{"id":3409,"date":"2011-09-06T22:50:16","date_gmt":"2011-09-07T03:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/?p=3409"},"modified":"2011-09-06T22:50:16","modified_gmt":"2011-09-07T03:50:16","slug":"the-emotions-of-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/2011\/09\/06\/the-emotions-of-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Emotions of Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the weekend, I mentioned that I was reading J.E. Lendon’s Song of Wrath<\/a>\"\", and it’s really an interesting book. His major argument is that we can’t understand the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War when it happened by just looking at it as a classic bipolar system breaking down because of colliding spheres of influence – the traditional “realist” explanation. In fact, he argues, Greek culture’s emphasis on forms of diplomacy that privileged ‘status’ (tim\u00c4\u201c<\/em>) meant that war was understood as a struggle for place of honor among cities. It was, in many ways, similar to Greek athletic contests, which were taken very seriously as measures of municipal prowess and glory. Tim\u00c4\u201c<\/em> was partly based on mythical glories, hence the tense relationship between fallen Achaean power Argos and the still vibrant and strong Sparta. Lendon closely examines the line of battle at Plataea and convincingly demonstrates the Spartan balancing act between creating an effective fighting force, recognizing recent commitments in the war against Persia and the then understood relative status of city-states, often based on long dead, mythical glories. Athens – not yet a city of marble and empire – had to argue for the right to fight on the left flank, the second place of honour.<\/p>\n

Tim\u00c4\u201c<\/em> had to protected, and if challenged by another city’s pride and stepping out of place (\u00e1\u00bd\u2022\u00ce\u00b2\u00cf\u0081\u00ce\u00b9\u00cf\u201a<\/em> or hubris, in its common English form) then war would result. As Lendon sees it, Sparta responded to perceived Athenian arrogance once it became clear that ignoring the alleged insults (because a stronger power did not have to answer a weaker one) were only weakening Spartan prestige. The opening of the Pelopponesian War, Lendon suggests, was basically a Greek version of “Who do you think you are?”<\/p>\n

It’s an interesting book that I need to read alongside Kagan and Thucydides to really measure, but I recognized the emotions of tim\u00c4\u201c<\/em> and \u00e1\u00bd\u2022\u00ce\u00b2\u00cf\u0081\u00ce\u00b9\u00cf\u201a<\/em> immediately. Because as much as we strategy gamers like to think that our plans are driven by reason and national self interest and the proper way to expand, I would argue that the most satisfying strategy experiences, and the ones we talk most about, are the ones that engage that Greek warrior side of us that can’t believe what the AI is up to.<\/p>\n

Think about it. How often in Europa Universalis<\/em> have you decided to destroy a growing German power on the Rhine just because Bremen has no business being the arbiter of the Low Countries? Have you ever weakened Montezuma’s Aztecs in Civ<\/em> so much that you reduce him to a rump empire that you keep around just so you can nuke the sonuvabitch later? In Romance of the Three Kingdoms<\/em>, do you seek out and destroy a general who defected, even if he is no threat to you because your honour demands it? In Total War<\/em> games, I have let only peasants escape the field while I butcher every noble, because that is more humiliating. And, of course, if the AI has fought me hard in a good game of Age of Empires<\/em>, no way will I accept resignation. Every building must go.<\/p>\n

Then there’s the time I lost Railroad Tycoon<\/em> because I imagined one of my competitors was a nemesis and I missed a growing rival in the south. And don’t get me started on The Sims<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This is the part of gaming that simple mechanics can’t quite explain. Part of it is the narrative power of great strategy games. The best ones attract us not just because they provide various options and paths and interesting decisions, but because they build a connection between you and your army or your nation or your business. And once that connection is in place, it ceases to be just a collection of numbers on which you can impose your Vulcan powers of logic. Attachment can prevent the mind from always thinking coldly and rationally.<\/p>\n

See, the computer gives us enemies but we’re the ones that turn them into villains or threats to world order. I talk a lot about the joy of gaming, but if I were honest, a lot of that joy is rooted in finding an imagined opposite and making his life hell.<\/p>\n

Fill the comments with examples of when you engaged in wrathful action to put an enemy in his place. I need inspiration to deal with Bruce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the weekend, I mentioned that I was reading J.E. Lendon’s Song of Wrath, and it’s really an interesting book. His major argument is that we can’t understand the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War when it happened by just looking at it as a classic bipolar system breaking down because of colliding spheres of influence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5GFeQ-SZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3409"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3410,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3409\/revisions\/3410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}