RE: Simple is good

Tom Sullivan [mailto:starkfist@hotmail.com] wrote:

> >As a friend of mine once put it: "When I am gaming, I want to be 
> >spending my time thinking about the game, not about the rules."

   Yes I agree completly.  In my mind the rules exits as a mechanism
by which the game is presented much like the board and pieces do.  I
don't want to play so that I try to be able to use rule 100.10.9.a.x
which allows me to blow away half of the opponents units.  Rather, I'd
like to think in terms of "can I get my men across that open space so
that they flank his units on the left?"  IMHO good rules lead one to
not think about the rules but about the situation on the table.  As
you can probably guess, I don't play Star Fleet Battles for this reason.

    It is not just an issue of avoiding complexity.  Rather it is a
question of where the complexity lies.	I rather have simple rules
and complex decisions to make during the game.

    Of course, there are a few games where the whole point is the the
rules of the game, Mao is one such card game.  But these are whole
different kettle of fish.a

Owen Glover <oglover@mov.vic.gov.au> wrote:

> Mind you some really simple board games can really start the
migraines;
> RISK for example!!

    Then there is my favourite game GO.  The rules are very simple, yet
the tactical and strategic situations are very complex.

    I think we're preaching to the choir here.	Maybe if we take this
thread
to rec.games.board or the cosim mailing we'd get a real arguments going.
:-)

Enjoy,
Tom Granvold				<thomas.granvold@eng.sun.com>