Re: PBM design and formulae - getting hotter

From: ulim@coli.uni-sb.de (Ulrich Mayring)

Date: Wed, 07 Jul 1993 21:56:19 +0000

bc@lnec.pt (Luis Miguel Sequeira) writes:

>Well, my answer is simply:

>1)  You CAN'T prevent  "oldtimers" to  beat  "newbies" (at  least, all
>other  things  favouring  the newbie,  oldtimers  will know  the  game
>better);

Aw, come on. Play Monster Island. There are zillions of ways. Try playing
Legends expertly against a couple of newbies. My first game of Gladius et
Pilum I blundered heavily in an utterly newbie fashion, but there were
some other utter newbies around and we teamed up and beat the fuck out of
the experienced players. In this game, which is still running, I am right
now battling against one of the co-designers of the game, who plays 2-3
years longer than I and he teamed up with the No1 rated Headquarter player
in Germany. We started with five newbies and after two of us got trashed we
are still three ex-newbies against those two very experienced players now.

We may lose. Two of us already lost. But we won't give up. If you have the
spirit, no-one can stop you {from having fun}.

Gladius et Pilum is, as many readers will by now be aware, a complex game
with all formulas in the rules, but it nevertheless doesn't need more than
about 10 formulas and you don't have to remember a single one to play.

It is ultimately a matter of good game design.

Bye,

Ulrich

References

Re: PBM design and formulae - getting hotter
bc@lnec.pt (Luis Miguel Sequeira)
Tue, 06 Jul 1993 09:13:36 +0000