Re: Olympia: Basic Flaw?

From: skrenta@cbnewsg.att.com (Rich Skrenta)

Date: Wed, 13 May 1992 16:45:51 +0000

srt@aero.org (Scott "TCB" Turner) writes:
> To my mind, one of the basic flaws with Olympia is that players can
> exchange information freely "behind the scenes".

This isn't a problem specific to Olympia.  My philosophy is that
this is a given, so let's work with it instead of against it.

Some commercial PBM's don't tell you who you're playing with, ever.
Some will tell you the name of another player after you encounter
them in the game.  What this does is to give a big advantage to
friends who join the game together.  I think it detracts from the feel,
too, although this may be personal taste.

> (1) Eliminate all the unrealistic information, like the "top ten
> lists" and the deaths/new player listings.  (I mean, really, why
> should someone in Drassa know about a death in Camaris?)

Players like this a lot, I believe.  It's nice to see how you're doing
compared to other players in the game.  It's only annoying when you
get into a #1 spot, and become a target for people who want to push
you off the hill.

> (2) Conceal player identities.  Don't publish the lists of e-mail
> addresses, force everyone to use the player mail server.

What would this really accomplish?  Some players would still know
who others were.  There'd be a few lonely players from less well
connected sites who wouldn't have any idea what was going on in the
game.  This would also seriously hurt the diplomatic component of
Olympia.

> (4) Have the Olympia map be more like "islands in a vast sea".  This
> will encourage people to withhold information about their little
> island, about undiscovered islands, and so on.  It would also go a
> long way towards solving the newbie problem, because you could start
> each pack of newbies on a new island.

This is interesting.

--
Rich Skrenta

References

Olympia: Basic Flaw?
srt@aero.org (Scott "TCB" Turner)
Wed, 13 May 1992 05:17:51 +0000

Referenced By

Olympia: Basic Flaw?
srt@aero.org (Scott "TCB" Turner)
Wed, 13 May 1992 05:17:51 +0000