The US Navy’s newest strategic weapon may be a Massive Multiplayer Online Wargame.  If it works for HALO and gears of War, why not the Navy?  The project is a joint effort between the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) and Institute for the Future (IFTF).  The approach is to “crowdsource ideas and strategies that may provide insight to some of the Navy’s toughest problems.”

The game’s first round was “piracyMMOWGLI” in Summer of 2011 and focused on countering Somali piracy. The next round, energyMMOWGLI, is launching this month.  As the name suggests, this game deals with energy, specifically asking the question, “How can the Navy best meet future energy demands?” The game is focused on reducing fossil fuel dependency.  ironically, as pointed out by TPM, “the timing of the new game’s launch is somewhat unfortunate given that the Republican-led House Armed Services Committee voted last week to effectively prohibit the Department of Defense from purchasing any alternative fuel that costs more than petroleum. That effectively eliminates biofuels, at least for the near future.”  Of course, biofuels are only one component of energy policy, but they could play an important role.

Video highlights from “piracyMMOWGLI”:

MMOWGLI Future of Global Piracy 2021

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