Skirmish may be to 1987 what Monopoly was to the Depression. It is a spin-off from Survival, created around 1976 or so by Charles Gaines (who wrote Pumping Iron) and Hayes Noel. “We both believe in play . . . [and] we began to construct … a form of play that might contain the childhood exhilaration of stalking and being stalked, might call on a hodgepodge of instincts and skills, and might allow as wide a variety of responses as possible . . .” Survival-Skirmish was meant to be energetic, communal fun—a competitive barn-raising sort of. In time Gaines and Noel found their ideal toy weapon: the Nel-Spot 007 Color Marking Gun (used by foresters). At first Survival-Skirmish was freelance play, 12 or so men and women, each a solo guerrilla. Now it’s primarily team sport. The first organized group match took aim in June 1981 near Gaines’s New Hampshire home. Today there are more than 75 equipment dealers America-through. A book has been written (The Official Survival Game Manual, by Lionel Atwill, Pocket, $6.95). Film rights were sold soon on. Every major TV network has given it air time. Survival-Skirmish is at least as popular as dropped ceilings are.
Both Gaines and Atwill consider their game “aggressive but nonviolent.” They emphasize camaraderie, exercise, strategy, silliness—a sophisticated form of “Bang, you’re dead.” Well, they’re honorable men and maybe even halfright. I suppose, though, that Skirmish is a significant national windsock, too. No way sixty people charge around with guns and camouflage paint during the Vietnam War moratoria. Back then some Unitarian minister would’ve poured gasoline over himself in protest (but wouldn’t’ve lit up, lacking an environmental-impact statement). There has been change. The game is, I suggest, a retrospective stab at understanding—in mud, in sweat, in person —what was meant by Vietnam, by victory and defeat, by courage and pacifism and fear and death. Survival-Skirmish gropes for all that. And, to this simulative end, it may be as effective as a Link Trainer is.
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