Just sending this out to see if people would be interested in taking part in this kind of an event, I have pasted in my original note to Clint with his response to it. Have already sounded out team mates in a game I am playing, some think it is not feasible others like the idea and would be willing to take part, any thoughts on the concept?
Matt Anderson
It’s possible - if you want to get players to do this I’d advise getting an
article for Bree so that it can start the discussion rolling. With FTF
events we get around a turn every hour and a half. It’s hard work keeping
that all together - I don’t think you’ve ever been to one - well worth a try.
The only problem for us is that we’d have to work on the w/end as this
would be the only time we could get it organised for people.
Clint
At 14:22 27/04/04, you wrote:
>Hi
>
>Just sounding you out on a version of ME I have thought of and wether it
>would be feasible or not to do it.
>The idea is for an online version of a face to face event, with a short 1
>or 2 hour turnaround(not sure how long you would need to process a turn?),
>run for a set number of turns over a set number of days(possibly a weekend
>when players are likely to have the time availabe). I would think the
>gunboat style of play either running single or dual nations would suit this
>best, as with limited time between turns there would not be time for
>communication.
>Perhaps paying a fee to participate in the event rather than on a turn
>basis would best suit this idea?
>
>Probably a daft idea but I thought I would see your thoughts on the
>concept.
If you are dependant on e-mail this can take over an hour to get to the reciepient. This could destroy the game because people missed turns. The best solution would be to have a server where people can download turns once harley had up loaded them. Do we have the technology to do this?
Not trying to put a spanner in the works because I like the idea.
Originally posted by John Simpson The best solution would be to have a server where people can download turns once harley had up loaded them.
And for players to upload their turn files. Should be technoligically doable, excepting the administration labour on MEGames end.
What they “should” be working on is an internet interface where I log in with my account number and am live on “their” computer (I’m not a techno lingo freak…) where I can input orders and access my turns, etc. Type of thing was discussed (years ago? it seems…) in regards to running 1 hour turnaround internet games. AND - if the game set up was automated and turns input via a MEOW or somesuch on the same computer network, ideally it would be set up to run human free. 1 hour turnaround, 24/7 for very low fees… I can see this being a goal once the code is owned by the company.
Yea, its definitely a technologically feasible thing. However, it does start to open up the system at large to game hacking which could be quite destructive. With what I expect the existing MEOW/xml infrastructure must be its probably pretty in reach. Once you are computer generating MEOW/xml to feed into another program that in turn outputs the stuff into MEOW/xml you are 90% of the way to full automation. Then again who knows what oddities are held over from the days of post and pen.
It’s something we might look into in the future. We’re looking at getting our own server with passwords for players to get turns sent to - means less emails going missing/delayed and are generally safe.
How about doing this (one time event, not long-term solution) with two Yahoo groups.
Let’s assume we get 24 people, divided into two 12 person teams. MEGames creates the groups and invites the players (yes, you’d have to create a yahoo account to play). One group FP, one DS.
Get this all set up at least a week before the event.
The rules would be that you have 1 hour to get orders in after your team’s last turn is uploaded. You get your turns in by uploading them back to the Yahoo group. Oh, and you’d have to use MEOW files.
Assuming a half hour for MEGames to download the files, run the turns, then upload all the files, then it would be about an hour and a half like at the real FTF games. Assuming 6 hours on Friday and 12 hours on Saturday and Sunday, we should be able to get 20 turns in over the weekend.
Biggest problem may be the time difference between various locations. If we start at 6:00 PM Firday (GMT), it would be 11:00AM for me here in Pacific Time. If we wait until us USA, left coasters get home from work (6:00 PM) it would already be 1:00AM Saturday morning in England. Even limiting it to just USA players would be tough on MEGames as they’d be working all night.
Second biggest problem would be cash. I know it would be tough for me to drop $160 on a weekend of MEPBM. Heck, I just renewed my Disneyland annual pass for only $145. But, if we could bet 1/2 or 2/3rds price for this special event… Say $75-100 for the event… That would be in the neighborhood of $2K… I might work all night on a weekend for $2k… Heck, when I was in the Navy I did it for A LOT less.
Looks like some good ideas, are people actually prepared to put their names forward to participate in such an event? BOFA might be a good test venue for it as you would only need five people to take part, not sure if Clint could justify running a BOFA game in this way though? Best way forward might be to arrange a date for the event and what format it would take, then if enough people sign up for it then it goes ahead, if not then the idea gets scrapped.
What about using something like Sametime Connect, where you can add the e-mail addresses of your team mates. You would then be able to send near instant text messages via popup screens, telling each other results and enabling limited communication to formulate plans for the coming turn?
We’re working on a server and possibly a chat room for this sort of thing.
I’d want to try a small game with it first to see that that logistics are correct. With the normal FTF event I’ve found that we can be 2-3 times as efficient with the practice that we’ve had and provide a better game etc (well you get the picture )
Having a GM assist is one biggy - if everyone is elsewhere in the world then it’s going to be hard to do that and players will not get turns in or crash from exhaustion - and emailing bits back and fore will slow down turnaround a lot so that’s something to consider.
I’m swamped at present so can’t do this yet but early June I’ll look at this and other potential development aspects. Happy to discuss it more though here so that we can flesh out some of the bones of it you want.
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