Wargames under a certain definition involve players playing against each other. Hardening their own system and attacking their opponent's. Since these games don't involve defending your own machine, under that definition they don't qualify.

However, they're still super useful and when anyone tells me they're interested in trying hacking I point them there first.

I think the definition has broadened over the years, even pwnable.tw calls their CTF-style challenges "wargames".

One of the best known wargames is the DEF CON Capture the flag competition where opponents attack and defend target infrastructure to collect points.

Perhaps this is what was meant by "wargames"?

http://www.consimworld.com