Re: Oly: changes in G2- generalship skill

From: desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)

Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 00:00:00 +0000

Scott Turner makes two points.  First he says that it doesn't matter if
the game system encourages allies to fight phony battles to gain
experience.  In this I can only say that I don't think the majority of
players agree with him.

Secondly, he says that by imposing sufficient penalties on the loser,
one can make the net result of any battle negative-sum, so that when a
pair of allies stage a battle the loser will lose more than the winner
gains, and thus players will be discouraged from doing so.  (Weimin Yu
says roughly the same thing.)  This I generally agree with, although one
does have to look out for the player who doesn't care about negative
results.  Suppose I get my brother to sign up and then just sit around
and provide targets for me to beat up on.  If he doesn't care about the
negative effect on his position, then the disincentive doesn't work.  In
general, relying on self-interest in an open-ended game (as opposed to a
closed-end game where players are under some moral obligation to pursue
the victory conditions) is not always effective.

However, ignoring this (which I think can be handled), there is another
issue.  A large part of the complaining about Olympia concerns precisely
the benefit to the winners and the cost to the losers that combat
provides.  And this despite the fact that combat in Olympia is not at
all a profitable activity to the attacker, except against the most
cooperative opponents.  It seems to me that modifications which provide
additional incentives to the successful attacker, such as the gaining of
experience, will be met with a negative reaction from many quarters.

David desJardins
--
Copyright 1995 David desJardins.  Unlimited permission is granted to quote
from this posting for non-commercial use as long as attribution is given.

References

Re: Oly: changes in G2
srt@sun-dimas.aero.org (Scott Turner)
Wed, 04 Oct 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Oly: changes in G2- generalship skill
desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)
Fri, 13 Oct 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Oly: changes in G2- generalship skill
srt@sun-dimas.aero.org (Scott Turner)
Fri, 13 Oct 1995 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Re: Oly: changes in G2
srt@sun-dimas.aero.org (Scott Turner)
Wed, 04 Oct 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Oly: changes in G2- generalship skill
desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)
Fri, 13 Oct 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Oly: changes in G2- generalship skill
srt@sun-dimas.aero.org (Scott Turner)
Fri, 13 Oct 1995 00:00:00 +0000