We, Robot
An analog game about artificial intelligence
In July and August of 2018, the Decision Game Club of the Marine Corps University conducted an experiment known as “Robot Summer 2018.” In the course of this experiment, which took place during the regular weekly meetings of the club, participants tested six successive versions of We, Robot, a tabletop game that simulated the design, building, and employment of fleets of fighting robots.
In the course of playing We, Robot, players made investments in various features of the forces they were creating, seeking to strike the right balance among such things as production, artificial intelligence, and the remediation of unexpected problems. Players also had the option of deploying their robots to a place called Hobbes, a “state of nature” in which groups of robots fought among themselves. Thus, We, Robot serves both as an exercise in combat development and a simulation of struggle among armed actors.
The printable materials for the game, which can be found at the Military Learning Library, presume three teams: Peace, Love, and Understanding. However, players may play with as many teams as they like, and call them what they wish.
In much the same way, while the set of printable materials for We, Robot, include a page of tokens, players may use generic game tokens, poker chips, or tokens taken from another board game.
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