Subject: MN: RE: Bifurcation

From: "Wayper, Paul" <WayperP@p...>
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 12:02:30 +1000

On Thursday, June 25, 1998 12:12 AM, Dunx (Duncan Ellis)
[SMTP:DELLIS@U...] wrote:
> I've been thinking about putting forward a Special Ruleset Proposal to

> allow Bifurcation, which I'm sure you would agree is a pretty
important 
> part of the MC culture. I just wanted to float these ideas past people
to 
> see how sea-worthy they are, and also to ask for suggestions on a
thorny 
> problem that might sink the whole thing. 

Personally I am completely against bifurcations in any form, for the
following completely self-centered and my-own-unhumble reasons:

1) They are not even close to ISIHAC standard.
2) Originally, they were the result of a misunderstanding.
3) They are now used in a multitude of confusing formats.
4) There is no clear standard of how to move into or out of them.
5) They add a lot of complexity without adding much gameplay.

I know a lot of these reasons are laughable as actual justification;
however I feel it is exactly this sort of justification that produces
new rules, so I don't feel quite so stupid voicing my opinions.

On a more practical note, a lot of what you're proposing is going to
make the game very hard to play, I think, Dunx. The great confusion of
what happens when someone unifies the game and people are still left
stretched out across the board is one example.

Anyway, that's my opinion - I feel strongly enough about it to voice it,
but I realise that all my reasons are personal and quite probably not
shared. I've lived with worse.

BTW, what do people think of another subgame where there is just one
piece, and players take it in turns to move it (instead of each player
having a piece)? You can't shunt other players, but on the other hand
there's a lot of strategy similar to billiards, where you make sure the
white ball is either somewhere you can use it or somewhere your
opponent(s) can't.

Paul Wayper -- DPI ITS Computer Systems Officer
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