Letter to the Editor—A Criterion for Realism in War Games

The author has been in the business of constructing rules for war games (i.e., games with human players) for some years. The search for “realism” has been arduous and always frustrating. Since the author must usually adopt a pragmatic attitude towards this elusive property and make do with whatever is at hand, the search for truly general criteria for realism has been sometimes desperate. Over the last several years one such criterion has slowly emerged. It is only a necessary condition, not a sufficient one. Therefore it is only a weak criterion for realism, but appears to be a strong test for a lack of realism. Special purpose games can probably be imagined for which the theorem does not apply.