Re: Removing personality from Diplomacy?

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

Date: Fri, 18 Feb 1994 22:49:47 +0000

Rich Skrenta <skrenta@summit.novell.com> writes:
> Forgive my ignorance, but I just don't see the appeal of anonymous PBM.
> I thought the whole point was being in a game with lots of interesting
> people, working out cool negotiations with them, roleplaying your
> characters, etc.

Well, surely you know that that's not the point for everyone.  I think
you are deliberately being a little naive.  First of all, anyone who
plays Diplomacy (the game we are talking about in rec.games.diplomacy,
right?) by "roleplaying" probably gets what that person deserves---i.e.,
losing.  Diplomacy is simply not a roleplaying game nor is it very
conducive to that.

In fact it seems to me that Diplomacy is a very strange example for your
point.  It's an almost purely tactical game with very little possibility
for interesting "grand strategies."  After all, there are only so many
ways that Turkey can expand.  Making an end run through the
Mediterranean in order to attack England just isn't going to cut it.

I don't question that there are PBM games which emphasize precisely the
things you mention.  But it seems equally clear that there are PBM games
which emphasize negotiation on a very fine, tactical scale (such as
Diplomacy), and there are PBM games which emphasize number crunching and
mastery of the game system (Empyrean Challenge), and there are PBM games
which emphasize information gathering and hoarding (Legends), and there
are PBM games which don't have any diplomacy to speak of at all (Arena).

David desJardins
--
Copyright 1994 David desJardins.  Unlimited permission is granted to quote
from this posting for non-commercial use as long as attribution is given.

References

Re: Removing personality from Diplomacy?
keith@cco.caltech.edu (Keith Schneider)
Fri, 18 Feb 1994 05:48:29 +0000
Re: Removing personality from Diplomacy?
skrenta@summit.novell.com (Rich Skrenta)
Fri, 18 Feb 1994 14:15:08 +0000

Referenced By

Re: Removing personality from Diplomacy?
keith@cco.caltech.edu (Keith Schneider)
Fri, 18 Feb 1994 05:48:29 +0000
Re: Removing personality from Diplomacy?
skrenta@summit.novell.com (Rich Skrenta)
Fri, 18 Feb 1994 14:15:08 +0000