Re: Ongoing Strategy Games.

From: bruno@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu (Bruno Wolff III)

Date: Wed, 07 Jul 1993 19:50:47 +0000

From article <1993Jul4.032437.25823@infodev.cam.ac.uk>, by js138@cus.cam.ac.uk (John Sloan):
] Another topic for your perusal.
]
] Given an ongoing strategy/wargame (such as Atlantis appears to be) - what is the
] best way to prevent older players with larger more powerful factions from
] domination the game?
]
] My premise here is that starting earlier shouldn't be a longterm advantage over
] someone who starts later.  Both players should have an equal chance to rise from
] obscurity to a certain level of power.
]
] I offer here just one possible method.  There are many.
]
] The larger a players position gets, the harder it is to maintain that position
] without help.  Either the player spends an increasing ammount of his positions
] power in maintaining the status quo, or he is forces to go into partnership with
] other players, increasing the ammount of communication required, and increasing
] the chance of being betrayed.  This fits well into a feudal model where the
] ammount of influence one noble could exert was limited by the need to travel from
] place to place, and subordinates coulnd't always be trusted.
]
] Any other ideas?
]
] John
]
I would like to see more discussion on this topic. I haven't been too
impressed by many ongoing games I have seen. I think your idea of having
the rules favor forming vassal states is a good one. Though it may not be easy
to do.
Growth seems to be one of the major sources of enjoyment of this type of game.
Providing for unlimited growth appears to be a difficult problem to solve
in a satisfactory way.
Constantly having new things to be discovered is more doable, but is still
difficult to do a good job on.

References

Ongoing Strategy Games.
js138@cus.cam.ac.uk (John Sloan)
Sun, 04 Jul 1993 03:24:37 +0000

Referenced By

Ongoing Strategy Games.
js138@cus.cam.ac.uk (John Sloan)
Sun, 04 Jul 1993 03:24:37 +0000