The experience of play has been an integral part of human nature since the dawn of time, as has conflict between peers. It is therefore no coincidence that among the earliest playful artifacts of our species are games whose purpose is to somehow recreate this dramatic aspect, while stripping it of any direct negative consequences. Halfway between pure intellectual enjoyment and a valid training method, "simulation" has thus found its own powerful raison d'être in the representation of real or even purely hypothetical conflicts, expressed in various forms depending on the cultural peculiarities and contingent needs of the societies that produced them in various forms.

 Ariadne's Game, by Riccardo Masini .