As a frequent gamer, watching videos from the war in Ukraine has an
odd familiarity to it. So many of the industry's digital fantasies
have involved heroic soldiers fighting battles with modern armaments
against a hostile army, and seeing it happen in real life sometimes
seems like I'm watching an ultra-realistic version of "ARMA" or "Call
of Duty". The wars in Iraq and Syria - where the fighting was in the
vast open deserts against a materially inferior foe - never felt quite
the same. Not to dismiss the trials the soldiers faced in those wars,
but their battles often felt disconnected from reality, more like
Hollywood's ideas of SEAL team special operations. The Ukrainian
conflict feels like a down-and-dirty war. It feels more honest, more
real. More like we saw in our games.

There's an odd sense of ambivalence watching these videos; I'm not
sure if I should be fascinated or disgusted by what I'm seeing. Most
of us, I expect (and hope), are lucky enough to never have been thrust
into such a bloody carnage, so video-games are unsurprisingly our
primary touchstone for what such a conflict might be like. It's
unsurprising that's what we think of when we see it happening for
real. What is disconcerting is that the same was true for many of the defenders, at least as of a year ago. Until the February 2022
invasion, most of the people now fighting had never been closer to a
battle than a 64-player deathmatch where their tactics rarely took
into consideration the finality of death; a respawn was always just
around the corner. I bet (I hope) those foolish notions got blown away
quickly.

Worse, whenever watching some of these videos, a somewhat shameful
thought crosses through my head: "this would make a great game." Don't
get me wrong; I don't want a game made of the Ukraine war; I don't
think we need more glorification of real-world violence, or more
propaganda, or any attempt to replace the sacrifice made by real
heroes with fictional digital avatars. But the setting and the
struggle - were they not real - would make perfect fodder for a game.
Modern warfare in the mountains and forests of Ukraine, leading a
ragtag band of fighters against an overwhelmingly large army to
reclaim your homeland? Hollywood couldn't write a better story.

Still, even if there never is a "Ukraine War" video game, I suspect
the visuals we see on our TV and on YouTube will be influence games
for decades to come, and again, I'm not sure if that's a good or bad
thing. But the tactics and technology, the sights and sounds will
become part of our video-games sooner or later, even if they don't
directly mention the real-world conflict.

Unexpectedly, perhaps unwittingly, it's being drawn into our shared
culture and history. It's weird to see that happening in real-time.
It's hard to decide how to feel about that. Should I be excited or
disgusted?

Maybe I should just stick to checkers.

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