[Discuss] Activity (was: The state of the game)

[Robert Croson, Jr]

On 11 Jul 2006 at 10:04, Timothy Collett wrote:

> On Jul 11, 2006, at 9:55 AM, Robert Croson, Jr wrote:
> > No matter how hard you try, you *cannot* remove all of a specific  
> > player or group of players' advantages.
> 
> Of course you can't.  However, you can do your best to mitigate the  
> ones that *can* be mitigated through code.

Provided we can identify the ones that truly need to be mitigated. I am not 
convinced that late-turn moving is a problem, let alone a problem that deserves 
significant effort to be expended to fix.

> Your example is (probably intentionally) absurd--partly because  
> BattleMaster is billed as being *in English*.  Would you like me to  
> provide you another absurd example?
> 
> "I think that smart people have an advantage in the game, too. They  
> have the unfair ability to come up with better strategies, and write  
> better speeches. These people have the advantage of being able to  
> learn the ins and outs of the game faster, and win more battles  
> because of their superior strategies. Not to mention the fact that  
> player intelligence is a purely OOC factor."
> 
> Would you like to try to negate the intelligence of the player as a  
> factor, as well?

Why not? We seem to be on the trend of identifying advantages that various 
people have, and then systematically removing them.

> The point here is that BattleMaster *is* billed as a *lightweight*  
> game, where there is *no* significant material advantage to being  
> able to log on a lot.  If we can remove this way in which there *is*  
> such an advantage, we will (I believe) bring the game closer to what  
> it ought to be.

Then perhaps we should limit the amount of messages people can send. 
Someone who can log on a lot can send many more messages than people who 
log on only once a turn. That makes unlimited, instant messaging an advantage 
that people who can log in a lot have over people who can only log in once a 
turn, or once a day.

I am not convinced that removing these supposed advantages of people who 
can log in frequently is the correct path to take. I believe there are other areas 
that can produce a much greater positive effect in the game, that deserve more 
attention than this supposed problem of late-turn movers. (The not-yet-
completed Duchy system being the prime example.)


-- 
Rob

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