.23 That reference apart, however, anthropologists know of few if any tribal women who engage in mock combat in front of spectators.24 Finally, I have not been able to find any cases when female champions and single combatants fought it out in front of their assembled armies. And no wonder: such encounters would negate their very purpose, which was either to serve as a substitute for war – at any rate, in theory – or to obtain a psychological advantage over the enemy.
I shall skip the question as to whether more boys than girls participate in mudball fights, snowball fights, and the like. Considering the above facts, two separate questions seem to present themselves. First, how do we explain this vast gender gap? And, second, can its existence teach us anything concerning the nature of both men and women, and if so, what? What makes the first question even more interesting is precisely the fact, which Huizinga and others before and after him have noted, that games are the domain of freedom. It is one of the outstanding characteristics of human life that many, perhaps most, activities we engage in are more or less obligatory. We go to school, we work, we pay taxes, we enlist for war (in countries that have conscription), we do a thousand other things, not necessarily because we like to do them but because we have to or are made to either by economic need or by the organized power of society. Indeed our ability to distinguish between obligatory activities and voluntary ones is one of the key constituents of what makes us human.
However, among all the many kinds of players mentioned so far, perhaps only gladiators and soldiers on active service were compelled to participate in wargames. All the rest, including in some cases the highest and the mightiest in the land, did so out of their own free will. Even some of those who did not, as in various kinds of duels, almost always had an escape route open to them. It was only if they were unwilling to forfeit their “honor” that they were obliged to fight. Indeed the abil
ity and the right to refuse a challenge is precisely the feature that distinguishes a duel from a brawl or a skirmish and justifies its inclusion in the present volume. To this extent, games in general and wargames in particular provide us with a sort of laboratory of human behavior. Thus the question remains: what accounts for women’s near-complete absence from an activity which was, and remains, almost entirely voluntary?
Prohibitions like the ones Augustus tried to put in place may explain some of the gap, but by no means all. Perhaps one answer is that to engage in fighting can provide men with an erotic kick that women do not seem to share in the same way, if at all. To be sure, ever since “shell shock” made its appearance in 1914–18, war has often been blamed for producing various psychological symptoms in soldiers, impotence and loss of sexual appetite specifically included.25 On the other hand, one need hardly go far beneath the surface of things to come across the close connection that has always existed between weapons of every sort and phalli, between penetrating an enemy’s flesh in war and doing the same to a woman (and, for some of us, a man, but this is not a subject that has to preoccupy us here) in bed.26 Both English and many other languages, Latin and my native Hebrew included, provide strong evidence for this. In this respect there is little difference between the more physical kind of wargames and war itself: as one reenactor, losing control of himself, was heard to shout, “Man! I get a hard-on firing this gun!” (apparently a World War II German machine gun).27 The strong, and to some people objectionable, link between shooter-type wargames and sex has already been noted. Some designers had huge success creating so-called “sperm games” in which fear, thrill, and skill were combined with the need to defend the innocent and punish the guilty.28 To clinch the argument, there is some experimental evidence that such games, especially the more violent ones, do more to arouse aggressive feelings in men than in women.29
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