Gamification, Crisis Simulation, and the Fight Against AI Fatigue

In this episode of The Resilience Room, host Sam Dickison and co-host Jamie Knobles sit down with Mahdi Raza, a lifelong tech enthusiast and cyber ecosystem activator. Mahdi shares his nostalgic journey into the digital world—from accidentally brute-forcing his way into AOL at age 12 to navigating today’s complex, fast-moving threat landscape.

The conversation dives deep into why traditional security awareness training fails and how Mahdi’s company, CyberX, is turning the industry upside down. By leveraging the power of gamification, immersive physical escape rooms, and eSports principles, they are shifting the narrative from boring, repetitive checklists to hands-on, high-stakes defense learning.

They also break down the mechanics of "Operation Defend the North"—a massive, real-world tabletop crisis simulation designed alongside partners like Immersive to test critical infrastructure against modern threats. With the rise of AI, deep fakes, and quantum computing, Mahdi explains why organizations can no longer rely on static playbooks or outdated fishing campaigns. Instead, he reveals how CyberX's "Now AI" war room workshops—featuring real-world crisis simulators from NATO and the Pentagon—are building genuine resilience for both enterprise leaders and the next generation of digital defenders.

Topics covered: Breaking into cyber security, gamification of security training, eSports and cyber skills, building a cyber ecosystem, tabletop exercises and crisis simulation, deep fakes and AI threat management, human-in-the-loop decision-making, and the evolution of local LLMs.