Hi everyone,
I would like your opinion about a matter, which has been the subject of a long discussion between me and a GM, and concerns whether ME PBM should correct a specific typo made by a player after the turn’s processing.
The situation is like this: I play a Gunboat game. While writing down my orders, and due to sleepiness after a long, working day, I did the mistake of issuing a 615 (assassinate) order instead of 610 (guard). Even though I rechecked the orders, and used the “order chacker” of Overseer, this typo slipped (Overseer does not warn you in this case, even though it warns you in much simplier cases). As a result, I had an agent of mine assassinate my highest agent in the game in a very crucial moment, ruining the game’s balance and its enjoyment. Since correcting that typo would have no impact in the game’s balance (I killed my own char, there were no other characters in the hex issuing any orders related to my agent, etc.), I asked and begged for a post-turn’s processing correction of the mistake. My arguments were the following:
- During the last years all the ME PBM players use Overseer, which provides services that the company felt they should be provided in order to facilitate the players’ lives and make the game more enjoyable. One of those services, and surely one of the most important ones, is the “order checker” which warns players for typos in their turns. This feature is considered to be so important by ME PBM, that if I try to send my turn before it is checked by OC, a warning is given by the program. The way the OC works is that it points out and warns you about typos or possible typos be using as a logic the usual pattern of moves. For instance, if I try to recruit 200 HI in a major town, I will get a message that I can recruit more, maybe I want to? If I try to assassinate a character that is not reported in the hex, I will get a message that he’s not there, maybe I’m wrong? And if I issue a “recruit HC” order, Overseer will ask me whether I do have the needed leather and mounts, in case I typed the number of recruits wrong. All the above examples (and there are many more) have nothing to do with certain typos, they are “personal calls” or possible typos. Maybe I want to recruit only 200 HI because of my maintenance issues, and maybe I am risking wasting an assassination order just because I am guessing that the enemy char is present. Also, maybe I’m recruiting more HC than possible with the current leather and mounts stores, because I am planning on buying some before the 400 order. So, maybe I’m making a typo, and maybe I’m making a call. In any case, I am warned about them by the program, because they could be typos.
The GM review of orders system provided by the house rules, as well as the warning system of Overseer (even in cases like the recruitment example, which almost always is a judgment call of the player), show that the policy and ethics of ME PBM is to prevent typos and honest mistakes to be a factor in the strategy game, ruining the game experience and the game’s balance. ME PBM does not want players who have the time to check their orders 100 times to have an advantage over those that have the time to check them only once, just right before bed, after a full day’s work, that’s why the “order checker” exists. That is commendable, since this is a strategy game, and… well, a game!
In my case this policy and protection didn’t work, because Overseer doesn’t warn of an an almost obvious typo like assassinating your own char, even though it warns against possible typos which - in most cases - are not typos but players’ choices, like the examples I mentioned above. Moreover, the GM warning system didn’t work either (and I’m talking about a simple “heads up” like “are you sure you want to kill your 150 agent?”, not making judgments and changing the order in the player’s stead).
In the above argument the GM replied to me that “those players who put more time and effort into their turns should (and will) have an advantage over those that do their orders at the last minute, that’s just the effect of putting in more time with the turns.”
- Correcting this obvious typo, against which Overseer does not protect the player, would in no way upset the balance of the game or require a major effort. Indeed, “resurrecting” my assassinated agent would not affect the orders of any other player, it would not give me an strategic advantage against the opponents, it would not negate any of their orders or reward any of mine. Therefore, in my opinion the typo’s correction cost is minimal compared to the mistake’s seriousness and impact on the game’s balance. In other words, correcting the mistake would be in accordance with the fair play principle, the good faith principle, and the balance of the game, which is now going to be disrupted because of a silly typo and not because of strategic moves. To this argument the GM replied that “I’ve seen players kill their entire nations by mistake but we also don’t intefere there if it’s their mistake. Our standard policy that we apply across the board is that if we make the typo we will correct it but if you make the typo we won’t”.
Please note that, contrary to the example of reviving a nation destroyed by a typo, reviving a character in my specific situation would have no impact to the normal course of the game for all the other players.
Following the above replies, the GM denied to correct the typo, and also rejected my suggestions to either put the question to vote among the other players or ask another GM for his/her opinion.
Since there is nothing else to be done, I just wanted to hear from you and listen to your opinion about whether the 615 order instead of 610 order with a friendly character is a possible typo that requires a warning or not, whether the fact that Overseer does not consider it a possible mistake is right, and whether you believe that in the case I described the good faith and fair play principles would require for my typo to be corrected.
Thanks to everyone for any opinion she/he writed down 
Kind regards,
Manolis
