In a very interesting article about suicide bombing in Halo 3, the author describes how the “psychology of asymmetrical warfare” led him to take up the tactic. The article is not about the game but about his insight into when suicide tactics become the reasonable choice.
Even though I’ve read scores of articles, white papers and books on the psychology of terrorists in recent years, and even though I have (I think) a strong intellectual grasp of the roots of suicide terrorism, something about playing the game gave me an “aha” moment that I’d never had before: an ability to feel, in whatever tiny fashion, the strategic logic and emotional calculus behind the act.
