Re: Olympia combat

From: srt@aero.org (Scott "TCB" Turner)

Date: Mon, 18 May 1992 06:02:58 +0000

(Steve Chapin) writes:
>Put all the players in Olympia together, and I bet that just about
>anywhere someone gets killed, with horses, ships, boats, and magical
>communication, Rocko, sitting in his cave in Tollus, would hear about
>it within a month.
>
>Therefore, I propose, as an approximation, that we delay obits for one
>month.

Oh, right.  A totally accurate rumor of a minor death halfway around
the world is going to reach Rocko in a month.

You might as well apply the same argument to large purchases at
markets.  Frankly, I'm a lot more interested in who purchased 100
horses at Market X to run them over to Market Y than in who killed who
in Port Aurnos.  Do you intend to publish that information?  How about
the movements of armored forces bigger than 10 men?  That's of obvious
interest to everyone.  Will that be published?  Obviously I could go
on.

It's easy to say, "Oh, the players *could* do this, so we'll do it for
them."  I say, "Let the players do it, then."  I won't object if Oleg
compiles a list of the people killed in the New World and publishes it
in the Times, or even if he sends it out via the players mailing list
five minutes after the turns are sent out.  But I think that, like a
medieval society and unlike the cold precision of the obits, Oleg won't
be able to collect and publish accurate information about who's getting
killed where.  And I'll bet that although people are obviously interested
in this information, there won't actually be a lot of enthusiasm for
doing all the dirty work involved in gathering and disseminating the
information.  Just like the real world, and unlike the computer obits.

Because the players have e-mail contact outside the game, the game
will never be able to completely model the information flow of a
medieval society.  But I do think the game should support that model
as much as possible, not introduce anachronistic elements like the
obits.

Now, a mechanism in which obits for neighboring provinces showed up in
each province the following turn, along with other notable events, and
filled with misinformation and garble, would be pretty interesting.

Rumors:

John Garth [1301] killed in Pesbrand by Gang of Thugs [1574].
	Felix [1887] is carrying a large amount of money.
	Maxwell [1945] has reached Stealth 6.  Watch your pockets!
	Turbo Titans [1776] is headed for Caburh.

-- Scott T.

References

Re: Olympia combat
srt@aero.org (Scott "TCB" Turner)
Mon, 18 May 1992 01:45:31 +0000
Re: Olympia combat
gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)
Mon, 18 May 1992 02:29:32 +0000
Re: Olympia combat
sjc@cs.purdue.EDU (Steve Chapin)
Mon, 18 May 1992 03:12:11 +0000

Referenced By

Re: Olympia combat
srt@aero.org (Scott "TCB" Turner)
Mon, 18 May 1992 01:45:31 +0000
Re: Olympia combat
gl8f@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl)
Mon, 18 May 1992 02:29:32 +0000
Re: Olympia combat
sjc@cs.purdue.EDU (Steve Chapin)
Mon, 18 May 1992 03:12:11 +0000