Real Life and Wargaming

On Sunday I wrote a report about the wargame I and a group of friends had played. The main thrust of the scenario concerned the armed rescue of someone who had been kidnapped. At the time I wrote the blog entry I was unaware of the death of British aid worker Linda Norgrove. She had been killed during an attempt to rescue her from the people who were holding her after she had been kidnapped.

When I was made aware of what had happened to Ms Norgrove, my first thoughts were those of sympathy for her family. She had been undertaking aid work of immense value to the people of the Dewagal valley in the Kunar province of Afghanistan when she was kidnapped in September, and her seizure seems to have served no useful purpose except in the minds of the people who had taken her.

My second thoughts concerned my blog entry. Should I remove it because the scenario and outcome had similarities to events that had so recently taken place in Afghanistan? Or should I leave it in situ?

After giving it some considerable thought, I decided that I would take the latter course. My reasoning was as follows:

• When the game was set up, none of the participants were aware of events in Afghanistan. Had we been, we may have chosen to fight a different scenario.
• There was no intent upon our part to be disrespectful to the memory of Ms Norgrove. In fact, as I stated earlier, I wrote my blog entry before being aware of what had happened.
• The game had been played. We could not 'un-play' it nor could we 'un-enjoy' our day of wargaming. By removing the blog entry so as to make it appear that the game never happened would be hypocritical.

Unlike any other hobbies or pastimes, wargaming is about one of the darker aspects of human existence ... war. Wargamers ... that is me and you ... 'play' at war. To some people that makes us appear very odd, if not sinister.

Over the years wargamers have tried to rationalise what they do, but when it comes down to it, we do it for a variety of reasons. Some wargame because of a deep interest in military history, some because they want to understand more about strategy and tactics, some because they like to paint model figures and vehicles, some because it allows them to escape for the humdrum events of normal life, and some because they are gamers, and this is the sort of game they enjoy. Every wargamer I have met has had a different reason for taking up and enjoying the hobby.

The death of Linda Norgrove and the coincidental staging of the "Les Affreux" wargame remind us that wargames are about real life ... and death. It is something that we need to be reminded of occasionally, if only to give us a sense of proportion.

I hope that I write on behalf of us all within the wargaming community when I pass on our deepest sympathy to the family of Linda Norgrove.

Her death diminishes us all.