[Infowarrior] - U.S. Navy Builds An MMOG

[Richard Forno]

The U.S. Navy Builds An MMOG

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htlead/articles/20091206.aspx

December 6, 2009: The U.S. Navy is looking for a game development  
company to bid on a project to help create a multiplayer game for  
training and brainstorming. What they want initially is a feasibility  
study on the creation of a " Massive Multiplayer Online War Game  
Leveraging the Internet (MMOWGLI)." The proposals are due by December  
28th.
The navy wants a game that will enable them to further explore what  
they might be able to do with a multiplayer game, that can be used by  
players all over the world. The following description includes  
material from the navy solicitation document (in "parenthesis").

"It is anticipated that the number of players will be between 50 and  
1000. Players will be drawn from a pool that includes military  
officers, government civilians, and government contractors. It is  
expected that players will be generally knowledgeable but not  
necessarily be Subject Matter Experts."

"The game will be unclassified; however it will not be open or  
available to the general public. Respondents should be prepared to  
address game play within a restrictive information assurance  
environment."

"For the purposes of the pilot, the graphics environment should be  
just enough, but not more than, that needed to facilitate the play of  
a turn based strategy game."

"The game is non-deterministic and will be played in three moves that  
are related to, yet still distinct from, each other. It is conceivable  
that insights gleaned from game play during Moves One and Two may be  
used to modify Moves Two and Three respectively. Respondents should  
plan on some level of effort being dedicated to being part of the game  
controller team during game play, and to making changes to the  
scenarios of subsequent moves. Each move is anticipated to last  
between one to two weeks of calendar time, with one to two weeks of  
calendar time between moves for game controller activities. "

"Move One - Protecting the Sea Lanes: Move One is designed to get the  
players engaged in the game - collaborating and thinking  
strategically. Players attend a major International Anti-Piracy  
Conference being convened under the auspices of the International  
Maritime Organization. Players, representing various anti-piracy  
stakeholders, sign up as members of various working groups which are  
tasked with addressing aspects of the piracy problem. Once formed into  
teams/working groups, the players will have tasking to address  
activities related to military and operational coordination,  
information sharing, and the operational role of the regional  
coordination center. The complete player tasking is contained in the  
attachment. What the players produce: working as part of collaborative  
teams, the players will produce n-# of multimedia responses to the  
tasking they receive, where n-# corresponds to the number of teams.  
Assignment of players into teams: To the maximum extent practical, it  
is the intent that game controllers allow the teams to self organize  
and self manage. Thus, it is conceivable that a distribution of team  
sizes will exist, including some that are very small and some that are  
very large. "

"Move Two - Attacks at Sea: The scenario is multiple near simultaneous  
attacks on ships transiting the Red Sea to the Horn of Africa. Players  
would be self selecting and self organizing into collaborative teams  
of either Red (pirates) or Blue (US and Allied response). It is  
conceivable that players may have the option of signing up to be part  
of a third party as well, representing e.g. NGOs, other governments,  
etc, but this has not yet been determined. "

"Players will be provided with a menu of Red forces to work with, Blue  
forces to work with, constraints on how much of each they can use, and  
a description of the targets. This will be government furnished  
information. The attachment has more complete details. The first  
action belongs to Red, who is tasked with developing a plan of attack,  
with a deadline. The players would then produce n-# of multimedia  
responses, where the response describes their plan of attack. Once the  
Red plans of attack are submitted, then Blue takes over. Blue teams  
may respond to as many of the Red plans of attack as they wish. Blue's  
output consists of n-# of multimedia responses, where the response  
describes their plan of defense/counter-attack to the various Red  
attacks. "

"Move Three: The game continues with a final move consisting of a  
range of scenarios that are logical outcomes from Move Two. These  
scenarios include, but may not be limited to: . Conducting a hostage  
rescue ashore . Conducting a hostage rescue at sea . Dismantling  
pirate base camps . Disrupting the pirate support infrastructure  
ashore and/or overseas . Helping the Somali Transitional National  
Government and Puntland officials restore order and the rule of law.  
Developing a viable indigenous Somali Coast Guard . Providing  
humanitarian assistance. Others, potentially based on insights gleaned  
from play in Moves One or Two."

"Teams will have the option of selecting which scenario(s) to play.  
The format of game play will mirror that of Move Two, this time with  
Blue owning the first action and Red having the response. The players  
would produce the same output as in Move Two, i.e. n-# of multimedia  
responses consisting of a plan of attack (for Blue) and a plan of  
response or counter-attack (for Red)."

The navy also wants a Unified User Interface (the MMOWGLI Appliance).

"As discussed earlier in this document, it is envisioned that the  
primary level of effort for the pilot will go toward integration of  
existing component technologies. To that end, respondents should  
address, to the maximum extent practical, having a unified user  
interface. In the ideal outcome, players and participants should be  
able to run a single program to participate meaningfully in the game.  
The term "appliance" is being used to mean a unified system consisting  
of an integrated hardware and software deliverable. Upon initial  
entry, users will be given the opportunity to create an account to  
enter personal information such as education and professional  
background. The addition of interests and hobbies will be encouraged  
to create a well rounded profile. Information should be organized in  
such a way as to promote social networking and used by others as Teams  
self organize."

"An online help system will be will be available to user along with  
basic system usage training. Player responsibilities will be explained  
in this system and it should be accessible at any time. Help topics  
will cover tools provided by the MMOWGLI Appliance."

"Players will be guided to documentation/media library where they are  
exposed to an initial presentation of the scenarios and background  
information. Users will be presented with questions to answer and are  
provided with expectations of minimum satisfactory responses to be  
completed by the end of each move. Game controllers are people tasked  
with the duty of guiding game play. Players may be provided with  
additional information, injected by the game controllers, at any time.  
Game Controllers may answer questions and encourage teams to gel. Key  
questions may be posed during a move in response to player inputs. "

"Players will have the ability to create, edit, share, and  
compartmentalize all content created and archived within the  
appliance. Content may be defined as documents (text, word processed,  
spreadsheets, and presentations), audio, and video. Users will have  
the ability to send alerts via instant messaging or email to team  
members when content has been added or changed. Players will be  
provided a suite of online collaboration tools where teams would be  
allowed to create private forums. The team may assign moderator rights  
to the leader. Teams would have public and private chat capabilities,  
allowing polling."

In a section of the document titled, "Scoring, Ranking, Adjudication  
and Other Factors Affecting Player Engagement":

"Respondents should address having a scheme for ranking and scoring  
players and teams both publicly and privately. The scheme should  
combine elements that are objective as well as subjective (i.e.  
determined by the game controllers). It is envisioned that these  
criteria would be made known to the players. Since the game is non- 
deterministic, it is envisioned that the game controller team will  
have to adjudicate winners and losers for each Move (i.e. human-in-the- 
loop). In addition to the basics of scoring and ranking, respondents  
should address other aspects of game play that they assess as  
important to making the game experience meaningful."

The navy eventually wants to add analysis, of player actions, to the  
game, but not in this prototype version.

"Future Considerations

Re-Use and Re-Purposability: The feasibility study should also address  
the re-purposing of this pilot into an eventual platform for ongoing  
experimentation and innovation. Topics to address include the following:

Data capture mechanisms and protocols,

Data analysis tools, Modular design.

Support for user authored games and user generated content beyond the  
scope of the scenario described in this document.

Support for user generated real time changes in content, i.e.  
injection of excursions.

Integration of 3-D graphics

Planned support for external connections to other simulators such as  
High Level Architecture Real-time Platform-level Reference Federated  
Object Model (IEEE 1516 HLA RPR FOM) or the Distributed Interactive  
Simulation Protocol."