Re: Terminology

From: "MindShift Design" <teammsd@mindshiftdesign.com>

Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 11:18:49 +0000

"Enno Rehling" <schick.mir.spam@gmx.de> wrote in message
news:8t8h3r$3ss$1@news.uni-paderborn.de...
> "MindShift Design" <teammsd@mindshiftdesign.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
> news:39f78faa_1@news.newsfeeds.com...
> > That's where the definition of playing by email gets murky when it comes
> to
> > "online" and "offline". For instance, someone plays by email "offline"
by
> > downloading their turns, writing them offline and connecting online to
> send
> > them. They are playing offline, but using a tool that has to go online
to
> > operate. So they're mixing online and offline use. I on the other hand
am
> > permanently connected through cable at home and can connect to our
company
> > LAN through VPN, so I compose any emails "online".
>
> Calling a game an online game simply because I have to go online to send
my
> mail is a bit too limiting, I think and doesn't take ud very far: There's
no
> fundamental difference between a game played by email or snail mail.

I didn't say the game was an online game. That would imply that you had to
play it solely online and be connected to the internet to send, receive and
read replies. With email you can drop offline and read your turns, create a
response and deliver it with an online tool. However, you can classify me as
playing an email game like that "online" because I have a permanent
connection and I read, respond and send turns while being connected. That's
why I said that pbem games are a bit of a mixed bag. They can be played
online or offline.

As far as I see, there _are_ fundemental differences in whether a game is
played by email or snail, particularly on the moderators side of things and
especially in a commercial envirnomnet. From the player's POV, the game is
still the same, but the delivery medium changes. Both are delayed delivery
time delivery mediums for most games (except real-time email processing
programs that receive email, churn it and spit out a reply). An email is
sent to the moderator or snail mail is sent to the moderator. Then the play
has to wait a period of time before they receive a reply back.

>
> > I class the game play styles as below:
> >
> > Everquest (Real Time, Offline)
> > Warlords III multiplayer on LAN (Real Time, Offline)
> > PBeM game with automatic response from server (Real Time, Offline using
> > online tools)
> > Play by Web game with set turn periods (Delayed Time, Online)
>
> What's "real time" in your book? Even games like Everquest work in turns -
> they are simply very small turns. My hypothetical PBeM that does a turn
> every 30 minutes, with commands taking multiple turns and an average of
one
> mail per day, would that be considered real time? Or, alternatively, is it
> real time if every weekly turn covers exactly one week of game time?
> Basically, you're replacing one fuzzy term by another ;-)

For the purposes of this argument, I would say "real time" would be anything
under 5 mins and is based on the server-side response - from when it gets
the order, processes it and sends a reply. This also includes GMs sitting at
a table, though I have played in games where it's taken the GM 30 mins to
formulate the next step after we crushed his master bad guy with some simple
trickery <g>.

I'm trying  to de-fuzzy-fy things. We're talking about two different things
here

1) The processing system - real time / delayed time
2) The delivery/play medium - offline / online

Here's another example to add to the list I gave.

Play by IRC (Real Time, Online)

> I call PBeMs offline because I play them without being connected to the
PBeM
> server, and also because the time at which my move is made is only losely
> coupled to the time the server makes decisions - as long as I'm inside the
> one or two week interval, I'm fine. Online would mean that I'm a)
connected
> to the game server, and b) forced to react quickly (yeah, 'quickly' is
> another fuzzy term) to what the server and other players do. The last part
> is the part which you're calling Real/Delayed Time, I guess. I'm not sure
> though why you call Everquest an offline game.

Oops. That was a typo on my part.. it should read

Everquest (Real Time, Online).

Must remember not to do housework, bathe kid, talk to wife, chat in ICQ and
Yahoo and write newsgroup messages all at once <g>.

As for the definition of "online" it can get fuxxy anyway. Are we being
objective as saying "online to the internet" or "online to the game server",
because then you can have different levels of "online". I'm suggesting that
"online" means connected to the internet.

So we now have:

Online: Connected to the internet, and not a game server and using it to
transmit information
Offline: No connected to the internet and transmitting information by a
different medium such as mail or fax
Real Time: Any game that responds instantly or near-instantly to a command
given it (within a limit of perhaps 5 mins)
Delayed Time: Any game that does not respond to commands instantly, but at
pre-set time periods.

Of course, this whole argument gets mucked up when a real-time game that
parses emails to generate commands and results gets hit by 10,000 emails
within a minute and it takes 6 minutes for an email response to be sent ...
the game is really "real time" but falls into the "delayed time" category
just to muddy the waters more <g>.

--
Jason Paul McCartan - jasonm@mindshiftdesign.com
CEO/President
MindShift Design LLC
http://www.mindshiftdesign.com

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References

Re: Terminology
"MindShift Design" <teammsd@mindshiftdesign.com>
Wed, 25 Oct 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Terminology
"Enno Rehling" <schick.mir.spam@gmx.de>
Thu, 26 Oct 2000 05:54:23 +0000
Terminology
MindShift Design <teammsd@mindshiftdesign.com>
Tue, 24 Oct 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Terminology
"Enno Rehling" <schick.mir.spam@gmx.de>
Tue, 24 Oct 2000 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Re: Terminology
"MindShift Design" <teammsd@mindshiftdesign.com>
Wed, 25 Oct 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Terminology
"Enno Rehling" <schick.mir.spam@gmx.de>
Thu, 26 Oct 2000 05:54:23 +0000
Terminology
MindShift Design <teammsd@mindshiftdesign.com>
Tue, 24 Oct 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Terminology
"Enno Rehling" <schick.mir.spam@gmx.de>
Tue, 24 Oct 2000 00:00:00 +0000