Re: Ultimate Goals in Olympia
Brent R. Johnson (brj@cle.ab.com)
18 Jan 1995 23:11:48 GMT
srt@sun-dimas.aero.org (Scott Turner) writes:
...
|>
|> Players in Olympia can have a variety of goals:
|>
|> * build an empire
|> * become rich
|> * explore the world
|> * learn all the skills
|> * become the greatest mage
|>
|> To achieve these goals they need various resources. Most importantly,
|> they need money and NPs. They can get these through various plans:
|>
|> * build a castle and garrison
|> * trade goods between cities
|> * kill monsters
|> * wait (for more NPs)
|> * capture money/NPs from other players
|>
|> The issue is that many players see the last plan as the best.
|> Certainly if you want NPs fast you're going to have to capture them
|> from some other player. And as players become richer, easier to find,
|> and easier to beat than monsters, then the last plan becomes more
|> desirable. To make matters worse, there's also conflict over fixed
|> resources, most notably taxes. So the "build a castle" plan tends to
|> also lead to military conflict. The result is there's a lot of
|> inter-player conflict, and I think it is only going to get worse.
|>
|> On the other hand, I'm not convinced that this is a problem. Like
|> David, I wonder what the point of a multi-player game is if the only
|> certain "nice" interactions are permitted between the players. Isn't
|> the game in a sense more interesting because there are people like
|> Dr. Pain or MAFOC in it?
Yes, in a sense.
|>
|> Suppose that a bunch of the "roleplayers" got together on an island,
|> agreed to a mutual defense pact and each contributed to the building
|> and maintenance of a standing army. I believe they could protect
|> themselves from the "wargamers" and go on about their roleplaying. If
|> they choose not to -- if they choose to wander around in small groups
|> through areas where wargamers are active -- then I view that as a
|> failure for the players, not a failure of the game.
Sorry, but that doesn't make sense. Look back at your list of possible
goals. See "explore the world"? How do you do that if you're stuck on an
island? See "learn all the skills"? That may be possible after an initial
tour to appropriate cities, but how on earth are you going to advance in
all those skills if you're stuck on an island? See "become rich"? Let's
suppose you want to do it by establishing an elaborate system of trade
routes. How are you going to do that if you're stuck on an island? And
so on, and so on.
What do you think role-playing is, anyway? Just sitting around making
pots and sending messages to each other?
--
<< Brent
____________________________________________________________________
/ \
) "Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good." I Thess. 5:21 (
\____________________________________________________________________/