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ONR Delays Online Wargame Due to Surge in Public Interest

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS110519-22
5/19/2011

By Office of Naval Research Corporate Strategic Communications

ARLINGTON (NNS) -- The Office of Naval Research (ONR) announced May 19 that it has delayed the launch of its internet wargame exercise due to overwhelming interest and a surge in player registrations.

The release was originally scheduled for May 16.

Since the Massive Multiplayer Online Leveraging the Internet (MMOWGLI) website's opening earlier this year, ONR's partner, the Naval Postgraduate School, has seen an unexpected increase of more than 12,000 player registrations in a week's time.

"Attracting good ideas is the lifeblood of ONR's cutting-edge science and technology," said Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Nevin Carr. "I am encouraged by the enormity of interest in MMOWGLI and hope that this crowdsourcing tool will harness the power of collective thought to help drive external innovation for the Navy."

Current and future game player registrants can expect to receive an email providing the new date for MMOWGLI's launch following an official announcement from ONR. For more information, go to http://mmowgli.nps.edu.

"We are overwhelmed at the positive response this game has generated. We are delaying the launch to be sure to extract the very most for the Navy from this, and our future online game series," said Dr. Larry Schuette, ONR's director of innovation.

MMOWGLI is an online game designed to find and grow breakthrough ideas to some of the Navy's most complex problems--those 21st-century threats that demand new forms of collaboration and truly outlying ideas, Schuette said.

A piracy scenario was chosen as a means to demonstrate the platform, but MMOWGLI itself can be applied to any scenario, officials said.

ONR intends to produce varying results from a diverse group of players drawn from the ranks of academia, defense, and government and nongovernment organizations. The plan is for MMOWGLI to identify solutions to difficult challenges by tapping into the intellectual capital of a broader community.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based Institute for the Future is partnering with ONR and the Naval Postgraduate School on the MMOWGLI project.

About the Office of Naval Research

The Department of the Navy's Office of Naval Research (ONR) provides the science and technology necessary to maintain the Navy and Marine Corps' technological advantage. Through its affiliates, ONR is a leader in science and technology with engagement in 50 states, 70 countries, 1,035 institutions of higher learning and 914 industry partners. ONR employs approximately 1,400 people, comprising uniformed, civilian and contract personnel, with additional employees at the Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C.