Re: Games and Playing Styles

On Tue, 05 Sep 2006 09:26:40 +0100, Peter Clinch
<p.j.clinch@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

:You're looking at the wrong end. The fact that A3R can tell you useful
:things about historical events shows a primary design intent to make it
:do that as a main design goal. The complexity of the ruleset shows it
:is not designed for "fun" in the normal light sense of the word.
:That Settlers doesn't have history attached does not make it social.
:However, the length of play, the complexity and depth of the ruleset,
:are good evidence that social play is the primary intent. The fact that
:the prototype was far, far more complex (rumoured to have been split in
:2 to make Settlers and Entdecker) but was very deliberately simplified
:is even better evidence that the intent was a light (and social) game.

One mistake you're making consistently is to
assume that a game that can be played without an
8'x10' table and 30 hours of dedicated time is
necessarily evidence that the game was intended to
be social. In any event, the unusual and defining
characteristics which you consistently bring up in an
attempt to justify this description of German games are
the unusual and defining characteristics of simulationist
wargames. That's rather like trying to define canids as
not being sponges. They aren't, but neither is almost
everything else. Discussion of those features belong
under sponges.
--
They say there's air in your lungs that's been there for years.

George W. Harris For actual email address, replace each 'u' with an 'i'.
.

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