Buddy/Ignore List
09-06-2023, 02:43 AM
Yeah, that's me. Not counting any Tutorial Turns, or attempts at Duel Turns, nor even that 5644 short spin as The Forgotten, basically, I'm the Man of 37 Turns.
Or said another way, I have approximately three dozen turns of actual, useful experience, by now. I grasp certain facts. I have a basic, rudimentary grasp of the Alamaze Online Order System, otherwise known as the game Interface.
While I don't have extensive experience with any of the game's plethora of orders and spells, I have successfully utilized the Assassination and Kidnapping options, as one unfortunate Elementalist could no doubt attest to. I've even managed to successfully execute a prisoner. I've even managed to hire a multitude of new characters (or should I refer to them as figures?), and wielded a relative handful of spells to good effect.
And the moral of this story is what?
Well, actually, I'm not entirely sure that this particular story has a moral. Instead, I'm just sitting here doing battle with a bout of The Tiredness. Young men like Wookie Panz know nothing of villains such as this, what with his fanciful spring in his step that he carries about with him, whither soever he goes.
Now, if I could only raise troops when I want to, but it would appear that one or more gnomes (no offense to all gnomes, everywhere) managed to succeed in slipping a few questionable design considerations past the Department of Common Sense. In sharp contrast to the totality of both history and experience, one in Alamaze finds themselves shackled with the heavy chains of requiring veteran brigades, or some such nonsense, before one can begin preparing for war. Or said another way, it's called the deliberate inducing of vulnerability. Fortunately, it is only newcomers who will likely suffer the injury of this foul plague. After all, if you make things deliberately harder for newcomers than it has to be, than it should be, then you can - and should - rightful expect to have to face fewer of them on the field of battle in future epochs of Alamaze.
In a nutshell, whether tragedy or comedy or entirely unintended, Alamaze isn't geared towards new players. It really and truly isn't. Me? Somebody fucked up, and I managed to somehow slip past the guards at the entrance. I don't yet know the rules and the mechanics and the game interface to the point where I can straight up win a game of Alamaze on my own, against all comers. Yet, I already know enough to inflict harm and damage and suffering upon other kingdoms. More importantly than any of that, though, is that, say what you may, I have already figured out to have fun playing Alamaze, come hell or high water.
Rest assured, I am no mere fool that walked in off the street, just yesterday. If anything, I am a fool who has walked what seems an eternity in PBM time, to finally appear on the shores and the plains and the forests and the mountains (etc., etc.) of Alamaze. Even still, is Alamaze a place? A time? A destination? Surely, it's not a kingdom. Is it part of the kingdoms of Arcania? Or are they a part of it?
To an almost infinite degree, when playing Alamaze, I don the role of a student. I make no pretense, otherwise. But if you mess with my town, you do so at risk to your own kingdom and its many inhabitants.
A kingdom is a kingdom is a kingdom. And we all know (at least, we all should now) that the real power in Alamaze lies behind the throne. In the rulebook for Hyborian War, a PBM game with roots that stretch way back into the antiquity of play by mail gaming, the Setting portion of that rulebook states, and I quote:
The role of the player in the game is that of an "immortal power behind the scenes." The player is a personality which alternately inhabits various members of a ruling dynasty--those who wield the true power of Hyboria over the passage of centuries.
And so it is with Alamaze, also.
In the span of 37 turns (or less), I have already learned that information warfare is applicable to the Alamaze battle space. Compared to playing with - and interacting with - many Hyborian War players down through the years and decades, since first stumbling head-first into the PBM melting pot, playing Alamaze is akin to the Age of Neanderthals, from a communications perspective. Maybe it's just me, though, but inter-player diplomacy and communicating effectively in a timely manner certainly appears to be lagging, here, compared to there. I must say, this is both interesting and intriguing. Oh, to be certain, I'm sure that there's reasons for it.
But even still. . .
To win over new players, Alamaze probably needs about six turns with them - provided that they can climb the mountain range of obstacles that Alamaze and its designer(s) have chosen to throw at them. Indeed, newcomers get ambushed, when the finally take the step to give Alamaze a try.
Ambushed!
The Alamaze tutorial as we currently know it in its current form, needs to be repurposed. In its current incarnation, it is more trouble than it is worth. It's dull. It's boring. It saturates the newcomers' eyes with text that fails to accomplish a decent return of new players for the return on investment of what all went into the building of it. In military parlance, it is properly classifiable as a genuine clusterfuck.
And, yes, you read that right.
But why say such a thing? Because deliberately going soft on it won't fix it. It's just not up to snuff, and it's never been particularly effective at what it was designed to do. If it has been, then where are the legions of Alamaze players that this gimmick was supposed to deliver? In a nutshell, good intentions, but poor execution of the underlying concept.
One of the grand ironies in it is that many gamers out there are more than capable of teaching themselves how to play Alamaze. Yet, where is the incentive in them doing just, exactly that? We live in the Age of Information. We live in an era of Digital Revolution. Even still, junk in equals junk out. Garbage in equals garbage out.
As a gaming platform, Alamaze is still in a state of relative infancy. The vast majority of its potential hasn't even had its surface scratched, yet. Just today, my mind got to thinking about how the Alamaze gaming platform could offer gamers of the world a way to do battle with Kaiju (think Godzilla or something similar) wreaking havoc on a destructible environment, Alamaze-style. And it wasn't so very long ago that I was e-mailing Brekk Firestarter about how Alamaze could allow gamers to enjoy gaming in a Wild West/ Old West setting. Anybody wanna be a gunslinger? Or a gold miner? Or a saloon owner?
That Ready button that many of you are familiar with. Where did it come from? I am trying to remember, but wasn't it for Centurion? Or was it for fall of Rome? If you don't remember what Centurion was, I promise, I won't hold it against you.
But I remember.
One of the true and deepest beauties of the Alamaze game platform is that, one you learn it (assuming you even can learn it), it will allow for rapid integration into a nearly unlimited number of different games and settings. It's kind of like D&D, that way, only entirely different. Plus, the Alamaze game platform is fully compatible with the most powerful graphics car ever invented - the human mind!
You've seen Alamaze's past. Now, tell me, what do YOU want Alamaze's FUTURE to be?
Or said another way, I have approximately three dozen turns of actual, useful experience, by now. I grasp certain facts. I have a basic, rudimentary grasp of the Alamaze Online Order System, otherwise known as the game Interface.
While I don't have extensive experience with any of the game's plethora of orders and spells, I have successfully utilized the Assassination and Kidnapping options, as one unfortunate Elementalist could no doubt attest to. I've even managed to successfully execute a prisoner. I've even managed to hire a multitude of new characters (or should I refer to them as figures?), and wielded a relative handful of spells to good effect.
And the moral of this story is what?
Well, actually, I'm not entirely sure that this particular story has a moral. Instead, I'm just sitting here doing battle with a bout of The Tiredness. Young men like Wookie Panz know nothing of villains such as this, what with his fanciful spring in his step that he carries about with him, whither soever he goes.
Now, if I could only raise troops when I want to, but it would appear that one or more gnomes (no offense to all gnomes, everywhere) managed to succeed in slipping a few questionable design considerations past the Department of Common Sense. In sharp contrast to the totality of both history and experience, one in Alamaze finds themselves shackled with the heavy chains of requiring veteran brigades, or some such nonsense, before one can begin preparing for war. Or said another way, it's called the deliberate inducing of vulnerability. Fortunately, it is only newcomers who will likely suffer the injury of this foul plague. After all, if you make things deliberately harder for newcomers than it has to be, than it should be, then you can - and should - rightful expect to have to face fewer of them on the field of battle in future epochs of Alamaze.
In a nutshell, whether tragedy or comedy or entirely unintended, Alamaze isn't geared towards new players. It really and truly isn't. Me? Somebody fucked up, and I managed to somehow slip past the guards at the entrance. I don't yet know the rules and the mechanics and the game interface to the point where I can straight up win a game of Alamaze on my own, against all comers. Yet, I already know enough to inflict harm and damage and suffering upon other kingdoms. More importantly than any of that, though, is that, say what you may, I have already figured out to have fun playing Alamaze, come hell or high water.
Rest assured, I am no mere fool that walked in off the street, just yesterday. If anything, I am a fool who has walked what seems an eternity in PBM time, to finally appear on the shores and the plains and the forests and the mountains (etc., etc.) of Alamaze. Even still, is Alamaze a place? A time? A destination? Surely, it's not a kingdom. Is it part of the kingdoms of Arcania? Or are they a part of it?
To an almost infinite degree, when playing Alamaze, I don the role of a student. I make no pretense, otherwise. But if you mess with my town, you do so at risk to your own kingdom and its many inhabitants.
A kingdom is a kingdom is a kingdom. And we all know (at least, we all should now) that the real power in Alamaze lies behind the throne. In the rulebook for Hyborian War, a PBM game with roots that stretch way back into the antiquity of play by mail gaming, the Setting portion of that rulebook states, and I quote:
The role of the player in the game is that of an "immortal power behind the scenes." The player is a personality which alternately inhabits various members of a ruling dynasty--those who wield the true power of Hyboria over the passage of centuries.
And so it is with Alamaze, also.
In the span of 37 turns (or less), I have already learned that information warfare is applicable to the Alamaze battle space. Compared to playing with - and interacting with - many Hyborian War players down through the years and decades, since first stumbling head-first into the PBM melting pot, playing Alamaze is akin to the Age of Neanderthals, from a communications perspective. Maybe it's just me, though, but inter-player diplomacy and communicating effectively in a timely manner certainly appears to be lagging, here, compared to there. I must say, this is both interesting and intriguing. Oh, to be certain, I'm sure that there's reasons for it.
But even still. . .
To win over new players, Alamaze probably needs about six turns with them - provided that they can climb the mountain range of obstacles that Alamaze and its designer(s) have chosen to throw at them. Indeed, newcomers get ambushed, when the finally take the step to give Alamaze a try.
Ambushed!
The Alamaze tutorial as we currently know it in its current form, needs to be repurposed. In its current incarnation, it is more trouble than it is worth. It's dull. It's boring. It saturates the newcomers' eyes with text that fails to accomplish a decent return of new players for the return on investment of what all went into the building of it. In military parlance, it is properly classifiable as a genuine clusterfuck.
And, yes, you read that right.
But why say such a thing? Because deliberately going soft on it won't fix it. It's just not up to snuff, and it's never been particularly effective at what it was designed to do. If it has been, then where are the legions of Alamaze players that this gimmick was supposed to deliver? In a nutshell, good intentions, but poor execution of the underlying concept.
One of the grand ironies in it is that many gamers out there are more than capable of teaching themselves how to play Alamaze. Yet, where is the incentive in them doing just, exactly that? We live in the Age of Information. We live in an era of Digital Revolution. Even still, junk in equals junk out. Garbage in equals garbage out.
As a gaming platform, Alamaze is still in a state of relative infancy. The vast majority of its potential hasn't even had its surface scratched, yet. Just today, my mind got to thinking about how the Alamaze gaming platform could offer gamers of the world a way to do battle with Kaiju (think Godzilla or something similar) wreaking havoc on a destructible environment, Alamaze-style. And it wasn't so very long ago that I was e-mailing Brekk Firestarter about how Alamaze could allow gamers to enjoy gaming in a Wild West/ Old West setting. Anybody wanna be a gunslinger? Or a gold miner? Or a saloon owner?
That Ready button that many of you are familiar with. Where did it come from? I am trying to remember, but wasn't it for Centurion? Or was it for fall of Rome? If you don't remember what Centurion was, I promise, I won't hold it against you.
But I remember.
One of the true and deepest beauties of the Alamaze game platform is that, one you learn it (assuming you even can learn it), it will allow for rapid integration into a nearly unlimited number of different games and settings. It's kind of like D&D, that way, only entirely different. Plus, the Alamaze game platform is fully compatible with the most powerful graphics car ever invented - the human mind!
You've seen Alamaze's past. Now, tell me, what do YOU want Alamaze's FUTURE to be?
