War Game is a 1959 short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was first published in the magazine ''

Galaxy Science Fiction ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published in Boston from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by a French-Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break into the American market. World Editi ...

'', in December 1959, and has since been re-published in two anthologies and at least twenty-four collections.

Plot summary

The Ganymedans are considering war with

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

. A group of Earth toy safety inspectors examine three new toys from Ganymede to discover if they should be allowed to be imported: A toy soldier game where 12 soldiers attack a citadel, a

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...

suit, and ''Syndrome'', a ''

Monopoly A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a speci ...

''-like board game. The inspectors determine that the citadel is absorbing the soldiers one by one for an unknown purpose, and fear that the game may secretly be an atomic bomb building to

critical mass In nuclear engineering, a critical mass is the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The critical mass of a fissionable material depends upon its nuclear properties (specifically, its nuclear fi ...

. The suit is so realistic that an inspector finds returning to reality difficult; with enough time a child would find doing so impossible. They play the board game while waiting with a

bomb disposal Bomb disposal is an explosives engineering profession using the process by which hazardous explosive devices are rendered safe. ''Bomb disposal'' is an all-encompassing term to describe the separate, but interrelated functions in the milita ...

expert for the last soldier to disappear, but find that the citadel is actually a therapeutic tool to build confidence in children. They nonetheless decide, out of caution, to only allow the board game for import. A children's store employee brings home a copy of ''Syndrome'' to his family. He accumulates the most holdings but learns from his children that he has lost; the purpose, according to the instructions, is to give up as much stock and money as possible. The story concludes with the children, who are unfamiliar with ''Monopoly'', "learning the naturalness of surrendering their holdings"; one says "It's the best educational toy you ever brought home, Dad!"

External links

*
War Game
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

References

1959 short stories American science fiction short stories Short stories by Philip K. Dick {{1950s-sf-story-stub