Successful war games combine both civilian and military traits.

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Successful war games combine both civilian and military traits.

Commercial war-game designers can provide realistic and user-friendly simulations far more cheaply than the military's own multi-million-dollar systems, some experts argue. Yet, developers and operators of big-ticket simulation systems counter that off-the-shelf games lack the official testing and validation needed for accurate models.

This is more than a technical dispute. It is a clash of cultures.

On one side are nimble and innovative commercial game companies, whose simulations focus on intangible factors of warfare such as morale. On the other are the military's tried-and-tested simulation centers, whose models are thoroughly grounded in empirical and quantifiable measures of firepower.

Either way, commercial games are bound to play a greater role, officials said. "Peop...

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