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Fred98 -> RE: Hmmmm.... (1/9/2006 2:42:32 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Veldor
quote:
ORIGINAL: Joe 98
www.aworldatwar.com
That looked like all info on a boardgame not computer?
Look to the left of the page and see a link to Magnetar Games.
There is a story here.
I connected to the internet in Jan 1998 and my first 2 searches were “Close Combat” which led me to Ryan’s forum and “Avalon Hill Third Reich” which led me to that web site.
That site and its web address, have changed over the last 8 years. It was originally a place for fans of the board games “3R” and “Advanced 3R” to gather and discuss rules, strategy, tactics, arrange tournaments and so on and so forth.
To this day the rules are still being discussed and amended.
But some fans tried to put together an electronic map with a view to playing online. Eight years later, this has morphed into Warplanner. It is not a computer game. For example you can move ground units across the sea without penalty. A “computer game” would not allow that.
And you need an Excel spread sheet to play the game. It is used as a playing tool. Playing the game is as much a manual exercise as playing the board game.
After Jan 98, my next visit to the site was at the time of the Matrix announcement.
Nobody on their forums showed any interest in the announcement.
When I made some simple suggestions as to “making use of computers to improve the interface” I was howled down.
I discovered there are 2 separate groups. Both are fans of the game working in their spare time. One group concentrates on the rules of the board game and the other on improving Warplanner. There never seems to be any interaction between the 2. When I queried this on the Warplanner forum, the answer was ‘the rules are the rules”. This is further evidence that the rules are not built into Warplanner.
Ultimately Bruce Harper, made a post on the Warplanner forum, that he chose to go with Magnetar Games, because the fans of the game were moving too slowly with Warplanner. There was absolutely no response to the post.
The good folks working on Warplanner will consider their game superior to anything Magnetar can do.
Ultimately, when the game is released there will 3 groups, all of whom are great fans of the game. The “boardgamers” the “Warplanner” group and the rest of us. As a result one of the greatest wargames ever made will have a reduced fan base.
It’s a huge shame.
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