Not a game

Introduction

Abstract

This article traces the historical and conceptual shift through which wargaming moved from ›play‹ to a technology of military decision support and training, and it delineates the normative stakes of wargaming, serious games, and gamification. It argues that simulations do not merely represent conflicts but also co-produce epistemic orders, standards, and repertoires of action, including the translation of military force into rules, turn sequences, scoring, and optimizable objectives. In the age of AI, these dynamics intensify through the aura of authority of data-driven models, shorter iteration cycles, and new dependencies on platforms and data infrastructures. This raises risks such as responsibility diffusion, shifts in epistemic agency, and a narrowing toward what can be formalized and simulated, with implications for human judgment. The article introduces the themes, tensions, and contributions of the special issue