Bios

Jim Lunsford, LtC, US Army (ret.), Wargame Designer, Educator

Jim Lunsford, the President of Decisive-Point and one of the early

pioneers in developing serious games for the military, is an expert in

the design, development, and use of games for training and education.

He has more than fifteen years experience in training leaders and

organizations using custom-designed, PC-based simulations. He has

designed and developed training games for the Army, Air Force, Marines,

and DARPA. Currently, the U.S. Army uses nine of his games - more than

any other developer. The topics of the games ranged from small unit

tactical leadership, to stability operations and counterinsurgency, from

managing the Army budget and tactical movement of a division within

theater, to tactical refueling at the division and corps levels.

"Follow Me", Decisive-Point's small unit leader tactical skills game,

has been West Point's primary serious game for leader training since

2008; replacing VBS2. "Follow Me" is also used at the Royal Military

Academy in Sandhurst and the Ukrainian Army Ground Forces Academy in

L'viv. "Decisive Action", a division-corps level game first used in

1998, is the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College's primary

simulation and used to support the College's week-long warfighting

exercises. In 2011, Jim developed two new tactical games which are

currently being used in the U.S. Army Captain's Career Courses. In

addition to his serious games, Jim had published two commercial

wargames. One of which was named by Rod Humble, the former Vice

President of Electronic Arts and the current CEO of Linden Lab, as his

favorite game released in 2006. Jim graduated, with distinction, from

the Virginia Military Institute with a Bachelor of Science degree in

Civil Engineering, and from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff

College with a Masters of Military Arts and Sciences. He served as a

U.S. Army airborne infantry officer for twenty years. Jim Lunsford's

military experience included command and staff positions in numerous

airborne infantry units, and a two-year tour in the British Parachute

(Last Updated 6 June 2011.)

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