Re: Olympia gripes

From: morrow@newton.texel.com (John Morrow)

Date: Tue, 28 Nov 1995 00:00:00 +0000

brumm@wcpj2.chemie.uni-wuppertal.de (Martin Brumm) writes:
>For others to remember: We all pay the same game fee (at least i hope so) and
>therefor should be treated equally.

As far as I can tell, all the players *are* treated equally.  I was in
the Oly 1 game, was actively involved in the design mailing lists, and
I've met Rich in person and I can tell you that I've never gotten
special treatment as far as I can tell.  How can I say that?  The
first and obvious point is that my faction and small alliance were
wiped out some time ago and despite my public and private complaints
about balance and a need for a "G2", the game goes merrily along.  But
there was also a point where my faction was seriously damaged by an
oversight and in the course of thinking of fixes, I asked Rich if
there was anything he could do about it (it was more of an annoying
situation than a major tactical issue that I eventually fixed myself).
He said flatly and clearly that he couldn't do anything because lots
of other players had messed up due to oversights in their orders and
giving me special treatment would not be fair.  Olympia "G1" has many
problems, in my opinion, and I've said so (I'm a charter member in the
"The AOO has won, time for 'G2'" club).  But Rich giving certain
players special treatment isn't one of them.

>Why was BTA allowed to keep and Artifact( Auraculum) more powerfull than
>othrs ?

When Rich started to run Oly for play, he stated that one of his goals
was to keep the game stable.  His earlier playtests had numerous rule
changes mid-game as he adjusted things and this annoyed quite a few
players.  For good or bad, Rich decided that stability was more
important that fixing real or imagined imbalances in the game on the
fly, confining himself to a set of minor fixes announced well in
advance.  This decision wasn't made to favor anyone although it has
had the effect of favoring the more established players.  It was
actually made to be fair to players making long term plans.
Similarly, existing players were able to keep multi-unit control
artifacts while newly found ones became less powerful.  Perhaps Rich
should reevaluate his position on the subject but, again, fairness is
not really the issue here.

John Morrow

References

Re: Olympia gripes
Mark Hendrickson <eahg128@rigel.oac.uci.edu>
Sat, 25 Nov 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Olympia gripes
tandmb@sierra.net (Tony Baldacci)
Mon, 27 Nov 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Olympia gripes
brumm@wcpj2.chemie.uni-wuppertal.de (Martin Brumm)
Mon, 27 Nov 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Olympia - Time for G2?
Rob Rodgers <rrodgers@unex.ucla.edu>
Mon, 25 Sep 1995 00:00:00 +0000