DEFCON scares me and science says it will scare you too

DEFCON is existentially terrifying. How about a nice game of chess?

Studies:
David L. Waddington et al.“Education from inside the bunker: Examining the effect of Defcon, a nuclear warfare simulation game, on nuclear attitudes and critical reflection.” Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association. vol. 7(12), Apr. 2014

Chong-U Lim. "An A.I. Player for DEFCON: An Evolutionary Approach Using Behavior Trees." Department of Computing Imperial College London. June 2009

Miguel Sicart "How I Learned to Love the Bomb: Defcon and the Ethics of Computer Games." Center for Computer Game Research IT University of Copenhagen. 2009

[boxofcereal]

Destroying the world in Plague Inc: hehe I’m such a monster
Destroying the world in Defcon: *what have I done*

[lovaszaron]

DEFCON 5: Peace.
DEFCON 4: Ready for war.
DEFCON 3: War.
DEFCON 2: Total war.
DEFCON 1: The peace of unburied dead.

[GlitchedBlox]

"You see that city?"
"Yes, sir."
"I don't want to."
"Yes, sir!"

[localcompanion]

In 1870, decades before the nuclear bomb was created, and English author by the name of Wilkie Collins was surveying the destruction caused by either the Franco-Prussian War or the American Civil War (I forget which one, both were horrible). He made the remark that one day humanity will make a "discovery…of a destructive agent so terrible that war shall mean annihilation, and men’s fears shall force them to keep the peace."

[cityuser]

You didn't mention the worst part about this game.
When you "win", (all else is gone), you don't get a win screen.
Just- nothing. Silence. The dreadful silence of millions upon millions of deaths.

[luthofekisi]

"War is a frightening concept, but this defcon shit scares the hell outta me"

- Sun Tzu

[naufalnq]

How to play Defcon
First: install Defcon
Second: start nuclear war
Third: play defcon

[CeapaCoolOfficial]

Yo someone's playing this on the wrong computer

[shironeko]

When you turn off the PC but the siren doesn’t stop

[MxAmericanPi]

"Oh a new video from Polygon! I wonder what light-hearted video game humor Clayton has in store for me today!"
*six minutes later*
"oh."

[sebping]

Interesting and quite fitting sentence: "Everybody loses, but somebody loses the least"

[Goraata]

“The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.” - Carl Sagan

[jerguskrc]

"No one would ever let it happen"


Gandhi: *evil laugh*

[grandhierophantkhatep]

Polygon:”which castlevania monster is sexiest”
Also Polygon:”nuclear war”

[needmorecontent]

" There are no winners of war, only survivors and even they die inside from guilt. They only physically survive to warn us. To warn us that there is nothing more terrible than what they have done. "-Jake Fulton

[devkit]

I was playing a round of Survivor mode (which is honestly the best way to play it, especially if you also do it in real time) and I felt real fear and panic as enemy nukes rained down on my territory while my missile defenses tried in vain to stop them. Seeing such enormous death counts in cities I know and have seen in person... it gave me this sinking feeling I can't quite describe. I kept all of my silos in defense mode while everyone else fired their nukes, scrambled every fighter I had to defend the mainland, prevented EVERY sub my enemy had from firing, and yet still I ended up losing about half of my population. Once I knew the other side was dry, I remember thinking, "Well... You asked for it, " before targeting every city they had with every warhead in my arsenal. I ended up "winning" that round by a LOT, but it didn't even feel like victory. Like he said in the video, everybody loses.

[Nawrotsien]

Abraham Lincoln talking about scary game doesn't exist, he can't hurt you

Abraham Lincoln talking about scary game:

[somedude]

"Yo 1v1 me"
Cold war in a nutshell

[SgtCrossHeals]

"That is what forgiveness sounds like: screaming and then silence."
-A llama, probably

[misiekfid]

Another terrifying version of a nuclear war is the thermonuclear war event in the TNO mod for Hearts of Iron IV. The event shows children playing, an EAS alarm, destroyed buildings and a child's black outline on a wall (like in hiroshima and nagasaki) while the entire world slowly turns black