Re: Olympia: Disasters

From: rcb@kaiwan009.kaiwan.com (Robert Christopher Butchko)

Date: Mon, 14 Aug 1995 00:00:00 +0000

In article <40gl4d$ioo@news1.cle.ab.com>,
Brent R. Johnson <brj@cle.ab.com> wrote:
>Oh, I don't know about that. It depends on how you look at it. Carrying
>enmity and friendships between games can be seen as modelling a richer
>historical background within the game itself. Certainly in the real
>world it is common for alliances and rivalries to exist without any
>obvious rational political or economic basis. Why should it be any
>different in a game world?

All that's true, and originally I thought that the interrelationship
between players that was brought to the game created a backstory; that
it meant that there was already a history to the game.  Not the case,
and, as we see, it took a lot less than 60 turns to create a history
to the game.
   What those pre-existing relationships did was create traps for the
less-well-connected players.  Imagine you're playing a game based on
the world today, which has just started.  It's an achieve prosperity
or conquer game, and it uses the map and resources of the modern world.
What we have here with pre-existing player alliances is like:
	a) Some players start playing the game, not knowing of NATO
	or the Middle East alliances/tensions, and walk into a
	buzzsaw, or
	b) Some players start playing the game, not knowing that the
	players playing Iran and Iraq have agreed (outside of the
	game) to co-operate, or that Canada betrayed the US in Stellar
	Empire.
Either way, the player relationships that are concealed or irrational
cannot be uncovered through the use of normal means, and are traps.
Admittedly, dogs and cats may lie down together, but that should be
very rare, and sparked by in-game considerations.  The welter of
relationships that spawn many old-time alliances strains the reality
and maybe even the fairness of the game.
As noted earlier in this thread, it's probably impossible to prevent,
though.
-rcb

References

Re: Olympia: Disasters
tandmb@sierra.net (Tony & Marcia Baldacci)
Thu, 03 Aug 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Olympia: Disasters
rcb@kaiwan009.kaiwan.com (Robert Christopher Butchko)
Tue, 08 Aug 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Olympia: Disasters
brj@cle.ab.com (Brent R. Johnson)
Fri, 11 Aug 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Olympia: Disasters
rcb@kaiwan009.kaiwan.com (Robert Christopher Butchko)
Wed, 26 Jul 1995 00:00:00 +0000