{"id":1926478,"date":"2026-05-09T12:00:04","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T09:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1926478"},"modified":"2026-05-09T12:00:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T09:00:04","slug":"the-best-you-can-do-in-the-strait-of-hormuz-simulation-game-is-mess-up-as-little-as-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1926478","title":{"rendered":"The Best You Can Do in the Strait of Hormuz Simulation Game Is Mess Up as Little as Possible"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/bottleneck-game-1200×675.png”]<\/p>\n

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It was only a matter of time until someone came up with a game based around the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that has spent the last couple of months in a perpetual quantum superposition of \u201copen\u201d and \u201cclosed.\u201d In fairness, Bottleneck<\/em> isn\u2019t the first Hormuz-themed game\u2014Sweep the Strait<\/em>, a Minesweeper clone played on a Straits-shaped board, appeared within a couple of weeks of the first attacks on Iran in late February\u2014but it\u2019s probably the most in-depth such game we\u2019ve seen so far.<\/p>\n

Given that it\u2019s a free, browser-based game, you might expect Bottleneck<\/em> to be something light-hearted and silly\u2014like the aforementioned Sweep the Strait<\/em>\u00a0or the immortal GETSADAM, surely the first ever ripped-from-the-headlines game. But no. This game is serious, both in tone and in subject matter.<\/p>\n

The game places you in the shoes of the Strait\u2019s maritime coordinator at the start of a hypothetical 10-day closure. As your tenure begins, you\u2019re greeted by 2000 ships backed up and waiting for passage. Only a handful can run the gauntlet from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman each day, and you\u2019re the one who gets to decide which ships these will be.<\/p>\n

Each day, you\u2019re presented with a roster of potential candidates, containing information about their cargo, capacity, destination, and how long it\u2019s been waiting, along with an analysis of what\u2019ll happen if you authorize its passage. Letting an oil tanker through might knock down the global price of crude oil and improve your relationship with the USA, but it might also mean that a ship carrying a bunch of food to India has to wait another day, increasing the risk of famine and upsetting the UN.<\/p>\n

As the game progresses, more obstacles present themselves: mines appear in the strait, and getting rid of them isn\u2019t as easy as planting a little 8-bit flag on them and moving on. Ships with perishable cargo left to wait too long will become humanitarian disasters. Someone has to find the money to pay Iran\u2019s $2m-per-ship toll. Washington and Tehran trade insults, and the \u201cEscalation\u201d meter rises.<\/p>\n

You soon realize that you\u2019re not going to solve this crisis\u2014all you can really do is try to ameliorate its effects as best you can. In this respect, Bottleneck<\/em> reminds me a little of Frostpunk<\/em>, another game where the best you can accomplish is making the best bad decision. But, of course, Frostpunk<\/em>\u2019s setting\u2014a post-apocalyptic nuclear winter where starving and\/or freezing to death are one mistake away\u2014is fictional. Bottleneck<\/em>\u2019s is not, and its\u00a0real-life roots are emphasized throughout. Clicking on one of the in-game stakeholder factions, for instance, takes you to a dossier of real-life information. The game\u2019s news feed is populated with real articles on the US\u2013Iran war and its results.<\/p>\n

The focus on IRL journalism is perhaps no surprise given that the game\u2019s creator is himself a journalist: Polish reporter Jakub G\u00f3rnicki, whose work has taken him to Ukraine, Rojava, and the US-Mexican border. G\u00f3rnicki\u2019s blog post about the game makes for fascinating reading. He explains, \u201cThe point [of\u00a0Bottleneck<\/em>] is not to win. The point is to understand what kind of problem this is, and why the word \u2018chokepoint\u2019 is not just a metaphor. It is a physical condition with political, economic, and human consequences.\u201d More generally, he discusses how the project is part of a larger focus in his work, which is to find new \u201ccontainers\u201d for journalism: \u201cWhat other containers can reporting live inside? Sometimes the answer is a stage. Sometimes it is an exhibition. Sometimes it is a wall in the city. This time it is a browser game.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

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It was only a matter of time until someone came up with a game based around the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that has spent the last couple of months in a perpetual quantum superposition of \u201copen\u201d and \u201cclosed.\u201d In fairness, Bottleneck<\/em> isn\u2019t the first Hormuz-themed game\u2014Sweep the Strait<\/em>, a Minesweeper clone played on a Straits-shaped board, appeared within a couple of weeks of the first attacks on Iran in late February\u2014but it\u2019s probably the most in-depth such game we\u2019ve seen so far.<\/p>\n

Given that it\u2019s a free, browser-based game, you might expect Bottleneck<\/em> to be something light-hearted and silly\u2014like the aforementioned Sweep the Strait<\/em>\u00a0or the immortal GETSADAM, surely the first ever ripped-from-the-headlines game. But no. This game is serious, both in tone and in subject matter.<\/p>\n

The game places you in the shoes of the Strait\u2019s maritime coordinator at the start of a hypothetical 10-day closure. As your tenure begins, you\u2019re greeted by 2000 ships backed up and waiting for passage. Only a handful can run the gauntlet from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman each day, and you\u2019re the one who gets to decide which ships these will be.<\/p>\n

Each day, you\u2019re presented with a roster of potential candidates, containing information about their cargo, capacity, destination, and how long it\u2019s been waiting, along with an analysis of what\u2019ll happen if you authorize its passage. Letting an oil tanker through might knock down the global price of crude oil and improve your relationship with the USA, but it might also mean that a ship carrying a bunch of food to India has to wait another day, increasing the risk of famine and upsetting the UN.<\/p>\n

As the game progresses, more obstacles present themselves: mines appear in the strait, and getting rid of them isn\u2019t as easy as planting a little 8-bit flag on them and moving on. Ships with perishable cargo left to wait too long will become humanitarian disasters. Someone has to find the money to pay Iran\u2019s $2m-per-ship toll. Washington and Tehran trade insults, and the \u201cEscalation\u201d meter rises.<\/p>\n

You soon realize that you\u2019re not going to solve this crisis\u2014all you can really do is try to ameliorate its effects as best you can. In this respect, Bottleneck<\/em> reminds me a little of Frostpunk<\/em>, another game where the best you can accomplish is making the best bad decision. But, of course, Frostpunk<\/em>\u2019s setting\u2014a post-apocalyptic nuclear winter where starving and\/or freezing to death are one mistake away\u2014is fictional. Bottleneck<\/em>\u2019s is not, and its\u00a0real-life roots are emphasized throughout. Clicking on one of the in-game stakeholder factions, for instance, takes you to a dossier of real-life information. The game\u2019s news feed is populated with real articles on the US\u2013Iran war and its results.<\/p>\n

The focus on IRL journalism is perhaps no surprise given that the game\u2019s creator is himself a journalist: Polish reporter Jakub G\u00f3rnicki, whose work has taken him to Ukraine, Rojava, and the US-Mexican border. G\u00f3rnicki\u2019s blog post about the game makes for fascinating reading. He explains, \u201cThe point [of\u00a0Bottleneck<\/em>] is not to win. The point is to understand what kind of problem this is, and why the word \u2018chokepoint\u2019 is not just a metaphor. It is a physical condition with political, economic, and human consequences.\u201d More generally, he discusses how the project is part of a larger focus in his work, which is to find new \u201ccontainers\u201d for journalism: \u201cWhat other containers can reporting live inside? Sometimes the answer is a stage. Sometimes it is an exhibition. Sometimes it is a wall in the city. This time it is a browser game.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/bottleneck-game-1200×675.png”] It was only a matter of time until someone came up with a game based around the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that has spent the last couple of months in a perpetual quantum superposition of \u201copen\u201d and \u201cclosed.\u201d In fairness, Bottleneck isn\u2019t the first Hormuz-themed game\u2014Sweep the Strait, a Minesweeper clone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,53],"class_list":["post-1926478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-gizmodo-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1926478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1926478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1926478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1926478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}