(07-06-2013, 03:58 PM)Ry Vor Wrote: 105's,
You are interesting to us, since most of you are new to Alamaze. How like you this world? Do you feel you have enough support to learn the game, get into the depths, etc? Are the Scouts likely to move to Warrior?
I really like the game, by which I mean the theme & mechanics of the game, the players in 105, and also the way everything is being run both in 105 and the game community in general. My previous PBM experience was in the UK postal Diplomacy scene in the early 90s, where it was a turn a month and a monthly or 6-weekly zine would publish turn results and other content. Compared to that, the twice-weekly pace of Alamaze seems quite a lot of work to fit in (I'd be quite happy with one turn a week). But it also does seem like you offer good value for money to me.
The aspect I don't like is really the learning curve, by which I mean more than just learning the rules/commands (a necessary evil) but about the system of playing the game in general, as well as knowing how to get started, what opening moves to take, who in your world to talk to, etc etc. Us 105 noobs are lucky in that we're in a special game with lots of other noobs, and as well as the forum, we have a Duel2 chatroom where a lot of questions are answered and politics are discussed. But it doesn't feel like a stranger could stumble across the game online and know how to get started.
I am obviously not the first to note the steep learning curve and how this is almost certainly a barrier to entry. There will always be player attrition of course but I think new players would find it easier to get into the game if they didn't have to browse through so much of the forum to find everything. I do have to say, where questions are asked the answers are very prompt and clear and everyone wants to help which is great, but often you do have to go looking for your answers first. If you are recruited into the game by a friend (as I was) then you have an instant contact for help which is fantastic, but casual visitors won't have that luxury and shouldn't be expected to read the whole forum to find their way to what they need.
I've read somewhere that there's a website on the way which I guess is intended in part to cover the following, but in terms of helping new players out, I would advocate having it would be great to have one central resource page/thread, linking to, or displaying, the following:
- what you need to do to sign up to play Alamaze
- rules doc
- commands doc
- order entry doc
- map
- where kingdoms start
- orders cheatsheet
- helpful charts doc (emissary reactions, sequence of events, etc)
- sample order sheet with instructions on how to submit
The following info I would also consider essential to have in the same central place. I know there's a reasonable debate about how much info players should have going into a game, but (in my opinion) it is definitely better to have full disclosure for all players:
- spell list (if preferred, perhaps just level 1 and 2 spells, to give new players a preview of what's possible in the game)
- artifact/sighting list (or, as with spells, some kind of limited list so that noobs have an idea of why it's worth bothering with them)
- links to some of the 'getting started' and 'strategy' articles (I've found and bookmarked 10 or so both from the forum and pegasusprod)... in particular, the 'what do I do on my first turn' articles
- a few paragraphs on 'what I should do if I'm playing kingdom X' (much of this is on pegasusprod but you have to search hard to find it)
- definitely a link to paway's 'Sample first turn' article (I wish there were one of these for every kingdom!)
As an additional note on the documentation: where rules/commands are concerned, I think it would help if these were delivered in a combined format in a single document, i.e. all King rules and King commands together, all economic rules/commands together, all Group rules/commands together, etc etc. The learning process requires frequent referral back/forwards across documentation and to other sections, or you see mentions of an issue or mechanic which you often don't understand until you come across it later. There is a lot of deduction along the way. It would even help further to combine this with sample orders like the cheatsheet, and also with the 15 kingdom setup documents where a lot of the key information could be condensed into the rules themselves. (I do appreciate it's easy to say all this and given there's 100+ pages of info, it would be no simple task simply to rewrite the lot or easily reorganise it like this!)
In postal Diplomacy zines there was the advantage of watching tons of other games which gave you ideas about your own strategy. I appreciate this isn't possible in a fog-of-war type game, but when an Alamaze game is over it would be handy to see what moves people made, or maybe a simplified summary of PC conquests, alliances, significant battles or artifact discoveries/uses. I'm not sure what format would be easiest to read a digest of this, and obviously many players would like to keep some of their strategy secret I'm sure, but I feel it would definitely be of value to newcomers to have access to this kind of info.
Also, I have been aware from the start that a game with 12 noobs is not a normal game. Our 3 players with experience have been very generous with help and non-aggression thus far (except against one another), allowing most of the conflict against noobs to have been noob-initiated. I think we've had 2 drops but I'm not 100% sure - if that's all, it's not a bad rate, I guess. The noob-friendly pace would obviously not be the case where a single noob joined a game of experienced players. I wonder if there is a game format where noobs could have some breathing space in the early turns... or can this kind of thing be left to the community to handle in a sporting manner? I guess it depends on whether you generally hope to recruit old Alamaze players back into the 21st Century, or whether you want to introduce entirely new people to the game. Both require a different approach I guess.
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This is quite a rambling post and I'm aware I'm focusing on criticisms a lot... but overall I have to say I really like Alamaze. I like the fact I've discovered this brand new community who are trying to get something awesome off the ground; in the game I enjoy the tough decisions about where to spend my money and influence, who to trust (earlier in the game anyway), where my next threat is coming from, and whether I have a chance in hell of my SVC. Every time I submit a turn to Cipher, I get gaming fever and I can barely wait for the results!
I think for a month or two more I have to stick to just one game at a time because of lack of time, other commitments, travel etc (and I also want time to continue work on my mapping tool), but ultimately I am really keen to start a second game where I have a better start and put into practice what I've learned so far!
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