Re: Olympia combat

From: bigmac@erg.sri.com (Bryan McDonald)

Date: Fri, 15 May 1992 23:43:44 +0000

In article <rwallace.705923625@unix1.tcd.ie> rwallace@unix1.tcd.ie (russell wallace) writes:
>In <1992May14.202344.24412@cbfsb.cb.att.com> skrenta@cbnewsg.att.com (Rich Skrenta) writes:
>
>>Part of the game is making discoveries about how the various
>>mechanics work.  I will tell you that "If lots of people in an area
>>entertain, then they will make less money than if one guy
>>entertains."  But I won't give you the exact formula.
>
>I find this a bit like if I were playing a game of chess with someone,
>never having played before, and in response to my request to tell me the
>rules he said, "Well the pieces can sort of move around and take the
>opponent's pieces, and apart from that I refuse to tell you any more
>because finding it out by blundering around at random making loads of
>mistakes is part of the game." To me, part of the game is NOT making
>discoveries about how the various mechanics work and this detracts from
>my enjoyment of the game.
>
>How do other people feel about this?

Without having run my first turn yet (can you say "new meat"?  i knew
you could ;-) I felt like I should interject one note here.  I am
in another PBM that has a very large, pronounced element of discovering
the actions possible as you go along.  This game has been around for
5-8 years, I have been in it for 3.5 now, and I am still learning
new stuff every other turn.  The world is so deep, so complex, that
no one except the GM knows what is there.

I find this facinating.  I am constantly on the lookout for new
twists on old problems, and the odd bit of data that will lead to
the discovery of whole new aspects to the game that were previously
hidden to me.  Like the group that discover a year ago that not only
was there mental and magical powers, but also musical powers, an aspect
of thegame that had been present apparently from the start but noone had
thought of until finally the GM got tired of people missing it and started
some rumours in game to lead people to it.

Now,  many players of the game find this aspect frustrating, and just as
many do not.  This game probably has a good cross-section of the PBM
community playing it.  Those that dislike it, settle into one thing
ignoring the rest, or they quit and join something like Capitol or BSE.

It is a question of what kind of game you like.  If you like the Capitol
model, then by all means, snag the code from Rick if available and go for
it.  But it sounds like, to me, that Rick likes the deep, complex, realistic
game that doesn't lay it all out, that makes discoviering the system part
of the joy of playing (and programming) the game.  It is the sort of game
that can take on a life of its own.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bryan McDonald                   |   Computer, Hardware, And Operations Support
bigmac@erg.sri.com               |                     CHAOS
Postmaster-Systems Administrator |            ITAD - SRI International
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        "I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person."

References

Re: Olympia combat
rwallace@unix1.tcd.ie (russell wallace)
Thu, 14 May 1992 17:29:06 +0000
Re: Olympia combat
skrenta@cbnewsg.att.com (Rich Skrenta)
Thu, 14 May 1992 20:23:44 +0000
Re: Olympia combat
rwallace@unix1.tcd.ie (russell wallace)
Fri, 15 May 1992 09:53:45 +0000