STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP (THE SEDG) (Sponsored by Flying Moose Technologies' Starweb Analyzer - http://www.accessv.com/~wulkan/fmt.html) VOL 14, August 30, 1999 CONTENTS Feature Article - Reflections of a Crusty Old Starweb Vet Questions - The highest Starweb Score! SEDG Web Page URL The Captain's Log - Gamesmanship - Some Random Ramblings Correspondence - 1 on 1 - An interesting private game. FEATURE ARTICLE Reflections of a Crusty Old Starweb Vet By Dave Smith (dmsmith001@aol.com) Well, I am only 44, which hardly puts me in the company of the late Ben Greene God rest his soul), but I have been playing Starweb with some degree of frequency for the last twenty years. I know it's been that long, because I was playing Starweb before I met Gary Schaefers, and when we first met face-to-face in 1981, his daughter Jessica was two, and I'd been playing for a couple of years. A couple of years ago I attended Jessica's high school graduation party. I asked Elliott if he wanted some words from someone who's been around a while. I've played Starweb consistently, taken time off, been burned out, and enjoyed it a ton. I remember the Old Guard, and have played with the New Guard. And I've seen the game change, not always for the best, IMO, but change over the years. I guess the saddest thing looking back, is that you never, ever can be a Starweb virgin again. My first game was in the 200's, and I was an Empire Builder. I still remember sweating out decisions on turn 2, and not even thinking about the wisdom of putting down two Pships on my best RM world, because, well, it was the best one I had. I still remember sitting in classes at Xavier University, wondering what turn 4 would bring. Do you remember those days? I remember sweating out what to say on that 3x5 card diplomatic message (do most of you even remember paper diplos?). Back then, of course, there wasn't email. You communicated by letter and phone, and the phone bills in those days could mount up. Luckily, I met a guy who'd played before, a berserker from Lowell, Massachusetts, and he helped me along. I finished that first game with a 600 rating; not bad for a rookie EB. In my second game, I met Steve Parrish. Steve was a chemical engineering student at Colorado, and wise beyond his years (actually he's younger than I am, but when you're both over 40, who cares?). And we engineered my / our first stab (though it was indeed deserved, as I remember it now). It was against a guy named Dennis Trump, and we took out his home world. He was a jerk of epic proportions, and God I'm hoping he doesn't read this! Steve, if he ever gets back into a regular game, will share the berserker top rating, because he had a 1,000 rating at the time he dropped off the ratings. But Steve was the absolute best strategist I've ever seen. Steve introduced me to Gary Schaefers, with whom he'd played. Gary and I had the luxury of living five hours away from each other, and have had the good fortune to be together quite a number of times. Gary's the damnedest negotiator I've ever me; he can weasel his way out of any predicament, and rationalize any stance at any time. Madeline Albright should resign her job as USA Secretary of State right now. I ought to tell a story here. Sometime in the 80's, FBI had a mini- convention in Philadelphia. I drove and picked up Gary, and Steve flew into Philly. We decided to play two positions between us, and decided we didn't care about points. We were simply going to be wild cards. Well, everything was on target until we sat down in the meeting room, and Gary saw the four-foot tall trophy. Steve and I were gone, out of the picture, as Gary began negotiating. Steve and I split a position (a pirate we named Beer), and spent the weekend smuggling in our namesake and getting looped while being jerks. Pirate jerks, that is. Gary didn't win, by the way. But eventually, sometime in the late 80's or so, I kind of burned out. I was tired of the college and high school kids (well, they were) calling up at 11:00 at night, prattling on about "spheres of influence," "mutual borders," and the like. I had my legacy made, to tell the truth; my overall rating was in the top ten, with top tens in several individual categories. I'd even played with, and befriended, Larry Rodin -- and those of you who know Larry understand that's not something everyone can say. I was tired of diplomacy. I was tired of idiots. And I hit on the idea of a second account number -- one with which I don't care about scoring. So if you see "David M. Smith" in the ratings, that's my alter ego. The pirate who doesn't plunder. The merchant who doesn't haul for others if he doesn't want to (who uses the extra early builds to go stomp a mud hole in someone). I try not to back stab; I'll leave that to those who have to score points. So I've played that other account number a fair bit the last few years. Want to be a wild card in a game? Don't care what happens? Mayhaps this is for you. I've grown up over the years. No, really. I don't run around writing articles about how to be "The World's Greatest Empire Builder," or other such nonsense. I'm kind of a cross between Steve and Gary. I'm technically pretty sound, but I simply don't live and breathe this stuff anymore. Or as much as I did. Well, if I ever did. I've also mellowed out some. Piss me off? That's ok, but don't turn your back. I've also come to understand the role of patience. You may get me today, but there's always tomorrow. And the turkeys that live and breathe Starweb today, well, watching their back for me could be a problem. Especially if I'm playing that account for which a score doesn't matter (insert evil grin here). Upon reflection, I'm not so sure that email, and instant transmittal of turn sheets, and a dozen messages a day is such a Good Thing. Now the only thing that arrives in the mailbox is junk mail and bills. But at least my wife doesn't see the letters and turn sheets anymore . . . ----------------------------------------------------------------------- QUESTIONS - Can anyone answer these? From last issue - Can you believe it - no new questions? So I have one to tease you with. What is (? was) the highest score seen in Starweb? Watch out this one is a trick question. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP - is now available on the web. Look for our new MAPPER'S SECTION on the SEDG Web Page. http://www.accessv.com/~somnos/sedg.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FEATURE - THE CAPTAIN'S LOG 990821.1009-4 By Walt Schmidt walts@dorsai.org "One of life's primal situations; the game of hide and seek. Oh, the delicious thrill of hiding while the others come looking for you, the delicious terror of being discovered, but what panic when, after a long search, the others abandon you! You mustn't hide too well. You mustn't be too good at the game. The player must never be bigger than the game itself." - Jean Baudrillard Gamesmanship - Some Random Ramblings "You scratch my back, and I'll let you scratch my back, again." - I recently received a contact-request that stated due to economics, no email or fax - just snail-mail and telephone calls. Telephone calls? Now I presume that meant incoming phone calls only. I mean if you think about it, if the author was willing to call you in return, then why not other forms of eComs? After I thought about it for a while - I included an eMessage with my turn saying in so many words that it looked like we would be using game-messages. By the way, for those who haven't tried it - submitting turns via eMail includes the nifty commands: MSG, AMSG and EVERYONE. "This is a great diplomacy game, but I don't do messages." Huh?!? I have never understood players in a non-anonymous game who don't respond. Hell, even a lazy SOB like myself [AH, you admit it!] [Good Morning Alter, it's good to see you are as reliable as always in your approach to communications] understands the benefit of the SIGN command. You meet someone for the first time - you fire off a short message it's axiomatic. If you don't want to do the minimal of correspondence, then join anonymous games. Sheesh... "Oops Part I - I really did mean to leave your world." This message is especially effective when in addition to not leaving (as you promised you would in a previous turn) you also somehow accidentally had four other of your keys show up at the world you had meant to leave. Dah! Gee - you must really be having trouble with your orders. Can you say JIHAD? "Oops Part II - The gift didn't work?" And there is a part III, IV, ad infinitum! I guess the thought here is to give the big lie (as in - let's work together) one more try. But I always wonder - does the issuer of an Oops really think the player to whom the message was sent - will buy into it? Or, is it just sent - 'cause, why not! "Gee, I've never played this position before." Or its corollary "Gee, I haven't played in too many games." You don't see this one all that often anymore. Any of us can go online and look at the game-stats listing the Loomis provides. There, low and behold , you can see that your fellow gamer has played in more games than there are days in a month! I guess this is a distant cousin to the Oops. I mean, they figure - if you're gullible enough... "The Response - Sure, good idea, let's work together." Ooookay. So if you did want to REALLY work together, I would have thought you would have given me a little to work with. To this form of gamesmanship I usually respond with a "Great, now we are a team," or something like that. While in the meantime I presume my fellow gamester is out for my blood. In fact, playing me for a fool is one sure way of getting my life's work (as far as that particular game is concerned) to be seeing how many new and creative ways I can assist in making your score a negative one! "Okay - here's what I suggest...and to show good-faith, I've just..." Ah - a true games man [NEMO, is there a particular reason you don't say gamespersonship or games person?] [Yes]. So from here on we start/continue to work together. Now as Mr. Eastwood once said" "That doesn't mean we're gotta swap spit in a shower." And I never forget the words of Sun Tzu: "Keep you friends close - but your enemies closer!" But what it does mean is I am obviously working with a fellow true- spirited gamer - who isn't trying to insult my intelligence. And if (s)he [satisfied Alter?] [IT'S a beginning...] happens to get the better of me - there's always the next game! As one last comment about gamesmanship, let me refer us all to General Colin Powell's - someone who clearly knows more than just a little about playing real-life war-games - Ten Rules: 1. It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning. 2. Get mad, then get over it. 3. Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it. 4. It can be done! 5. Be careful what you choose. You may get it. 6. Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision. 7. You can't make someone else's choices. You shouldn't let someone else make yours. 8. Check small things. 9. Share credit. 10. Remain calm. Be kind. ...and, of course - Shai Dorsai ! Nemo ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CORRESPONDENCE Remember in Volume 13, Michael Hammerschmitt asked for a player to join him in a 2-player SW game. Well, he has found his opponent Gary Schaefers. Here is the premise for their unique game. Gentlemen, I expect a full account of the game from both your viewpoints for the SEDG. LEE or CHUCK (or whomever) , 19 AUG 1999 I would like to play in a PRIVATE STARWEB game. This would be a 2 player game. Each player would have seven (7) positions. Our requirement is that each player have the 6 Character types and duplicate one type for his 7th character. The game will end when one character goes over 10,000 points. The player's score will then be the lowest score of his 7 positions. Micc gives an example in his MSG to me, which is copied below. I agree with MICC that we either have flexible due dates being at least 4 weeks, or an open-ended due date. In any case, we do NOT want the turn processed if either player has not submitted orders. Further, I understand it is a FBI policy to run a game as soon as possible after all (both, in this case) turns are in. Micc and I will let each other know when we submit orders to FBI as a courtesy and as a reminder to the other player. ( ... to get his butt in gear and submit orders. ) We further agree that the map should be basically an easily mappable(sic) version. A 2-dimension hex, the "block of bricks", the rectangular...you have the idea. We will let you know when the game is over if you do not want to police our victory conditions. All characters on a team should be ALLY/LOADER to begin the game. I agree with MICC's sentiments that FBI should give us a nice price for our turns. (heck - with my 2 accounts: 4356 and 5854 and all the private and non-rated games, I should be in the area of 100 SW games) As the game is to be strictly EMAIL, that should cut costs for you a little. My game information: NAME : GARY J. SCHAEFERS CODE NAMES = CHARACTER TYPE GINGER = MERCHANT HONEY = MERCHANT JESSICA = APOSTLE JACKIELEE = BERSERKER LINDA = COLLECTOR ME = EMPIRE BUILDER ZIPPY = PIRATE ============================== Date: 19-Aug-99 12:16 EDT From: Mic Hammerschmitt > micc Subj: Starweb Hi Gary - hiho, hiho - sounds great!! Two veterans in a 1-on-1-game! Agree with all of your proposals. Since my English isn't the best - let me repeat the winning-conditions: the game ends if one or more characters (out of all 14) come to 10,000 or more. The winner is the player with the "highest-low"-score, like in a multi-game. For example: Player A: #1=5678 pts, #2=7658 pts, #3=9886 pts, #4=4436 pts, #5=10015 pts, #6=7777pts, #7=5138 pts. Player B: #1=6758 pts, #2=4438 pts, #3=7658 pts, #4=6578 pts, #5=9956 pts, #6=7656 pts, #7=9998 pts. So the game is finished, because player A came to 10015 pts with character #5. Player B has won the game, because his lowest character #2 has 4438 pts. Is this right? We should ask FBI for an "easy-map", not for a "spaghetti-pattern" - what do you think? Turns by eMail. I don't know the price per turn for such a game - maybe FBI gives us a "veterans-discount" :-))). Very good - no due date - as you say we should notify each other of when we're sending in our turns. We should have about 4 weeks or so in eye - no problem if there are turns with 2 weeks or 6 weeks - due how busy we are. My data: Michael Hammerschmitt 2-players-game eMail teamname: Honkytonk The characters: PAULINE = PIRATE AYATOLLAH = APOSTLE BUBBLEGUM = BERSERKER MARILYN = MERCHANT MONROE = MERCHANT COCONUT = COLLECTOR EIGHTBALL = EMPIRE BUILDER Well, that's it for Volume 14. Don't be afraid to submit articles or suggestions. They don't have to be long. I am still very interested in articles on different SW game variants such as bitter end, anonymous, private variants and multi games. Address your correspondence to Elliot Hudes at somnos@compuserve.com