CLOAKS, DAGGERS, AND DICE: HOW THE CIA USES GAMES

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06711368
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: November 7, 2017
• Case Number: F-2017-01128
• Publication Date: July 1, 2016

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Cloaks, Daggers, and Dice: How the CIA Uses Games
CIA Panel at South by Southwest Conference
Prepared Remarks, Talking Points for Anticipated Questions, and Slides
Panel Participants:
� Carolyn R (moderator)
� David C
� Volko R
� Rachel G
Instructions
Games as a training tool
0 Games as a model for thinking
0 Designing games for complexity
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Opening Statement � David
The year is 2008. It's a beautiful
spring day in the Washington DC
metro area. The sun is shining, the
birds are singing, and I've recently
been promoted to the CIA's senior
analytic service. So, as you can
imagine, I'm feeling pretty good
about myself. Then, I get a call from
my boss's boss. "Umm, David, I'd
like to see you in my office when
you have a moment." Oookay, that sounds a little ominous to me. But, I head on over to his
office � when I have a moment, of course � and ask him what's up. He turns to me and says
"David, I have an opportunity for you." Now, I don't know about you, but when management
says "I have an opportunity for you" that doesn't necessarily fill me with hope and excitement.
Using Games to Train
Intelligence Officers
But in this case, it turned out my fears were unwarranted. The opportunity in question was for
me to become an instructor at the CIA's Sherman Kent School for Intelligence Analysis, where --
among other things -- they wanted me to stand up a new class that would teach analysts how
to work more effectively with their colleagues in the intelligence collection agencies. And I
enjoyed that job so much, I stayed there for four years even though it was originally only
supposed to be a one year rotation. And one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much is that I was
able to bring my love of gaming into the classroom, and explore ways of using games to help
train the CIA's analytic cadre.
And that's one of the things we'd like to talk with you about today � to give you some insight
into how we at the CIA have used games and gaming concepts to support our national security
mission. We all come at this from a slightly different angle, so each of us will give a brief
opening remark that tells you a little something about how we've incorporated games into our
work process, and then we'll open it up to the floor for any questions. So, I'll go ahead and kick
things off.
Now typically in a professional class at the CIA, you have a certain number of days of classroom
instruction, followed by some kind of exercise at the end � usually involving teams and
flipcharts �to see whether or not you've absorbed the lessons of the class. But when I was
designing my classes, I started thinking "that's s0000 boring. Surely I can come up with some
other way of reinforcing the class's teaching points." And I hit on the idea of developing a
boardgame that would play off of the teaching objectives of the class.
Why a game? Let me answer that question with a question. By show of hands, how many
people in this room play card games? What about board games? Any role players out there �
Dungeon and Dragons, for example? Video games? Anyone enjoy going to a casino? How
about fantasy football?
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Playing games is part of the human
condition. You might even say it's in
our DNA. The ancient Egyptian game
Senet dates back to at least 3500 BC
according to some archeological finds.
The Chinese game Go is considered by
many historians to be the oldest game
that's still played today. And we have
evidence that ancient Greeks and
Romans used sand tables for
simulations � which, when you think
about it, are also a form of game.
So, given the human propensity to play games then, it seems to make sense to take advantage
of that as part of the work process. Leverage the game-playing instinct into learning, for
example. So, let me talk a little bit about the different games I created at the CIA for use in
training and what they helped teach.
Here we have a board game I called
simply Collection: The Boardgame.
The premise of the game was that the
players were a team of analysts,
working cooperatively to get
reporting from different intelligence
collectors against different
international crises. Each of the
players is a different kind of analyst �
for example, a military analyst, a
political analyst or an economic analyst � and they each have different "abilities" they can use
to get reporting from the collectors. However, while they are trying to get reporting, the
different crises are getting hotter and hotter�and if any reaches a crisis level of 10, it's game
over: an intelligence failure. For anyone out there who's played Pandemic or Forbidden Island,
you'll be familiar with this kind of cooperative game, where it's you and the fellow players
against a deck of cards and a ticking clock. What I liked about this game was that it was really
about the value of collaboration. When we played it in class, we'd usually have 3 or 4 teams
playing the game concurrently at different tables. Those teams that learned to work well
together and leverage each other's strengths did much better than those teams where the
players struck out on their own.
Games can
model and
reinforce best
practices
INCLASSIFIEL
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The next game I created was a card
game called Collection Deck. This
game was created kind of in
response to the board game. While
the board game did a good job in
teaching the value of collaboration
between analysts and collectors, it
didn't really teach analysts about all
the different ways collectors can
gather information. Collection Deck
was designed to meet that training objective. Kind of a combination of a trick-capturing game
like Bridge or Whist, and a collectible card game like Pokemon or Magic: the Gathering, in this
game the players use collection technique cards in order to "capture" or solve intelligence
problems � but only certain techniques can be used against certain problems, and the other
players can play reality check cards in order to throw obstacles in your path. For example, a
player may try to use a overhead satellite to take pictures of something, but another player
throws down a card indicating there was a ground station failure, and so they can't use that
overhead satellite. The idea behind the game is to introduce players to a bunch of intelligence
collection capabilities they may not otherwise have been aware of, and to think logically about
how they could use those capabilities, and what obstacles they might encounter while doing so
This final game I'd like to share with
you is one that I'm still in the process
of designing. So, it doesn't even really
have a name. Let's call it Satellite
Construction Kit. The basic concept is
that teams of students would have to
work together to design an
intelligence satellite constellation.
They'd have to work within a budget,
and decide what size constellation to
build as well as what kinds of
capabilities to put on the satellites. Do you build a constellation with lots of small satellites,
which can only have limited capabilities, or one big satellite which can have lots of capabilities?
Do you design it to take pictures from space, collect communications signals, or track friendly
forces? Every decision they make will have both costs and benefits. If they choose A, then they
can't choose B. If they choose B, they can't choose C. As they are working together and coming
to consensus on what kind of satellite to build, certain obstacles might be thrown in their path.
For example, all of a sudden they find that their budget has been slashed by 10% and maybe
they now have to give up one of the payloads they were going to build into the satellite. Or
Congress directs them to make sure that they definitely build it with one specific capability, and
now they have to figure out what they are going to drop to accommodate that (if they don't
already have it). Although designing a satellite constellation is the framework for the game, it's
not about teaching them how to design an actual satellite constellation � it's about
COLLECTION
DECK
Games can expose
players to new ideas.
concepts, and tools
�
Games can increase
our understanding of
business processes
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understanding the tradeoffs and decisions that occur in the intelligence community when
designing a collection system, and the different things that can impact those decisions.
So with that, let me turn it over to my colleague Volko, for his perspective and thoughts on this
issue.
Talking Points � David
1) What's your approach to designing a game?
Since I've designed games for use in classes, I always start with the training objective. What's
the lesson we're trying to get across? I then let that guide the design process. I also have to
consider the class environment. How many students will there be? How many instructors? How
much time will they have for the game? All these feed into it. So, you start off with a bunch of
constraints that you wouldn't have when just designing a game for fun. However, there's one
big freedom you have that traditional game designers don't: you generally don't have to worry
about replayability � students will only take your class once, so you can design a game that's
only meant to be played once.
2) What advice would you offer others who might be interested in incorporating games into
their work process?
Two things. 1) Play lots of games for ideas. There are a lot of different game mechanics out
there and the best way to be exposed to them is to play them via other games. 2) Always keep
the purpose of the game in mind � what are you trying to achieve? Games in the workplace
should have a purpose, not just be for fun (although they certainly should be as fun as you can
make them). Keeping the purpose in mind will help guide your decisions during the design
process and better position yourself to justify the use of the game to any skeptics.
3) What challenges have you faced when using games in your organization, and how did you
deal with those challenges?
I definitely saw some resistance among students and managers who weren't "game people."
But as I stated at the start of this session, I think all humans are "game people"; we just
sometimes forget it. I also saw resistance from folks who thought that games were too
"frivolous" to be in the workplace. I think the way I dealt with both types of people were to
point out that some of the most serious organizations in the world use games to great effect.
The military, for example, regularly uses war games to train the soldiers and leaders. Hospitals
and airlines uses simulations to train their doctors and pilots � people who literally hold the
lives of others in their hands.
4) Can you provide an example of something that you learned through a game, or a time
when a game was successful in meeting an objective?
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Any time I've used a game in a class or a training brownbag, I always have some kind of wrap-up
session to help bring the lessons of the game together. And I always ask three questions: 1)
How was the game realistic? 2) How was the game unrealistic? and 3) What lessons can we take
away from the game to incorporated into our day-to-day workflow? And pretty much every
single time, this is when I see the light dawn in the players' eyes, as they realize how the game
reflected on reality and what they can carry away from it. But to be specific, I mentioned the
Collection Deck game earlier. I've had numerous students tell me after playing that game
something along the lines of "I had no idea that capability existed in the Intelligence
Community � do you have someone I can talk to about how to bring it to bear on my
intelligence problem?" That's a huge win for me.
Opening Statement � Volko
My name is Volko Ruhnke. Like David,
among my jobs at CIA has been to
help train our analysts and facilitate
their research. I've used a particular
kind of game�simulation games,
especially manual, tabletop
simulations such as board
wargames�to do this.
I am particularly interested in helping
analysts join their various types of expertise into what we call a "corporate product"�a
synthesis of their individual knowledge that represents CIA's best judgment as an agency.
Player Two
Using Games to
Synthesize Models of
Intelligence Issues
For example, if we were asked to project broadly what might happen in the war in Afghanistan
over the next year, we would need to involve military, political, and economic analysts focused
on Afghanistan; counterterrorism specialists who know something about the plans and
capabilities of extremist groups activities there; perhaps experts in the foreign policies of
various regional powers around Afghanistan; and so on.
Each of these analysts would bring their expert perspective on the many aspects of Afghanistan
that interact with one another�each expert has a "mental model" of Afghanistan, a
representation in their head of these interactions or dynamics. Each of their mental models is
unique, and a major hurdle is how to express, share, and mutually refine their models.
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UNMIFIVL
Here is a model of war in Afghanistan,
from some years ago. The US
commanding general there when
shown this image supposedly joked
"When we understand that slide, we'll
have won the war!" It's not our slide,
but it is a well-constructed model of
war in Afghanistan at the time.
Imagine, though, that we are analysts
and each of us has something like this
in our head�how are we going to explain it too each other, much
Not an inviting task!
Here is a commercial boardgame
about Afghanistan that I co-designed
on the outside. It too, I would argue, is
a well-constructed model of that war
(though for a different purpose).
These friends playing the game are
experiencing, together, the designers'
mental model. The players are inside
the model, operating it, and will
quickly come to understand, well
enough to critique it and even improve 't their tastes and purposes. And though they are
learning and refining their own mental models, they are doing this for fun!
How can we
translate our
mental models?
less refine and learn from
Here is the game board from a
tabletop simulation that we use to
train analysts, in this case, analysts
who might work with law
enforcement, counter-narcotics, or
counter-terrorism authorities around
the world. This game, "KINGPIN",
presents a model of many of the
interactions that go into hunting a
well-armed and well-protected bad
guy�in this case a drug cartel kingpin. We use a real-world historical case�Mexico's successful
hunt for Sinaloa Cartel boss "El Chapo" Guzman�to improve our analysts' own mental models
of how to help hunt down such "hard target" fugitives from justice. This is the game, by the
way, that I'd like to share with those of you who will be able to join us for our demo session
later
it?
Games invite
players to share
mental models
of a problem
CIA uses games to
improve skills and
understand a
complex world
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UN
Talking Points � Volko
1) What's your approach to designing a game?
Since I focus on simulation games, the first (and hardest) question is, what is the nature of the model
that the game will represent? It's not easy to develop�much less express�a mental model of the
actors, factors, and their interactions that are important to understanding the sorts of issues that CIA
must assess�wars, politics, economies, and such. These interactions are fundamental to the kind of
complexity that Rachel discussed.
The second question then is, what game mechanics are best suited to represent these interactions:
victory conditions for the incentives of the actors concerned; what is the playing field, the boundaries of
the model; what resources do the players have in the game; how do the players use them to advance
their goals against one another, the rules that represent real-world capabilities? And so on.
2) What advice would you offer others who might be interested in incorporating games into their
work process?
Be diligent in identifying first the learning or research purpose of the game. Ask Why a game? Do we
need a simulation or just a frame game (like "jeopardy" or "trivial pursue)? Will the time to find or
build the right game be worth it? What does the game have to have in it, and what can be left out�so
that we don't get a "Christmas tree" weighed down by too many ornaments to achieve our focused
purpose.
3) What challenges have you faced when using games in your organization, and how did you deal
with those challenges?
Time commitment by players is a concern, for both training and research simulation games. In our
training house, we don't get students for a semester. In a few hours to days, we have to have shown
them something that they can use back on the line, to produce analysis (in my case). Simulation games
can get complicated, and having to learn to play a game before you can extract real-world
understanding is an additional hurdle.
We deal with that (or should) by ruthlessly stripping away all that is not needed, purposeful to our
learning objectives or intelligence questions. "Keep is simple" is obvious but can be hard to achieve.
4) Can you provide an example of something that you learned through a game, or a time when a
game was successful in meeting an objective?
One of my training games on political systems�this one models parliamentary politics�
inspired a student political analysts to design his own tabletop game about democratization in
the country he is expert on. He then played the game with a series of experts on that country
and on regional democratization, then got one of our data scientist to generate probabilistic
findings from that tabletop expression of his mental model. This research generated several
finished intelligence products�before, by the way, that particular country experienced a
prolonged internal political crisis that brought several issues that he had explored to the fore in
the real world.
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Opening Statement - Rachel
Hello, my name is Rachel and I'm the
Chief Strategist and Deputy Director
for Digital Futures, an organization
within CIA's Directorate for Digital
Innovation. In my current role and
actually over the course of my career
my focus has been to translate
unconventional and innovative
thinking�whether it's mine or other
officers�into opportunities and
solutions that help us continuously
leverage the evolving digital landscape. And games and simulations have played a large role in
that. I got into game design because as a cyberterrorism analyst a million years ago we were
getting asked questions by policymakers that we could not answer using traditional intelligence.
As a result I started designing wargames to come up with insights and truths that could inform
those answers.
Designing Intelligence
Games to Capture Real
World Complexity
So, as David described you can see that the IC has a healthy appetite for simulating intelligence
problems, and as you have heard from Volko, we pay a great deal of attention to what happens
in the heads of our players as games progress and are played out. We continuously subject our
players to new data and information, forcing them to repeatedly refine their decisions and
assumptions. It sounds fun and exciting in theory right? But how well does it conform to the
real world and how complex events actually evolve? I suspect that at this point many of you
have questions about the correlation between what we design and what we follow going on
among the participants, and, what actually goes on in the real world and what actually happens
with people caught up in real life crisis where decisions are made collectively.
That is a long way of asking what the correlation is between human behavior among players in
a game and human behavior among real decision makers as events unfold in real life. So I
thought I would spend a few minutes sharing with you how I address the challenge of designing
intelligence games that do justice emulating real world complexity and behavior.
Key points on this slide:
� Embedded creativity is integral
to the game
� Players are connected to
purpose
� Game controller has to use a
light touch
How Do You Design For...
Black swans and
unintended
consequences?
Realistic, plausible
behavior?
Scope and pacing
that supports
genuine decision
making?
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Key point on this slide
O Introduce hypothetical
intelligence question and
unpack next steps:
"In a fully digitized environment�
such as a smart city that is full of
sensors, is data driven, and artificially
intelligent, how would the business of
intelligence work?"
Key point on this slide
� Teams need to reflect more
than just the intelligence
question.
Key points on this slide
� Building out the story is key.
� Players need to integrate &
become part of the story
early.
Assemble teams
compelled to action
Nail down the Intel
question & premise
of the story
Pull the experts into
their own adventure
"It's 2040 and the fictional country of Alileal�a developing country of strategic importance to
the major state powers including the US�becomes the sole beneficiary of a newly discovered,
highly prized material that triggers a technological breakthrough. Alileal becomes rich
overnight. They have a new set of geopolitical levers to use for re-negotiatiating their position in
the world. One result of their good fortune is that it has enabled them to exponentially leapfrog
past everyone technologically and rapidly transform their cities into fully instrumented, smart
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environments run by advanced Al systems. Alileal's cities are highly efficient�sophisticated
analytics automate and optimize the management of everything from public utilities and critical
infrastructure to individual movement and mobility. Also, this 'system' or collection of systems
have perfect knowledge of all information. This includes anything that has ever been reported
or disclosed about every country's intelligence capabilities."
Key point this slide:
� Done right, complexity will
emerge organically.
� Don't try to control it too
much.
Navigate only when necessary
Talking Points � Rachel
1) What's your approach to designing a game?
I immediately start thinking about the sparks and tension that I could create around the
intelligence question to be explored. I'm thinking through ways that I would try and break the
game before I've even designed it. Sometimes that means trying to challenge the validity of the
question being asked in order to pressure-test whether or not it's worth putting all of these
resources and time into. I also start thinking about how to cast as wide a net as possible to pull
in experts from across many different disciplines.
2) What advice would you offer others who might be interested in incorporating games into
their work process?
Do it! Honestly I don't know how you can get away with not embedding some sort of a game
element into everything you do now�it feels like that is just increasingly how are brains are
wired to ingest, process, and react to information given all of the technology and data coming
at us as a normal part of our routines.
3) What challenges have you faced when using games in your organization and how did you
deal with that?
Players will always try to break the game or game the game. That's a given. The challenge is
that they won't always tell you that is what they did to win. It's super, super important�
actually vital for intelligence games-- to know what is behind or enabling the 'win' or outcome.
This is what gives the insight its plausibility. I had one game where the blue team 'recruited'
someone who was providing support to both blue and red team rooms. The blue team 'won'
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but never explained why they had made certain decisions. We knew something was off and
only found out because the tech started talking about how much fun he had � he never even
knew he had been recruited!! Without knowing that information the intelligence write-up
would have been different, drawing on a different set of conclusions. I was a player in a field
game a few years ago where I got played�I was leader of a team tasked with pulling off a
'terrorist' attack. We succeeded�but not as a result of the plan I had laid out. Little did I know
that the Spec Ops person on my team had decided to unilaterally' go in a different direction and
'update' my orders when I wasn't around. THAT (unanticipated social dynamics amongst bad
guys) ended up being the focus of our intel write-up.
4) Can you provide an example of something that you learned through a game, or a time
when a game was successful in meeting an objective?
I designed a game a few years ago that explored how various external events could shape or
influence terrorism. We saw a shift in the balance of power between two wealthy, developed
countries because of third and fourth order effects from an event that was conceived by the
players. No way linear analysis would have ever given us that insight. The cyber games I ran
many years ago still provide insight to this day. I screenwriters, directors, and other creatives
from the entertainment industry for many of the red teams I design. What I learned is that
there are a lot of scary ingenious people out there we are lucky are American citizens!
End Game
CIA uses games to understand our world
Games help clearly communicate complexity
Design should connect players to your objective
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