In this chapter, I will tell the tale of a contest for urban terrain pursued by two very different sides; politically engaged artists and the military. In most regards, these two groups could not be more different, with divergent ideological aims, persons, and means at their disposal; yet, at times, both deploy similar tactics in gamified cities. The mid-twentieth century exploits of Situationist artists and architects in Paris, taking the form of ‘dérives’ and other exploratory urban games, are evidence of the emergence of innovative playful, artistic approaches to circumventing the everyday life of the city (Debord, ‘Theory of the Dérive’). Information Age artists in the Americas and in Europe later adopt similar interventionist, hacker-like ludic tactics, creating disturbances on the internet, in the virtual alleyways of online computer game cities, and again on the actual street (Schleiner, ‘Lessons from Situationist Gaming’ 149). These digital culture jammers and hacktivists (hacking plus activism), take on activist agendas, even though their actions are often initiated with loose artistic spontaneity, and lack long-term fidelity to organized political causes.

On the other side of this contest for the urban civilian sphere, gamemakers develop sophisticated photo-realistic, 3-dimensional computer games with military and educational resources. These high-end productions take the form of virtual cities constructed as military playgrounds for combat training and rescue operations. A window on a high floor serves as an ideal perch for a sniper to position himself, a parked car in a shell-shocked alleyway offers an opportune hideaway to crouch behind. Although virtual, the settings of military control maneuvers and humanitarian efforts in such games often explicitly corresponds to military interventions in Fallujah, Mogadishu, and other cities of unrest, including even affluent Western cities once considered at peace like New York and Paris. Playing the game closely mirrors, or purports to mirror, the movements of small-scale, military units in urban zones where civilian life has been superseded to the combat and control operations of the War on Terror. Thus, the virtual game city becomes a testing ground for twentieth and twenty-first century military theories such as asymmetrical warfare, anti-terrorist control in populated areas, and the ‘Revolution in Military Affairs’ (RMA), a technological upgrade of the armed forces in the United States and elsewhere.