Re: Ongoing Strategy Games.

From: troyer@cgl.ucsf.edu (John M. Troyer)

Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1993 23:47:12 +0000

cedman@golem.ps.uci.edu (Carl Edman) writes:
>Putting new players with lots of money but without any skills or
>protection in the world turns being a homicidal maniac from being an
>optional playing style to a prerequisite for successful advancement.

Very well put.

Either buying attributes before play or some form of temporary or regional
sanctuary would help solve this.

Note that in a wargame, where you identify with a nationality or military
force, it makes perfect sense to eliminate a helpless opponent. That's
the way you win.

Only in an Olympia/Atlantis style-world, where you identify with a person,
do concepts like 'homocidal manic' come into play. People tend to assume that
some sort of society or morality is in place, and are angry when this
social contract is broken.*

Of course, in Atlantis you start as a naked baby, and so perhaps a
social contract has not yet been established. Instead we are simulating
Rosseau's 'Noble Savage.'

How quickly we fall from our state of grace. :-)

john

* note that the big problem here is not anger, but (as has been said)
discouraging new players by immediately killing them. That their own
inaction caused their death is irrelevant.

References

Re: Ongoing Strategy Games.
pmf@astro.cf.ac.uk (Phillip Fayers)
Thu, 08 Jul 1993 11:28:46 +0000
Re: Ongoing Strategy Games.
bruno@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu (Bruno Wolff III)
Thu, 08 Jul 1993 15:01:42 +0000
Re: Ongoing Strategy Games.
srt@aero.org (Scott 'Dr. Pain' Turner)
Thu, 08 Jul 1993 15:45:36 +0000
Re: Ongoing Strategy Games.
bonar@gnumath.rutgers.edu (Doug Bonar)
Thu, 08 Jul 1993 17:17:00 +0000
Re: Ongoing Strategy Games.
cedman@golem.ps.uci.edu (Carl Edman)
Thu, 08 Jul 1993 18:16:56 +0000