From Military Simulation to Ludic War: A Generational Typology of the Mobilization of Play

This paper, presented at DiGRA 2025, proposes a generational typology of how play and games have been mobilized for military purposes since the end of the Second World War. Its central thesis is that play has become caught in a logistical procedure the author terms "ludologistics," through which playful media and techniques serve not only warfare itself but the ongoing militarization of society and the construction of new war economies in NATO states and their allies. The argument holds that this process erodes distinctions such as citizen/soldier and war/peace, much as capitalism erodes the boundary between work and play.

The typology identifies four generations of ludologistics. First-generation military simulation, dating from the 1940s, covers professional wargames, vehicle simulators, and training platforms. Second-generation interactive militainment, from the 1970s, refers to commercial first-person shooters and recreational wargames shaped by industry commercial goals. Third-generation recruitainment, from the 2000s, encompasses state-commissioned games and military esports aimed at gamers and tech-savvy audiences. Fourth-generation ludic war, from the 2010s, describes the playful reorganization of military innovation, including "prototype warfare," which relies on rapid experimentation and civil-military partnerships involving tech start-ups and venture capitalists. Examples include drones, military AI, and smartphones on the battlefield. The author notes that these generations overlap rather than replace one another, as simulation and militainment remain widespread.

The paper's scope is primarily the United States, with attention to Ukraine, Israel, and the Netherlands as sites of emerging civil-military assemblages, and its time frame runs from the post-war period to the present. The work is a conceptual and literature-based overview rather than an empirical study: it draws on a substantial body of scholarship in media studies, military studies, and game studies, and does not report survey data or original sampling. Its stated aim is to offer a starting point for critical analysis of the socio-political implications of militarized play.