Trick of the Light is an experiment in strategic game design based on imperfect information in a unique fog of war setting. A hybrid of real-time-strategy, role-playing-game and roguelike genres, the game challenges players to maintain an expansive base system without being able to see anything beyond their own limited vision radius. All units, allied or enemy, maintain private memories about what they have seen, and must directly exchange information to keep up to date. The player acts as commander, making decisions and giving orders while dealing with adversaries, sabotage and misinformation. Testing was done to see if the new concepts could be understood in-game and garner any interest for further development, which proved to be positive in both cases despite complaints related to having less direct control over allies.

Victory Garden, Stuart Moulthrop’s 1991 classic hyperfiction, presents a nonlinear story of U. S. home front involvement in the First Gulf War in a way that facilitates confusion and mimics a "fog of war" sort of (un)awareness. Using Storyspace to build his complex narrative, Moulthrop incorporates poetry, fiction, historical references, and low-tech graphic novel type elements. Among the graphic components are all-black and all-white screens that function as variables. Overtly, these screens speak of closure and signify unconsciousness; however, their nonverbal role may also be linked to the ineffability trope as used by Dante Alighieri and re-interpreted by contemporary linguist Ruiging Liang. To date, critics and meta-readers have incorrectly assumed that the protagonist, Emily Runbird, becomes a fatality. By failing to read her life or death as undecidable, we deny the fiction its full power as a postmodern interpretive dilemma. This assumption plays into what might be posited as Moulthrop’s real thesis: syllogism in a corrupted (war time) information system is potentially tragic. A summary of theories and critical approaches relevant to the blank screen’s use as interstice together with sample engagements with relevant texts—reading Victory Garden, as per Wolfgang Iser’s phenomenological approach, Stanley Fish’s reader response theory, and Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction—prove Victory Garden, to be a challenging but consistent literary breakdown (staged malfunction of reading habits). Ultimately, ineffability is shown to be a reading strategy and the action Aristotle characterizes as key to the definition of tragedy is seen as performed by the reader. Moulthrop dangles the question about Emily’s demise as a critical reading moment prone to corruption. The classical anagnorisis is not Emily’s; the revelation Moulthrop intends is reserved for the reader and is precipitated by the need to resolve aporia.

This thesis concerns the study of ethnic minority groups and their national identity formation process as a result of their collective experience during, and understanding of, World War One. The groups observed are Black Americans and German Americans from the United States, as well as the Irish from Great Britain. Each groups’ identity progression and understanding of the war differed from their counterparts, while having still exhibited similarities of which highlight how different forms of nationalism played a role in the lives of ethnic minorities. A Marxist theoretical framework of nationalism and tradition is applied through the works of Benedict Anderson, Eric Hobsbawm and Terrance Ranger. The results convey how American nationalism served to further solidify a greater sense of American national identity for the respective ethnic groups, though through a process of apathy and coercion. British nationalism revealed how its version of the phenomena lacked sufficient proximity to the respective group, thus resulting in the Irish rejection of the British nation and its form of identity. These results further illustrate how both nations were in many ways sovereign and limited in their ability to form a political and social community with these groups. Lastly, it is revealed that the internal differences in each group followed a universal trend wherein those group members who served in combat roles during the war, inhibited a greater sense of national identity than those who did not see combat. This result serves as the foundation for my new theory, known as the Fog of War Complex.

This study explores the way imperfect information affects chess gameplay in players with different skill levels. To explore the effects of removing information from a perfect system we used both chess and a variant of chess known as dark chess or fog of war chess. With a sample size of eight players organised into four pairs, we gathered both quantitative data from the moves made in the chess matches and qualitative data from interviews with the participants. The findings of this research may be useful to chess enthusiasts and players who wish to study perfect and imperfect information systems in games, as well as game designers and game researchers who are studying the effects of hidden information on gameplay and strategy. Our findings show no relation between ratings and performance in dark chess but instead show a relation between strategies chosen by players and the outcome of dark chess games.

Fog of War is a term for uncertainty in situational awareness. Fog of War is an essential part of a wargame which causes the participating units’ perception of the environment to be distorted and altered. Introducing a certain amount of uncertainty helps to better mimic the situation on the battlefield. Fog of War comes in multiple forms and levels, whereas the visual detection level is of primary interest for this thesis. Two forms of visual detection have been implemented to simulate a simple and advanced form of Fog of War. The simple level is based solely on the distance between two units, while the advanced level determines whether two units possess a clear line of sight between them, to decisively add realism to a played scenario. The two models were created based on the Entity Component System software architecture, and the maps used for the wargame were based on data from ArcGIS. Extensive testing of the two models, for different types of terrains, show good performance and computational efficiency, however with the expected caveat that flat landscape requires significantly more processing power and memory capacity than a hilly terrain. / Krigsdimma är en term för osäkerhet inom situationsmedvetenhet. Krigsdimma är en väsentlig del av ett krigsspel och medför att deltagande förbands uppfattning av miljön förvrängs och förändras samt att ett visst mått av osäkerhet introduceras för att bättre efterlikna situationen på slagfältet. Krigsdimma kommer i flera former och flera nivåer, där visuell detektering är av primärt intresse för denna avhandling. Två former av visuell detektering har implementerats för att simulera en enkel och en avancerad form av krigsdimma. Den enkla nivån bygger enbart på avståndet mellan två förband medan den avancerade nivån kan avgöra om två enheter i verkligheten har en fri siktlinje mellan sig, något som på ett avgörande sätt kan tillföra realism till ett spelat scenario. De två realiseringarna skapades baserat på en Entity Component System mjukvaruarkitektur, och kartorna som användes för krigsspelet baserade sig på data från ArcGIS. Omfattande tester av de två modellerna, för olika terrängtyper, visar på god funktion och beräkningseffektivitet, dock kräver flackt landskap betydligt mer processorkraft och minneskapacitet än kuperad terräng.

<p>So- called “Network Based Defense” (NBD) was introduced in Sweden in connection with the transformation of the Swedish Armed Forces in 1999. NBD is based on the U.S. variant Network Centric Warfare (NCW), which in turn is derived from research on the concept of Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). In Sweden the concept was introduced and included not only the Armed Forces but was intended to also support the Swedish civilian agencies in order to create networks and hence share the available information and thus more effective crisis management and to provide more "bang for the buck." In developing the concept of NBD the Swedish Armed Forces used both economic and human resources, in the form of research, new technologies, new organization and new methods.</p><p>Between year 2004 and 2006 the Armed Forces once again entered the process of reorganization. This time to “classic” military hierarchical organization and NBD as development engine disappeared due to economic cutbacks, together with the decision to participate in the European Union (EU) rapid reaction force. The purpose of this essay is to study the theories and ideas behind the concept and why the concept "disappeared" a few years later. The result of the work suggests that the concept of NBD in its abstract form was too theoretical. The process of organization introduced by HKV -04 is the clearest example of this abstract ambiguity concerning command and responsibility. Research suggests that responsibility is the basis of military organization and operations. The results also shows that a number of experiences from the development of the NBD has been used in the more practically oriented transformation of the Armed Forces necessary by the commitments for the so- called Nordic Battle Group (NBG-08).</p><p>The results have also shown correlation between NBD development and the increased Nordic cooperation in the form of sea and air surveillance and the well-developed body interaction within the framework of the national crisis management capacity in Sweden.</p> / <p>Nätverks Baserat Försvar (NBF) infördes i Sverige inom ramen för transformationen av Försvarsmakten från ett invasionsförsvar till ett insatsförsvar. NBF bygger på den amerikanska varianten <em>Network Centric Warfare</em> (NCW) som i sin tur härstammar från forskningen kring begreppet <em>Revolution in Military Affairs</em> (RMA). Konceptet infördes och innefattade inte bara Försvarsmakten utan även stödmyndigheter i syfte att skapa ett nätverk och därmed dela tillgänglig information och därmed effektivisera krishanteringen och ge mer ”pang för pengarna”. Kring utvecklingen av konceptet NBF lades stora resurser i form av forskning, ny teknik, ny organisation och nya metoder.</p><p>År 2004 till 2006 omorganiserades Försvarsmakten återigen från införd processorganisation enligt NBF till klassisk militär hierarkisk organisation och NBF som utvecklingsmotor försvann i och med ekonomiska neddragningar tillsammans med beslutet om att delta i Europeiska Unionens (EU:s) snabbinsatsstyrka.</p><p>Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera tankar och teorier som ledde fram till NBF och vad som kan vara en förklaring till att NBF försvann några år senare.</p><p>Resultatet av arbetet med uppsatsen tyder på att konceptet NBF i sin abstrakta form blev för teoretiskt. Den processorganisation som infördes med HKV -04 är det tydligaste exemplet på denna abstrakta oklarhet främst vad gäller befäl och därtill kopplat ansvar.  Forskning pekar på att ansvar utgör grunden i militär organisation och verksamhet.  Resultaten visar också på att de positiva lärdomarna från utvecklingen av NBF i form av vikten av ”nätverkande” låg som grund till det mer praktiskt inriktade transformeringen av Försvarsmaktens delar genom Nordic Battle Group, (NBG-08). Resultatet har också påvisat samband mellan NBF utvecklingen och det utökade nordiska samarbetet i form av sjö och luftövervakning samt den likaså utvecklade myndighetssamverkan inom ramen för den nationella krishanteringsförmågan i Sverige.</p>

So- called “Network Based Defense” (NBD) was introduced in Sweden in connection with the transformation of the Swedish Armed Forces in 1999. NBD is based on the U.S. variant Network Centric Warfare (NCW), which in turn is derived from research on the concept of Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). In Sweden the concept was introduced and included not only the Armed Forces but was intended to also support the Swedish civilian agencies in order to create networks and hence share the available information and thus more effective crisis management and to provide more "bang for the buck." In developing the concept of NBD the Swedish Armed Forces used both economic and human resources, in the form of research, new technologies, new organization and new methods. Between year 2004 and 2006 the Armed Forces once again entered the process of reorganization. This time to “classic” military hierarchical organization and NBD as development engine disappeared due to economic cutbacks, together with the decision to participate in the European Union (EU) rapid reaction force. The purpose of this essay is to study the theories and ideas behind the concept and why the concept "disappeared" a few years later. The result of the work suggests that the concept of NBD in its abstract form was too theoretical. The process of organization introduced by HKV -04 is the clearest example of this abstract ambiguity concerning command and responsibility. Research suggests that responsibility is the basis of military organization and operations. The results also shows that a number of experiences from the development of the NBD has been used in the more practically oriented transformation of the Armed Forces necessary by the commitments for the so- called Nordic Battle Group (NBG-08). The results have also shown correlation between NBD development and the increased Nordic cooperation in the form of sea and air surveillance and the well-developed body interaction within the framework of the national crisis management capacity in Sweden. / Nätverks Baserat Försvar (NBF) infördes i Sverige inom ramen för transformationen av Försvarsmakten från ett invasionsförsvar till ett insatsförsvar. NBF bygger på den amerikanska varianten Network Centric Warfare (NCW) som i sin tur härstammar från forskningen kring begreppet Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). Konceptet infördes och innefattade inte bara Försvarsmakten utan även stödmyndigheter i syfte att skapa ett nätverk och därmed dela tillgänglig information och därmed effektivisera krishanteringen och ge mer ”pang för pengarna”. Kring utvecklingen av konceptet NBF lades stora resurser i form av forskning, ny teknik, ny organisation och nya metoder. År 2004 till 2006 omorganiserades Försvarsmakten återigen från införd processorganisation enligt NBF till klassisk militär hierarkisk organisation och NBF som utvecklingsmotor försvann i och med ekonomiska neddragningar tillsammans med beslutet om att delta i Europeiska Unionens (EU:s) snabbinsatsstyrka. Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera tankar och teorier som ledde fram till NBF och vad som kan vara en förklaring till att NBF försvann några år senare. Resultatet av arbetet med uppsatsen tyder på att konceptet NBF i sin abstrakta form blev för teoretiskt. Den processorganisation som infördes med HKV -04 är det tydligaste exemplet på denna abstrakta oklarhet främst vad gäller befäl och därtill kopplat ansvar.  Forskning pekar på att ansvar utgör grunden i militär organisation och verksamhet.  Resultaten visar också på att de positiva lärdomarna från utvecklingen av NBF i form av vikten av ”nätverkande” låg som grund till det mer praktiskt inriktade transformeringen av Försvarsmaktens delar genom Nordic Battle Group, (NBG-08). Resultatet har också påvisat samband mellan NBF utvecklingen och det utökade nordiska samarbetet i form av sjö och luftövervakning samt den likaså utvecklade myndighetssamverkan inom ramen för den nationella krishanteringsförmågan i Sverige.