Re: the Great game was Re: A new power to deal with, The New Con

Thomas spake thusly upon matters weighty: 
> senior members of the list who don't mind being neutral - to keep
track of
> things and generally administer (they'd be the UN). everyone else who
> wanted in would become national officers - admirals or grand admirals.

The UN is only partially neutral. The UN could actually be involved 
in some of these conflicts...
 
> we'd use a big map / astrographic database, using Nyrath the Entirely
> Indispensable's data.

Nearly? No nearly in my books.

 the grand admirals would move fleets about in space
> and use some sort of campaign system (must be quite simple), and
battles
> would be resolved by two players meeting up somewhere in realspace and
> playing a game.

Or over netspace via something like what Jon D used for some PBEM.
 
> obviously, we couldn't use a fixed mapping of admirals to players - if
> Grand Admiral Schoonmacher deploys Admiral Martin's 7th Deep Space
Fleet
> to the Xen sector to engage Admiral Barclay's 22nd Colonial task
Force, we
> can't expect Andrew to up sticks and move to Canada. not unless GZG is
 
> willing to pay the air fares :-).

Plus we'd have to decide he'd meet the minimum requirements. 

Canada Customs: "Do you have anything to declare?"
Schoon: "Yes, the entire Eurasian Solar Union 4th Solar War 
Battlefleet."
Canada Customs: "That'll be $3,200,000 Canadian in duty. Plus we'll 
require safety inspections worth another $1,800,000. However, as you 
are a foreigner, we will allow you to pay in foreign currency. That 
will be about $20.00 US please. Have a nice day, and enjoy your stay 
in the Great White North. Next!"

> basically, there would always be a list of actions which have to be
> fought, and players would either volunteer to fight them, or be
assigned
> them on a rota basis, or something. alternatively, all the big fights
> could take place at cons; this whole thing wouldn't have to run
quickly -
> if we can keep it going until 2005, that'd be fine. play the war in
> realtime!

That would be fun. Run a turn a month. Then say a month had passed in 
the wars. 
 
> the whole shebang would depend entirely on electronic communications,
but
> i don't see that as a problem. we could always set up post-to-mail
> gateways (eg, if someone in the uk plays a battle, they could send me
a 
> postcard with the result and i'd upload it).

Sensible. 
 
> the business case is pretty robust - if players know that their
actions
> affect the course of history - even if they are only commanders of a
> sector fleet - then they will be hooked.

Sure. 
 
> it would certainly take some work to set up - agreeing some campaign
> rules, setting up the scenario, picking UN and national officers,
making
> the list of gamers, sorting out the strategic play procedure, etc. it
> would also take a pretty scary commitment, but i think we could
minimise
> the impact by making it a very low-intensity war; maybe if 20 - 33 %
of
> all battles played by listers were Great Game ones, that would provide
> enough speed. in fact, that might make for a ridiculously fast war,
now i
> come to think of it.

And, add to which, you'd want to make sure you were overstaffed with 
players to cover dropouts and people who can't make a particular 
event.
 
> we could always rotate people - if a grand admiral can't commit the
time
> to command a nation, he can resign (or take some leave) and have one
of
> his subordinates take over. regular players could join or leave the
Great
> Game register at any time. if the regsiter ever got below some
critical
> level, the Game could be suspended - the war has ground to a stalemate
for
> a while.

Now that is interesting. And the minor powers could even put in brief 
appearances in scenarios.
 
> i think that's a bit excessive - too much would be dependent on the
turn
> of one or two battles. my model has no one player in a position to
change
> history (provided the campaign game made decisive strategic strikes
hard).

Sure. But there are always focal points where you get the "TSN 
Turning Point" to steal a sports idea. 
 
> why would it never happen? my way, which would inevitably end up with
a
> generic big fight with no winners, is safe to plug into the future
> history. the only people we need to kick into motion to do this are us
-
> the future is in our hands, and we have the technology (dammit, i've
> always wanted to say that!)!

He's mad! Oh, wait. That's redundant. He's a Tom. 
 
 
/************************************************
Thomas Barclay		     
Voice: (613) 831-2018 x 4009
Fax: (613) 831-8255

 "C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot.  C++ makes
 it harder, but when you do, it blows away your whole leg."
 -Bjarne Stroustrup
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