The Risk of Too Closely Comparing Fiction to Reality

Besides being a lot of fun, Diplomatic Risk is also a simulation of certain aspects of world politics. In what ways are the dynamics of the game similar to actual world politics? In what ways are they different?


Although Diplomatic Risk was a lot of fun, (a LOT of fun. Like, A LOT of fun. Did I mention the hours I spent plotting with various groups as to how to pull a group win? Because there were hours.) it was not particularly realistic. Yes, countries world-wide do have goals, but they are not often as clean cut as the ones provided to us, and to further complicate things there are not just five groups to collaborate and converse with, but approximately 192. 

Although, even in the game there was more to winning than lucky rolling.

Just about the only other realistic facet of the operation was the way we won- through eliminating the competition, pooling our resources, and evaluating carefully who we could benefit from and how. Although no one wins in the real world of diplomacy for good, the occasions which can be measured in win or loss often win as ours did, where multiple parties benefit from certain actions, and other are completely crushed. >:D

Rules of Risk

After two full class periods of scheming, alliances, and even a little backstabbing, I think we actually can say we know more about how the international political world works. It was a great test of how we can make deals and react under pressure, as well as our strategic abilities.

I think what seemed to be the most realistic about the exercise was the interaction between members of the various teams. Sometimes the heads of states completely ignored their teams and just made snap decisions (I heard about that happening in the other class more frequently than I saw it during our game). Others worked well with their teams (I think our team, or blue, did that pretty well the entire time. It was almost like various government types - for example, in a republic, the decision has to go through and be approved by more people, sort of like the team working well together. When a member of the group or the head of state was sort of dominating the group dynamics, it was more of a centralized political authority. The relationships internal to teams were almost as interesting as the alliances that were built.

The combination of the different IR theories was interesting as well - some groups have a realist view where they need to conquer as much land as possible. However, everyone realized the need for alliances in a more liberal way and weren't trying to go at it alone. Every team, at the en of the fourth round, was at least aligned with the Blue team. With the constructivism, we had to stay close to the country history we were given, those identities. A lot of the deal making was accurate, like giving up something you have to gain another advantage and to make a deal. There was also the aspect of being really unable to trust or know what others are thinking - you have to take a shot and understand that you need to have a back up plan (although our team sort of failed with the second part of that).

The only major differences I saw were inherent with the structure of the game. It's complex enough now that you really can't add many more details to it without causing problems/taking way too long to complete a round, let alone win the game. I guess the biggest was the additional aspects that go into making decisions on the political stage - for example, the will of the people of your country, social issues, economic things, etc. Of course, the bureaucracy must be cut out, so decisions were made a lot quicker and without going through as many people as they would on the real political stage. Still, it was an excellent simulation of the world political experience. We learned that it takes more than luck to succeed in the game of Risk (or in world politics). It's all about developing relationships and determining a logical strategy.

Reflection Week Eight

So I prefer Professor Jackson's version of Risk, to say the least. Really, he needs to put this out on the market. I know many Risk fans that would pick up the game for a new challenge (not to ignore all of the IR professors that would want to play it at family game night). Regardless, I used to play with my cousin, who tends to be quite a realist in the game and in life. It was a new way to think about how to play the game, because we know that a solely realist approach isn't particularly logical or realistic in the world today. You have to plan and think in a whole new way because it's no longer just anticipating the military actions of other teams, but their diplomatic policy as well. Definitely a totally different ball game. It'll be more interesting to comment on this next week once we have a clear winner or at least another hour and a half to play.

Still, our class (maybe because we've only had one game thus far) didn't get into the game as much as the other class did. People were seriously running down the halls, meeting in each others' rooms trying to strike up deals. It was interesting to hear the different goals the other class had though - although some were similar, there were some notable differences that made the game interesting.

Reflective Post: Week 8

Risk takes a long time to play. It's lengthiness has become almost mythical with tales of games lasting days if not weeks. But in all the stories, nay legends, I've heard, never has it taken an hour and a half to play a mere two turns. Never in the history of ever.

In ever you say? But that's a statistical impossibility! CHECK THE NUMBERS AGAIN!!

But of course this wasn't your Dad's Risk, this was PTJ'd out Risk which basically means it's a lot more political and has crazy twists every few minutes to throw everyone off when they just started to get the rules down in the first place. Despite (and probably in some part, due to) this, IR Risk was awesome and although I can't speak for the rest of the class, I know I walked out of class wishing we could play it all year long.

Get it?

In other breaking news from week 8, there was a paper. We were lulled into a complacent sense of false security by 7 weeks of paperlessness but then, lo and behold, there it was and it couldn't have been a more fitting subject. If any of you read my other blog (The Incubator, Technological), which you al should, or talked to me for any extended period of time, you know I'm a huge sci-fi nerd so writing a paper on blasting space rocks out of the sky with giant lasers and other things straight out of Star Wars, was a dream come true.

NEO threat? Neutralized, Lord Vader

Reflection

So this week there were two highlights:

1. Fall Break

2. Diplomatic Risk

reasons:

1. I finally got to sleep and hang out with friends without caring about homework being due :)

2. It is the ideal game for nerds. Not only are we living world politics, we get to strategize, manipulate and scheme. It really helped that most everyone was enthusiastic about the game, because apathetic people make boring, lifeless games. Because we were took the activity seriously and were competitive and active, the game morphed into an activity that surpassed the four walls of the Letts Formal Lounge and seeped into 6S Letts. I've heard people making deals and alliances in the hallways in preparation for the next class. I'm looking forward to Tuesday's class and playing the game!

Simulation Stress and Risky Anticipation

I have to say, PTJ, that I notice some extreme differences in requiring the other class to represent Ford, a down-home-American manufacturer, and requiring us to try to demand respect as General Motors, a name that has suffered enormous amounts of (rather deserved) slander thanks to the recent bailouts and government intervention. Although my instinct was to try to use advertising techniques to propagate our points, there's not much I could do with a company whose commercials currently reek of paying penance. Instead of being able to immediately get to our points as a company with a recognizable voice, we had to establish our ethos separate from this scandal, and attempt to lead the masses from there.

That said, I think my group (special shout out to Scott and Alyssa here for research) did a great job pushing aside all the commercial garbage to find some useful data. I think we did really well, and I'm relieved to be done.  On a slightly different note, I can't wait for Risk!

Simulation Stress

*insert scream of rage*

I've been working on homework and stuff due for midterm for the past week. It's been exhausting. The simulation just added to my mountain of stress. At the same time, the simulation wasn't as bad as I thought it would be... I was actually relieved after our first group meeting. I wish that homework didn't take so long to complete because I really wanted to help edit the video. I was so excited about the video because I took a digital applications class and discovered a love for video editing. Anyways, that would have been my favorite part of the simulation. I guess now my favorite part was the filming because we failed at memorizing our script and so we filmed practically line-by-line. But as a whole, our team worked well together and we definitely bonded over the filming process.