Ah, the lamentations of the women! Or said another way, I have stumbled upon the lamentations of the damned.
An old discussion thread, just sitting here gathering dust and cobwebs. Years later, and still Alamaze is beset with some of the same old problems. The paradox! The utter dilemma! Are we all truly powerless in the face of it?
Players quitting games, and immediately joining new games. This is not a problem unique to Alamaze. Far from it, in fact. Rellgar could just as easily have been describing Hyborian War, or any of a number of other, different games. It could be worse, though, as they could all just have quit, and never joined a new game of Alamaze, again. Perspective, thus, is worth having and gleaning glimmers of hope from, however small that they may seem at the time.
Players of games, of course, don't all quit for the same reason. In fact, there's virtually an infinite number of different reasons that, collectively, explain why players drop out of games that they are playing in -
Alamaze included.
New players quit. Veterans quit.
How very exasperating!
What's a fellow -
or a company - to do? It strikes me as highly unlikely that the cure for players quitting is to give up all hope and quit trying. Abandon hope all ye who enter here, eh?
It's been said that, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. To allow one's own self to become riddled with hopelessness doesn't exactly tend to inspire others. If Alamaze is a good game, one worthy of being played by the masses, then it seems to me that it should be worth fighting for. Where, now, is that Alamaze fighting spirit that the most experienced players of the game are familiar with? Has your internal flame been extinguished, already?
Pah!
I rather enjoy browsing old threads. Oh, sure, it can sometimes be akin to scurrying through ancient crypts and catacombs. And it goes without saying that doing so carries with it the inherent risk of disturbing spirits perhaps best left undisturbed.
But, what the heck?
The game's designer, Rick McDowell, even acknowledged within this very thread that, and I quote,
"Alamaze is a hard to approach game." Do tell?
'Twas none other than Drogo, himself, who said,
"All the friends I would ask don't really have the time commitment, especially for the learning curve." Ah, yes, that darned old recurring learning curve.
Nasty creature that one do be!
What else did the game designer say?
"Alamaze is no easier to win than The Game of Thrones. Lots of things have to break your way as well as displaying your skill."
Hard to approach. Hard to win at. Lots of things, more than one's own skills, have to break your way, in order to win at Alamaze. But if it's all about strategy, if it is an apex predator of a strategy game, then why aren't more people playing it? As far as that goes, why are most players who ever played Alamaze and enjoyed it, no longer bothering to play the game, at all?
How now, brown cow?
If the game designer would ask people who tried Alamaze how they hear about Alamaze, but usually didn't get an answer, where does that leave Alamaze at? Human beings are fickle. They frequently won't communicate. Yet, as hard and harsh as that situation is to find one's self in, that's the true reality of the modern gaming era. Love it, hate it, it doesn't matter. The challenge is to overcome it, and the risk of failure is omnipresent. The risk of failure is so thick, that you can smell it, feel it, taste it.
Hot damn, as Bruno Mars might say!
A necessary precursor for lots of people to talk about something is for other people to talk about it, first. Not talking about Alamaze won't help matters. That's basic physics, right there, people (though perhaps not the kind of physics that you might be accustomed to thinking about).
Something that Rick McDowell, the Alamaze game designer, himself, said a few years back over on his obscure blog,
The American Perspective, comes to mind. Namely, wherein he said,
"Don’t buy into Expert Worship. Do your own thinking, and remember the experts have an agenda and self-interest."
SOURCE:
https://americanperspective.today/f/expert-worship
Do your own thinking on the subject of how to get more people playing Alamaze. Remember, even the chief "expert" on Alamaze, the game designer, himself, had his own agenda and self-interest that guided his previous choices and decisions.
Adapt.
Improvise!
If there is no way out of this hole that the Alamaze player base currently finds itself in, then make a way.
Invent a way, if need be!
Time to knock the dust off and tear the cobwebs down, and rejoin the fight, once more. In this particular thread, 'twas unclemike, the Alamaze programmer, that was the voice of sound reason (to date, at least). The River of Progress has been dammed, whether by design or by fate. It matters not. What matters is to clear the obstruction, and move forward into a new future for Alamaze. Alamaze has a new owner, now. This, alone, has granted Alamaze a new lease on life.
Blessings come in many forms, you know.
Who among you will now take up the gauntlet, and dare to rise to the occasion? Progress can still be made. Positive results can emanate from renewed efforts. Why abandon hope, when you, yourself, can become the very light of a new bright future for Alamaze?
Alamaze needs
you. Your fellow Alamaze players need
you.
Where will you be, when the Alamaze roll is called?
Buddy/Ignore List
