SamuraiProgrmmr
Posts: 353
Joined: 10/17/2004 From: Paducah, Kentucky Status: offline
|
I would like to make some observations. It has been suggested that the computer game of World In Flames will be slower than playing the real game. I do not believe that will be so. The point made about adherence to the strict sequence of play being a stumbling block is valid, but after players become experienced, that slowdown should go away. When I have played the game, we tried to keep to the strict sequence of play and at first it slowed things down. Later they sped back up. It was just another learning curve. A useful feature to help with this would be the ability to 'mark' counters as needing attention at a certain point in the play. This will allow you to leave a 'reminder' for yourself to do something in a certain phase, step, or even a particular turn. Several remarks have been made considering what would happen if the players swapped e-mails once a day. I sincerely believe that this game would be unrealistic to play via e-mail if you could only turn around one email a day. I also sincerely believe that it should not be a factor. I have played some empire building games via e-mail. We would start them on a Saturday afternoon or a Friday night when the players would try to get several turns played in the first few hours of the game. The idea was that there was not much happening when your empire was small and we could all play quickly. We might play for 3 or 4 hours on the first two sessions which were agreed to be at the same time. After that, we fell into the 1 email per day pattern. It was ok, because the turns were beginning to take longer to play. WIF can be like that also.... There will be some stretches where many e-mails could be exchanged in a short time and other stretches where it may be tomorrow (or later) before the turn cycles. I don't find this to be a problem. Some posters have refused to accept that players would gather online at the same time to play. Again, I don't think that is a real problem. Those who play Wif now, generally have to gather at a certain place to play. I have read reports of people who regularly travel hundreds of miles (round trip) in order to play WiF. At first, this sounds silly, but how many of you will travel two or three hours to see a ballgame or visit a museum? I travel that far 10 to 12 times a year to attend weekend bridge tournaments. Won't it be easier to gather online? No travel time. No setup time? Grab a sandwich when your opponent is doing his movement phase. I used to play WiF with a fellow who brought a book. When I was moving pieces, he was reading fiction. What is different when playing a computer game? In all honesty, I once played World In Flames (tabletop) over the phone! Each of us had the game set up and we told each other what was being moved. It was more convenient than travelling and we were able to play for 30 minutes to an hour a session. We then had the freedom to 'break off' whenever either of us wanted to contemplate the next move. It worked fine. The only downside was a sore neck from cradling the phone between your shoulder and your ear. The problem is that people want instant gratification and no 'down time' OR complete freedom to pick and choose when they spend their time on this game. Sorry folks, playing with real people just doesn't work that way. How many face to face games are interrupted by a phone call or a crying child or a bathroom break? Are we sure our expectations are realistic? I do not feel that WiF will be viable as PBEM IF (PLEASE note I said IF) it is forced into a situation where the players cannot 'virtually gather' to exchange many small e-mails in a short period of time. I feel that IF (AGAIN I used IF) players are going to 'virtually gather' to exchange many small e-mails in a short period of time, then some sort of TCP/IP connection that does not involve e-mails would be useful. This could be direct connection or a client/server arrangement. I also feel that IF (the last time tonight, I promise) the Matrix version of WiF is changed to avoid the necessity of occasional bursts of small messages, that it will no longer be WiF, but rather a shadow of Wif. Will that 'shadow' be a better game than World In Flames? Maybe. Maybe Not. I am sure that there will be some people that will appreciate it and others who will loathe it. Who knows, I might even like it. But..it..will..NOT..be..WiF! IF (okay, I lied when I said I wouldn't use it again) there is a scripting engine that gives the players enough control over some situations to feel comfortable, then it may become unimportant. However, I have never yet seen a scripting engine that gave me the control that I wanted to accomplish my goals without it being as complicated as a programming language which (while I would love it) may make it unusable by some players. We have a mental image when we think about PBEM. In order for this to be successful, I believe that the mental image of Play By Email will HAVE to be altered to fit this game rather than trying to fit this game to the traditional image of PBEM. Thanks for reading this. Dean
_____________________________
Bridge is the best wargame going .. Where else can you find a tournament every weekend?
|