====================================================================== @@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@ @@ @@``````````@@ @@``````````@@ @@`````````````` @@@@ @@@@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@``@@ @@ @@`` @@@@@@@@@@@@ `` @@@@@@@@@@@@ `` @@@@@@@@@@@@ @@`` @@ ``@@`` @@```````````` @@``````````@@ @@```````````` @@`` `` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@`` @@@@@@@@@@@@ `` @@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@`` @@`` `` ```````````` `````````````` `` `` ====================================================================== A Fanzine for Free Computer-Moderated Play-By-Electronic-Mail Wargames ====================================================================== volume 93, number 2 march 15, 1993 ====================================================================== Greg Lindahl, Editor gl8f@virginia.edu ====================================================================== Table of Contents: Opening Stuff o The Editor's Corner o Short Summary of Available Games Articles o Exploring the Nature of the Simulation Game Mel Nicholson Regular Features o Game Descriptions & Information o Hints regarding sending electronic mail to other networks o What's this "ftp" thing anyway? o Archives and subscriptions by email ====================================================================== The Editor's Corner ====================================================================== You may have noticed that last month's issue is a wee bit late. I plead lameness -- I've met that Holy Grail of male heterosexual wargamers, a woman who likes to game even more than I do. Wow. Hopefully we'll be back on track. Submissions are always welcome. A new game, Phoenix, was recently announced on rec.games.pbm by Don Woods, of Adventure fame (you have all played Colossal Cave, yes?) He was surprised by the large response that he received, and hopefully will start running games on a regular basis, but for the moment says his hands are full and doesn't want more advertising. Russel Wallace is testing another game, which looks interesting. A second group has started running Galaxy games off an automated server; I hope that such things become more popular, as there certainly is a lot of demand for the Diplomacy server. Finally, Dougal Scott is looking for someone to take over running his Celestial Empire games; if you're interested, his email address is below. -- greg (gl8f@virginia.edu) ====================================================================== Short Summary of Available Games ====================================================================== Diplomacy --- Play Avalon Hill's Diplomacy boardgame by email. There are 1000+ players involved in ~209 games, with new games starting continuously on serveral automated email servers. Galaxy --- An economic/strategic space-opera game. There are around 500 players involved in a dozen or so games. New games start occasionally. Celestial Empire --- a more complicated space-opera game. There 5 games running with about 100 players. New games start occasionally. Dougal Scott is looking for someone to take over running these games -- see below for more information. Sports Simulations --- a variety of different electronic leagues are available. Each game generally does one or two seasons per year. VGA Planets --- a shareware game for PC Clones. There is a review of the game in PBEM v92n06. For more information on any of these games, please wade through the "Game Descriptions and Information" section below. It lists ftp sites and the addresses of the moderators. ====================================================================== Exploring the Nature of the Simulation Game Mel Nicholson ====================================================================== In previous issues of PBEM I've stuck to the pragmatic aspects of game administration, design, and implementation, all of which are safe topics because they have a readily available criterion of measure: the ease of use or amount of effort expended to execute. This issue, however, I'm going to go far beyond those cozy confines and dive into the deep end and talk about games in their most oozing, globular state. There are no methods or right answers to fall back on here, so those who expect some responsible journalism can stop reading now, as I'm going to have some fun with this. I'll start by dividing games with a few roughly hewn chops into categories and ignore the overlap. There are games which require physical coordination, strength, and/or stamina like rugby, tiddlywinks, and bunjee jumping, then there are games which rely solely manipulating pawns on a board with an extreme level of abstraction like abalone, solitaire, or checkers. Aside from that are the parlor games which rely on memory, double entendre, or communication like charades, trivia, and the entire range of RPG's. Finally, we have the semi-abstract simulations like Risk, 1830, and Galaxy. I'll dispense with the physical and parlor games soon, but first I want to take a note of the two things that all of these games have in common. The first is conflict. This does not mean, as some others as proposed, that all games revolve around a struggle to win, but only that they revolve around a struggle. To illustrate the distinction, consider the children's game dodge ball. One or more players stand in the center of a ring, surrounded by lots of other players on the ring. The players on the outside throw a ball back and forth, trying to hit the players on the inside. If one of the players on the inside is hit, then they switch places with the player on the outside, and the game continues indefinitely. The conflict, trying to hit/not be hit, is there, but no one ever wins (or loses). This is a universal feature of games as even in the most mechanical of solitaire games where the outcome is determined only by the shuffle of the deck, the dynamic aspect of revealing and manipulating still provides the perception of conflict to the player. Even in an RPG where the players cooperate and do not struggle with each other, this dynamic unfolding still persists, as the players come to terms with their environment and their roles, however peaceful the setting or like themselves the role. The second commonality is so painstakingly obvious that people hardly recognize how important it is. The games have a nonzero duration, which is to say they pass time (thus the word "passtime"). Let us never forget that the first and most important function of the game is to stave off boredom, or to use a less negative expression, to have fun (though some games are admittedly more effective at this than others). Now that with a broad look at the whole of gaming we have divined the purpose of games, to remove boredom through conflict, we can narrow our focus to include only the abstract games and the simulations games while keeping that purpose in mind to provide perspective. The highly abstract games make an exceptionally good outside point to view the simulating games (which are the primary focus of this magazine) from because the two are incredibly similar. Mechanically, the two are identical. Both move tokens around and possibly roll dice for random effect, or make whatever other equivalent state tracking mechanisms and random determinations. If the game is good, whichever category, it will have a theme to its rules which determines the flavor of play. While some theoretician might argue that abstract and simulating games are equivalent for the reasons outlined above, this is wrong and the reason for that error goes back to the purpose of gaming. If one game involves moving a bunch of pawn on a board and removing those pawns which are landed on by other pawns, and yet another game has the same movement rules except it represent tanks/amoebas/whatever with the pawns and represents destruction/absorption/whatever with the capture, then a player might be bored by the former and excited by the latter. This means that game is subjectively better because it allows the player to have fun, and objectively different as it elicits a different reaction. The representation of the game as what it simulates for the player is not the only difference. The genesis of the game can also draw from the domain of that which is simulated. When making a game about tank warfare, the real world of tanks can provide insight and suggestions as to what sort or rules are appropriate to the game. Perhaps make a rule that each piece has a facing, and can only move directly toward or away from that facing (just as real tanks do not move sideways). Perhaps this in turn suggests rules for turning, changing from forward to reverse, or rules for artillery fire and turret facing. The important point is that the simulated thing provides not only interest to the player, but also inspiration for the designer. One last contrast which will provide insight on the simulation game goes outside the realm of games into pure simulation. In a pure simulation, the goal is to model reality. The benefit of a feature in the simulation is in how that feature affects the accuracy and efficiency of the simulation. Some have mistakenly taken this idea into the realm of simulation games as well, and in the design and play work for realism as a primary goal, sometimes changing a game to be more realistic and as a result take the fun out of the game, become bored, then wander off in search of greener pastures. The mistake to avoid is letting secondary considerations like realism supersede the primary goal of fun. As we conclude this foray into the less pragmatic aspects of our hobby, we should remember three basic lessons. First, the things we imagine through our games are a source of entertainment. Second, we can draw inspiration from any facet of real life to provide inspiration for our games. Most of all, games are for fun, first and last. ====================================================================== Game Descriptions and Information ====================================================================== Galaxy -- Galaxy is a closed-ended strategic economic/military space simulation. The game typically takes place on a 100x100 2D map, with a few hundred planets and 20 to 50 players. Players compete to capture planets, which can be used for economic expansion. You may purchase technology in several different areas, allowing your ships to fight harder and move faster. Galaxy turns range in size from 10kbytes early in the game to 100-200kbytes late in the game. Games are being run by the author, Russell Wallace, and also by Howard Bampton,the Generic Association of Gamers at Western Washington University, and other people. Announcements of new games have been generally posted to the Usenet newsgroup rec.games.pbm. However, you can always write the people moderating games and ask to be place on their wait list. The rules and source code are available for ftp on ftp.erg.sri.com, directory /pub/pbm/galaxy. The addresses of the moderators are: RWALLACE@vax1.tcd.ie bampton@cs.utk.edu. Howard Bampton has a variant called "blind" galaxy. You can ftp the source for it from cs.utk.edu:/pub/bampton. Rob McNeur is no longer running games, because they started charging him lots of money to send email overseas. Ah well. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Diplomacy -- The Diplomacy Adjudicator is a fully computer-moderated gamemaster for Avalon Hill's Diplomacy boardgame. To get more information from the moderator, send email with the word "HELP" in it to judge@morrolan.eff.org. Some information is available via FTP from milton.u.washington in the public/misc subdirectory. All of the information up for ftp is also available via the email server. There is also an older diplomacy Judge at judge@u.washington.edu, which is not starting any new games but has lots of standby positions available. Diplomacy is probably the biggest PBEM game out there, with 210 games going as of Feb 15. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Celestial Empire -- Celestial Empire is a closed-ended strategic economic/military space simulation. Empires compete to capture worlds which produce many different types of resources, of which different amounts are needed to manufacture various items. The author, Dougal Scott, is currently running several games, and he periodically starts new ones. The rules may be ftp-ed from yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au in the directory /pub/celemp. After you've read them, if you still want to join a game, send your name to Dougal.Scott@fcit.monash.edu.au. He's also looking for a new administrator to take over running his games, so he can finish his degree. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sports Simulations -- While these aren't wargames, they are PBEM games. Generally these games have long seasons so you can't join in the middle, but if there's an opening, you might get in early. - Experimental Electronic Football League (EEFL): wickart@ichips.intel.com - United Electronic Football League (UEFL): billones@grebyn.com - World Email Hockey Association (WEHA): creare!inb@Dartmouth.edu - S. P. Australian Rules Football (SPARF): mel@soda.berkeley.edu - Ultra Cricket: astley@franklin.cc.utas.edu If you'd like to see a sample set of rules, our popular columnist Mel Nicholson has an email server... for details, send email to munch@soda.berkeley.edu with the subject "help" to receive information about his game. Bill Wickart sent the following description of the various football leagues: United Electronic Football -- this is a USer, PBeM version of Alan Parr's game. You create a team of football (soccer) players, each with a position and skill level. Each turn, you pit your lineups against those of your opponents, with relative strengths and random chance determining the final score. If you win, you get more resources for improving your team. You can trade players and other resources, and press wars abound. Honor and glory for the regular- season champion and the winner of the post-season Cup. This game comes in several flavors: United Electronic Football League (UEFL): billones@grebyn.com The original league in the States, 20 teams in upper and lower divisions. about 2 weeks per turn, time off for academic breaks, 1 season per year. Currently in season 4. Still the original, still the simplest, still the league that got me addicted in the first place. Experimental Electronic Football League (EEFL): wickart@ichips.intel.com Spin-off of the UEFL for playing with rule changes. More detailed control of player positions, wider variety of team resources, matches run by software (you get a nice match chronology; simple-minded, better than a box score). About 12 days per turn, time off around winter holidays, 2 seasons per year. About to begin season 8, 92 players in 9 divisions at 4 levels. I believe that there are also leagues running at Penn. State University, somewhere in Erlangen (this may be SUBEFL), and one or two other places in western Europe. SPARF is loosely based on United. Each league has its own newsletter coming out once per turn, as well as a player-run newsletter (yes, this is a PBeM with a fanzine) for discussions and proposals. The player interactions cross league boundaries at times, and there is a lot of interpersonal support in the press, private e-mail, and occasional visits. For instance, a wedding tends to draw 4-6 other managers, some for the first meeting. Ian Brown supplied this description of his Hockey Simulation: The first season (to continue until the end of March or so) has shown a number of serious flaws in the simulator for this league. The plan is to take a month or so after the end of the season to run a test league and work out a new system. After that a new season will start with openings for new teams. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- And yes, I refuse to publish contact information for any form of PBEM Wrestling. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- VGA Planets -- A shareware game for PC-Clones. Players use a graphical interface to enter their turns, and then send a binary file to the moderator, who runs them through a program that processes the turn. FTP from ftp.ucsc.edu in the directory /PC/vgaplanets-2.1. ====================================================================== Hints regarding sending Electronic Mail to other networks ====================================================================== OK, so now you're wondering, "I'm using FidoNet or CompuServe or FoobieBlech and those email addresses he keeps on talking about sure look funny to me!". Welcome to the modern world of networking. See, there's this big amorphous network called the Internet that lots of other networks, like FidoNet and CompuServe and DELPHI and America Online (but not GEnie, yet) are hooked up to. And you can send email between all of them, if you know the right incantations. Often size or cost limitations will keep you from being able to play games on another network, but at least you can send me letters to the editor or articles. Compuserve: If your ID is [76515,1122] then your canonical Internet address will be 76515.1122@compuserve.com. The comma is replaced by a period, and that's your username. Compuserve.com is the name of your site. The .com on the end means that Compuserve is a business, and also generally means it's in the USA. This address is the one that non-compuserve people will use to talk to you. To send mail from CompuServe to the Internet, you use this sort of address: >INTERNET:gl8f@virginia.edu In this example, the ">INTERNET:" part indicates that the email is going to the Internet, and gl8f@virginia.edu is a normal Internet address (mine). Compuserve users have to pay extra for mail to or from the Internet. If you're a flat-fee user, the cost is 5 cents per 2500 characters, minimum 15 cents, and the first $9 per month is free. This can add up to a bit of money if you send frequent messages, or get into a Galaxy end-game where your turns are large. In addition, the maximum size for a given message is 50kbytes, and most Internet games do not split their game turns into pieces if they are too large. But you can try. Diplomacy, for example, should definitely be ok in size and volume if you play a no-press anonymous game. America Online and DELPHI tell me that they don't charge extra for sending email to the Internet. So you might want to investigate them as an alternative to Compu$erve. To go from FidoNet to the Internet and back is a similar process. Actually, it's not so simple. I have a document that describes this, but since FidoNet seems to be a bit of an anarchy, you can't even send netmail from some nodes and others may not be configured properly to send mail to and from the Internet. And, when you send email, someone is paying to send it, or maybe there is a local gateway and it's free. So, you should probably talk to your sysop first to figure out what's going on. Anyway, the long and the short of it is this: FidoNet users can send mail to the Internet by sending normal netmail to the user UUCP, and then on the first line of the message, put the line: To: gl8f@virginia.edu To send email from the Internet to FidoNet, you take an address such as "Dale Webber at 1:105/55.0", and turn that into dale.weber@p0.f55.n105.z1.fidonet.org. Again, this is subject to the same caveats above about the gateway and the costs involved. From what I've gathered (but I haven't asked recently), they ask that you keep messages under 10k bytes and to only send two or three a day. This is a fairly small amount that would limit your ability to play Internet games, but you can still submit articles to this fanzine (hint, hint). If you want to avoid the limitations, yet don't know how to get directly on the Internet, I can mail you a list of public-access Unix sites with Internet email capabilities. Just send me a short note, using the above info, to "gl8f@virginia.edu", and I'll mail a copy back. ====================================================================== What's this "ftp" thing anyway? ====================================================================== ftp is an acronym for "file transfer protocol", and it is only directly available to the privileged few who are directly hooked to the Internet using heavy-duty hardware. There is a way to use ftp via email, and if you can get email to me, I will send you a document explaining how to use it, or send email to ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com, with an empty Subject: line, and the word "help" in the body of the message. ====================================================================== Archives and subscriptions by email ====================================================================== PBEM is archived at "ftp.erg.sri.com". I will also be setting up a mailing list to distribute this magazine, but keep in mind that it will be posted on a regular basis to at least Usenet and CompuServe, so if you're reading it now, you probably won't need to get on the mailing list to receive it in the future. ====================================================================== PBEM is published monthly. Please redistribute it far and wide, but do not modify or delete any articles. PLEASE CONTRIBUTE! Our focus is primarily on free wargames, but we're interested in articles about anything relevant.