Sam Trenholme wrote on Tue, Sep 12, 2006 03:14 PM UTC:
I think the issue here in terms of the complex rules is a generation gap issue. A lot of younger people feel that a game can't have complex rules. They are probably not aware that in the late 1970s and 1980s, people were perfectly willing to go to the effort to learn complicated boardgames like Squad Leader.
My issues with the game are that I don't feel Glenn has gone to the effort to fully implement this game. The diagram would look nicer if he used images instead of letters. Then again, the counters in Squad Leader had only the most basic of graphics, with letters and numbers indicating the unit's strength. So Glenn is being consistant with an old wargaming tradition. It would be nice if Glenn made a computer implementation of this game, but back in the Squad Leader days, computers were too expensive and specialized to be widely used by wargamers. Another issue is that, if Glenn wants to fully implement a complex Avalon-Hill style game, he needs to have simplified forms of the game so people can learn all of the rules step by step; this is what Avalon Hill did with their complicated games.
This game is a hybrid of the complex wargames of days long past and Chess; to say that such a game has rules that are too complex displays a profound ignorance of an entire gaming culture.
As a final note, a 'you can't reply to criticism to your game' rule would stop a lot of flame wars here. Then again, it would also give trolls who just want to hurt people's feelings more power.
My issues with the game are that I don't feel Glenn has gone to the effort to fully implement this game. The diagram would look nicer if he used images instead of letters. Then again, the counters in Squad Leader had only the most basic of graphics, with letters and numbers indicating the unit's strength. So Glenn is being consistant with an old wargaming tradition. It would be nice if Glenn made a computer implementation of this game, but back in the Squad Leader days, computers were too expensive and specialized to be widely used by wargamers. Another issue is that, if Glenn wants to fully implement a complex Avalon-Hill style game, he needs to have simplified forms of the game so people can learn all of the rules step by step; this is what Avalon Hill did with their complicated games.
This game is a hybrid of the complex wargames of days long past and Chess; to say that such a game has rules that are too complex displays a profound ignorance of an entire gaming culture.
As a final note, a 'you can't reply to criticism to your game' rule would stop a lot of flame wars here. Then again, it would also give trolls who just want to hurt people's feelings more power.