Re: Olympia players!!!

From: wbruvold@weber.ucsd.edu (William Bruvold)

Date: Fri, 24 Nov 1995 00:00:00 +0000

In article <anonymous-2411951806300001@grey-07.nada.kth.se>,
Anonymous Student <anonymous@nada.kth.se> wrote:
>Greetings all,
>
>I like the game-idea, but isn't it time to start a new campaign?

After thinking that g2 would be a good idea, I now believe it is
premature to start up a new campaign.......
I hold this position for ___ reasons

A)  The myth of newbie vulnerability.

The myth of new vulnerability really needs to be put to an end.
Newbies willing to simply email existing players would likely find
that both AOO and non-AOO players would be willing to provide
information regarding promising locations for new castle
construction.  Once sailing away from IC, the new player could build
his castle, grab some land, clear out some hidden locations and
maybe even go fight a little war with a neighbor.  The probability
of "killing" BtA isn't high but that doesn't mean the game can not
be fun.  Are you vulnerable?  Sure, but that is true of _ANY_ open
ended game that allows unrestricted combat.  Are you likely to be
the target of a big player?  Only if you decide that you don't want
to sail anymore and start building a castle in land a great power
deems important to his/her future plans.  As a number of players
have posted in the past, there is only limited value (mostly the
"fun of it") in hunting and killing newbies who oath their nobles.
There is also plenty of land

B)  THe need for more players in g1

A problem with g1 is that because the land is big (see myth of
newbie vulnerability) and with _only_ 150 players, not enough
resources are under enough stress.  All things considered, conflict
has become fairly rare.  The "big" news of late has been Swishbuckler
knocking off some unfortunate boats in the seas around Provenia.
That is not, IMHO, a major war.  Without more players (or growth by
existing ones), there isn't any pressure to drive players toward
conflcit (a problem).  That may require fundamental redsign of the
game (thus leading to g1.1 rather than g2) but I think that is a
different topic.

C)  The problem of anticipated restart

Existing players in g1 get screwed by the restart (see B).  Indeed,
I would guess that as soon as g2 is announced, there will be a mass
exodus from g1.  It is, in the end, more fun to go exploring virgin
territory in Olympia that play a position in a world with little
conflict.  Unfortunately, as players anticipate mass drops, they
also will drop, depopulating the world even further.  Eventually g1
dies.

To be frank, I will be _VERY_ disappointed in Rich if this is
allowed to happen.  As a player who have been at it since g1, I have
pumped over $200 into olympia and would be disappointed to see g1
become a lifeless world.  It already is in danger of that.
Releasing a new campaign needs to be handeled _VERY_ carefully.

I would be happy to discuss both in email and in this forum ways to
improvie g1, both through in game actions as well as through
tweaking of the rules.

Erik
of Roack's Rangers

References

Olympia players!!!
anonymous@nada.kth.se (Anonymous Student)
Fri, 24 Nov 1995 00:00:00 +0000