Navy Recruits Players for Online War Game to Tackle Energy Challenges

A new online game aims to help the U.S. Navy improve its combat capability and energy security

The year is 2022, and for the fourth time the Navy was the last contingent to arrive at the scene of a humanitarian crisis in the Pacific Ocean.

“This time it seems U.S. tardiness cost lives,” a news broadcaster says.

The Navy was late, she explains, because of the 2018 directive on expeditionary energy consumption, which requires the Pentagon to prioritize engagements based on fuel requirements. The disaster in the Pacific wasn’t deemed critical enough to merit a fuel exemption.

The trailer for the Navy Energy and Environmental Readiness Division’s project energyMMOWGLI — Massive Multiplayer Online Wargame Leveraging the Internet — launches viewers into this world of constrained fuel supplies and a handicapped military.

But the game, scheduled to be played for three days starting tomorrow, isn’t designed to alarm. It’s intended to encourage players to come up with ways to improve the Navy’s combat capability and energy security by reducing energy consumption, improving energy efficiency and diversifying the Navy’s energy supply using alternatives to ensure its future strategic readiness.

“This is an opportunity for the Navy to crowd-source different ideas on how to tackle our current energy problems,” said Cmdr. James Goudreau, director of the Navy Energy Coordination Office.