Scarcity of War makes us want it

Did you know that there were more people who bought a game about war in the middle east, than actual people who fight in those wars? What you don’t realize is that war is actually a rare thing. We don’t have really big wars very often, in fact World War I was partially caused by this odd lack. Scarcity can also mean things like money or experience points in a game. The problem is that if you bought everything you want, or gained all the goals in the game, the scarce item becomes sort of useless.

When you think of rarity, your mind likely goes to gems. The reality is that there are tons of things that are rare, that tend to be talked up. There events like wars that can be just as rare. World War I was a war that happened after nearly a century of very small wars. In other words, War was a rarity, and this probably caused most of the problems with the war.

First off, a full out giant war hadn’t happened in Europe since 1815. The Napoleonic Wars were fierce, but the biggest battle was that of resources and money. By the time the French forces entered into Russia, they had to ship resources in or die. In one winter, the entire army of Napoleon had been defeated -something other military forces had failed at for decades. By the time it was over, the country of France had lost all of its power, and the new great empire had been started.

For the next century wars did happen, but they were small and brief. To give you an idea, the Greco-Turkish war was only a month long.  Perhaps the person who used war to his greatest advantage was Otto van Bismark, who specifically took over land by threatening a war with a country that didn’t want one. They would sooner give up the land, than send troops in. Most of modern Germany was formed by these maneuvers. Not only that, it kept the peace for longer than Bismark’s entire tenure.  This peace only ended at World War I.

A giant no holds bar war is rare anyway. In the last thousand years, there have been only a handful. Most wars went like this: Countries declare war, it takes months and even years for the countries to actually fight each other, most of the war is spent with troops aiming at each other but not fighting, peace. Although you have likely read stories about great and noble wars, keep in mind that most of the ones popping into your head involved wizards, and dragons. Even the 100 years war was really a series of skirmishes that last a century, but also had decades of peace in between.

So when World War I started, no one expected it to be that bad. It was so rare to have a war like that, people were actually giddy with the idea. It was also expected to be a short war because of all of the smaller wars beforehand. They were told that the enemy was a horrible being that will die in a few months. It will all be over by Christmas said a few in Britain. The reality was that the troops spent Christmas together.

I could go on and on about this. Every historian has a favorite war, and mine happens to be World War I. The rarity of war is what pushed the countries to continue to fight in WWI, and they just kept going even though terrible losses mounted. France lost an entire generation to the war, Germany was nearly starved to death. Japan began its own empire -which was ignored by the League of Nations.

If you ever want to see how war as a rarity works. Look at Vladimir Putin’s slow take over of Eastern Europe. He is following many of the same tactics as Bismark. Do you want to go to war for the Ukraine? Likely not, and he knows this.

Rarity means that you hold something with a great deal of power, and respect. Even if it is something as small as a gem, or as big as a war, it works the same. Some people do everything in their power to have it, and the reason why they seek it is the rarity it holds.

How does this work with videogames? First off, it can take giant events like War, and make the rarity of them seem grand. Items within a game are controlled by rarity so that you seek them out more. Most games that use these systems tend to end up badly off when things are no longer rare enough.

There is an entire gamer style known as Grognard. It is also known War Games. The knowledge of weaponry and strategy to play some of these games is incredible. During the 90’s a Senator admitted that war gamers knew more than he did, and he was part of the defense committee. Tom Clancy used a game manual to give details on Submarines.

Let’s put another figure out for you, at the height of the surge, there was about 200,000 troops in Iraq(Warring PDF). The top selling war game at the time was a shooter called Call of Duty Modern Warfare, which sold approximately 15 million units. To give you an idea, the surge was considered the highest soldier count in Iraq at the time, and it was about 1⅓% of those who bought a game about the same war.

To be honest, Modern Warfare is not a good War Game. It is more of a aggrandisement of war, than a intricate details type game. In other words, the idea of War is sold, and used to sell games. There will be more people involved with the sale of the game, than people actually in a war. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy the game, it means you should recognize why you bought it.

For those who dare ask how Cities in Motion 2 works with war: 

Scarcity can be an entire reason to play a game. There are game styles that specifically make specific items hard to find. You likely know the old adage about Grinding. The player kills enemies until they level up, or find a specific item. This can be done for hours. My baby brother was surprised to find out that RPGs had stories in them. He was getting to level 50 at the very beginning of the games, and then killing anything that came at him. This included the final boss.

Unfortunately, grinding requires a goal for those items and experience points. If you can beat the game without trying, it is no longer fun. If you pretty much bought everything at the store, there is no more need for money in the game. This means that if a game is fun, or purposefully uses grinding, then the fun begins to stop as your goals no longer matter.

Scarcity, or rarity in real life can be more than just gems you buy at a store for a special someone. War is actually pretty rare, and especially big over the top wars. Because of this they tend to be talked about, and given a lot of power. World War I was partially caused by the desire from several countries to have a war. There are more people playing games about war, than there are people in actual wars. Scarcity can also be a gameplay element, most well known as Grinding. Going for rarely dropped items, getting cash, or experience to build up a character can be a lot of fun. The problem is that if the end goals are no longer fun, the game itself begins to get annoying.

Scarcity is a way to persuade someone to make a decision. If war is rare, than you can make it sound like something grand. If a gem is rare, you can sell it for a lot of money. It is the idea that rarity brings value not the item itself. In fact, there are more people playing games about war, than there are people fighting them. It’s one of those odd things about life.

This ends our conversation on persuasion. The next article will likely be about grinding, and how it works in real life, and in game. After that, we will discuss how this works in real life, and then in game as a total picture. I have been saving up three articles for just that subject. Have a good night everyone.