>First, Keith references "certain PLATO members" insisting that Oly is a
>wargame. That, I believe, would be me. I never said everyone had to
>play it as a wargame, nor did I ever say that I personally enjoy the
>wargame aspects more than the others. What I did say (or meant to say,
>which is not at all the same thing) was that a game where so much of the
>rules involve combat and soldiering seems like a wargame to me.
Without getting into the specifics of who is and who is not a wargamer, I
think that trying to make distinctions between "builder/roleplayers" and
"wargamers" is kind of meaningless.
I would like to think that, along with all our specific faction goals, we
all have a larger common goal: to create something resembling the "real
world," or at least a version of the real world. Now, trying to create any
version of the Middle Ages without conflict is like trying to make lemonade
without lemons. When the Vikings came ashore to pillage and plunder, would
it have done the English peasants any good to shout "wargamer" at them? If
Polish farmers tried to tell the Cossacks that they only wished to develop
their position in peace, would it make any difference? Wars are going to
start here, and they're going to start for much the same reasons that they
did in the real world -- real and imagined insults, land disputes, and even
downright boredom on the part of the nobility.
We're all playing some sort of role here, in the growing world that is
Olympia. Some of us may wish to be prosperous merchants like the
Venetians, or empire builders like the Austrians, or mages or diplomats
(like me) or whatever. But if someone wants to be the Mongols, well, they
belong in this world as well. Try to unite world opinion against them by
warning others that their kingdom may be next, forge alliances to protect
yourselves against them, or pay tribute to persuade them to leave you
alone, or whatever. Call them "aggressive" or "militaristic" to your
heart's content. But don't sniff that they're "only a bunch of wargamers."
The ghosts of Ghengis Khan, Richard the Lion-hearted, Charlemagne, Henry
V, and Napolean might not like it if you do.
The Illustrated Man