Subject: Re: MN: Horizontal complexity

From: riffraff@n...
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 17:31:19 -0500

>I've just been thinking about the current ruleset; trying to get a
>general overview of the objectives and how it works. I discovered that
>there isn't any general description of what you have to do to win
>(other than get 3 golds and go to MC). I can't decide whether this is
>good or bad, but it did raise some other points while I was thinking.
>
>1) One of the main problems with the current ruleset is that it has an
>awful lot of "horizontal complexity" and not much "vertical
>complexity". By which I mean there are a lot of different things in
>the game, but most of them are only small, underused, even
>half-finished things.
>
>Charge is the canonical example of this. It's a great idea, but once
>the general concept of how a player's charge varies was worked out
>nothing was done with it. It's just a number one has to calculate
>during ones turn.

Well, hopefully we can work that out in the new ruleset. This time,
instead of an idea living or dying on the basis of a single proposal and
vote, we can take the time to discuss it and come up with much fuller
workings before we implement it.

>
>2) The object of the game is really "get 3 golds", not "land on MC".
>In itself this is acceptable though not really desirable. But bellow
>the gold level the game becomes unfocused, which implies to me that we
>have a game centred around getting golds not landing on MC. That
>probably doesn't make sense, but I think how to put it clearer right
>now.

Well, it is possible to get 3 Golds _without_ winning, but I know what you
mean. It doesn't (didn't) often happen that someone would get 3 Golds and
then have to fight a concerted battle to get to MC - usually they'd get
there the same turn, or soon after. The challenge of the game is getting
the Golds in the first place. I can't really think of any way around it,
though. In any case, does it really make a difference?

--Riff

"This calls for a subtle blend of psychology and extreme violence."
--Vyvyan, "The Young Ones"