Re: MMOG PBM stategy game, your opinion?

From: keenuward@hotmail.com (Rob Alexander)

Date: Sat, 11 Jan 2003 11:21:23 +0000

"Jeff Vitous" <jeff@wargamer.com> wrote in message news:<avydnaIEbNAvX4OjXTWc2Q@giganews.com>...
> No they are not open-ended...and talking about motivation, I would find it
> hard to be motivated to play a strategy game that did NOT have a defined
> objective for winning the game.  I've played some games that had this
> option; it generally leads to rapid burn-out as the game eventually becomes
> un-interesting to play.

Rapid burn-out for some players yes. Others enjoy this style. One of
the games I play, Phoenix, has several players who've been in it since
the launch in 1992. In the USA version of Beyond the Stellar Empire,
along with that Lords of the Earth that Steve mentioned, players still
remember game events that happened in the mid-1980s.

I would grant that not many players stick around that long. It's
surprising, though, how many drop out then reappear back years later.

> Then you are talking about a serious inequity in value.  $100 per year for
> 52 turns that don't take very long?  Why would I want to do this rather than
> get back into PBEM Diplomacy, which is something I enjoyed immensely, but
> spent way too much time playing?

Perhaps you, personally, wouldn't, but I know of one game on a 14-day
turnaround that has around five hundred players (DungeonWorld).
Granted, it's an exploration and adventure game, not particularly a
war/power game (though that's an option, it's surprisingly diverse).

I find 14 days to be too long, but a 7-day turnaround suits my
schedule.

rob

References

MMOG PBM stategy game, your opinion?
spambucket666au@yahoo.com.au (steve)
Fri, 10 Jan 2003 02:36:15 +0000