Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Lifting the Fog of War: Militarism, Colonialism and Encyclopedic Pleasures in Digital Play

This paper examines the design concept of fog of war (FOW), the limiting of visible information in strategy and exploration games, and argues that its meaning has shifted from a representation of military risk and uncertainty to a source of exploratory pleasure in entertainment gaming.

• The paper argues that the 'fog of war' mechanic has shifted meaning from representing military risk and uncertainty to a source of exploratory pleasure, with the obscured map reframed as 'unfinished business' inviting players to uncover the game world.
• Its central thesis is that 'lifting the fog' in contemporary games enacts a colonial fantasy in which unexplored terrain is cast as terra incognita, a space of untapped potential to be mapped and possessed, obscuring the violence of colonial cartography.
• The authors contend that fog-as-fun parallels the goal of military simulation: eliminating friction and uncertainty to create a 'closed world' that can be fully known and controlled.