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

From: pasquale@diku.dk (Morten Larsen)

Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 17:10:52 +0000

morrow@romulus.rutgers.edu (John Morrow) writes:

>Since this group doesn't see a lot of Olympia traffic, I thought I'd
>ask a question of the players to stimulate a little conversation here
>so the people on this group don't think we are all miserable... :-)

>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?

As you may have guessed, I don't play any open-ended games, nor do I think
I would enjoy them. I very much like playing close-ended game where I get
a sense of accomplishment from winning/placing as well as possible given
the limited resources of the game (including time) and competing against
other players given the same or similar resources as myself and having the
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"?

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?

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?

What do you think?

Morten Larsen

References

OLYMPIA: Why do you play?
morrow@romulus.rutgers.edu (John Morrow)
Fri, 21 Oct 1994 01:02:11 +0000

Referenced By

OLYMPIA: Why do you play?
morrow@romulus.rutgers.edu (John Morrow)
Fri, 21 Oct 1994 01:02:11 +0000