Zones of Control: A progress report

I am gradually making my way through this book, and so far I have read:

• Editors’ Introduction by Pat Harrigan and Matthew G. Kirschenbaum
• Series Forword
• Foreword: The Paper Time Machine Goes Electric by James F. Dunnigan

As one would expect, the introductory part of the book sets the scene for what is to follow, and explains the logic behind the thematic approach adopted by the editors.

James Dunnigan's contribution gives a brief but interesting personal oversight of the development of wargaming, particularly since the height of the Cold War and in light of world events that have occurred since it ended. It covers the way in which military and commercial/hobby wargames had drifted apart, only to re-engage when the military realised that the commercial/hobby wargamers had useful tools/games they they could use ... a trend that has gained wider currency in recent years if CONNECTIONS UK is anything to go by.

PART I: PAPER WARS

• A Game Out of All Proportions: How a Hobby Miniaturized War by Jon Peterson
• The History of Wargaming Project by John Curry
• The Fundamental Gap between Tabletop Simulation Games and the “Truth” by Tetsuya Nakamura
• Fleet Admiral: Tracing One Element in the Evolution of a Game Design by Jack Greene
• The Wild Blue Yonder: Representing Air Warfare in Games by Lee Brimmicombe-Wood
• Historical Aesthetics in Mapmaking by Mark Mahaffey
• The “I” in Team: War and Combat in Tabletop Role-Playing Games by A. Scott Glancy

Part I covers the development of what we have come to regard as wargaming in its multiple forms, and although to some readers it may appear to have a bias towards what the American view of that development is and has been (John Curry's contribution being a very noticeable exception to this), it is an extremely useful examination of that development as well as raising some very interesting points.