Re: Why play open-ended games (was: OLYMPIA: Why do you play?)

From: polle@murazor.ping.dk (Paul Erik Lundstroem)

Date: Fri, 28 Oct 1994 19:16:45 +0000

In article <pasquale.783018652@rimfaxe.diku.dk> pasquale@diku.dk writes:
>
>morrow@romulus.rutgers.edu (John Morrow) writes:
>
>>Why do you play Olympia?  (e.g. what do you enjoy about Olympia?)
>
>[rest of post deleted]
>
>Ah, for a second I thought this was the start of a thread of general
>interest rather than a vehicle for Olympia advocacy. You see, the question
>I would like to hear answered is this:
>
>Why do people play open-ended games at all?

Hi Morten!
You should know why I do it, but I'll try and let everybody else in on it -
to follow up, and give a different view!

>
>same goal as myself. In an open-ended game, even if I set up goals for
>myself, what is my sense of accomplishment if I "succeed"?

There don't 'have' to be a sense of accomplishment! I play open-ended pbm
games, like other people read X-MEN or BATMAN or whatever! I must admit,
that I play the 'lighter' games (Quest, M.I.). I spend about an hour every
week on this (much like how long it would take to read a Comic - well,
several Comics - and cheaper, too!!). Then I forget about it, 'till the
result drops in next week! It is mostly short-termed goals, that keeps me
going, exploring new stuff, et.c.
>
>Another thing that makes me think I would not like to play an open-ended
>game is that even the longest-running game is going to end at some time.
>Most likely the end is going to be bad. Either the company or person who
>provides the game is going to close down the game, for any number of
>reasons, or I am going to drop out of the game, because of boredom, disgust,
>financial problems, time constraints or whatever. So what of all the time,
>effort and possibly money I put into the game before that?

As above! If i didn't put the time, effort and money into these kind of
games, then I would have put them into something similar! I mean, isn't
the Marvel Universe almost 'open-ended', or Magic the Gathering, or Pony
Riding!??

>So why are open-ended games so popular (Atlantis, Olympia, M.I., Quest,
>BSE)? Is it because of the role-playing opportunities they offer? Could
>an open-ended game succeed without role-playing?

For my part, the reasons mentioned above! Also you do get in contact with
other people, in a sort of way! The atmosphere is very much dependent on
the other players anyway, wich makes it a very changing and exciting world
(well, for me anyway!). I don't think the Role-playing part is extremely
important, in the sense that you develop and improve 'persons' - I mean, it
could be Spaceships, or Orbital Stations, or Black Plagues, or whatever,
that develops over time (like in your own C.O.S.M.O.S. game ;-) ).

>
>What do you think?
That's what I think!
>Morten Larsen
--
Paul Erik Lundstroem <polle@murazor.ping.dk>

References

Why play open-ended games (was: OLYMPIA: Why do you play?)
pasquale@diku.dk (Morten Larsen)
Mon, 24 Oct 1994 17:10:52 +0000