For those who should now renew their subscriptions (if your name is followed by a "6" on the mailing label) we have included a suney of our first volume. Please return these by November 20. They will be used to help determine policy and direction in the second volume. Please note the increased size and staff of Conflict. Also, there are two games published with this issue. We will provide such extra materials as they become available and are applicable to the issue. This increase in size has caused a corresponding increase in weight, and we must raise the subscription price to overseas readers to $10.50 for six issues. While it has taken 17 months to publish one volume, instead of the 12 we would have preferred to have finished it in, the increased size and quality of Conflict hopefully has made up for this time lag. Our goals for the next volume of Conflict are: 1) Establish a regular bi-monthly schedule; 2) Publish several new boxed games; 3) Continually upgrade and refine the quality of Conflict; and 4) Produce new publications and products related to militaria and wargaming. Your subscriptions, support, and contributions will make all of this possible. Thank you for your patience and understanding. GO CRT YOUR WEC If there is one major complaint today it is the lack of communication between generations, races, sexes, and classes. Or rather, peoples' inability to communicate with one another. And if communications were not already difficult enough, game designers seem to want to make it impossible. A pop artist shows his friends his latest bit of "creativity." His art-friends rave about the new design, but the average man on the street cannot understand it, so it sits in the gallery unsold. A game company publishes another "new" simulation. The hard-core playtesters and designers admire and rave about its innovations and "improvements." After the average game player buys the game, he finds it unplayable, or unbalanced, or unchallenging, and it collects dust on a shelf from that point on. There is a definite lack of communication here. Are the game designers today making simulations they want to play, or games the game players want to play? Even some companies' most ardent admirers have to reach far to justify such complicated game designs. A classic example must be the gamer who couldn't get anyone to play these simulations with him, but wrote ". . . all of these games are good. Even the ones I don't like are good" And if they weren't so "good," why would he have purchased so many of them? We game designers/publishers face the possibility of alienating the game players. Rather than communicate, it becomes more "professional" to develop a specialized jargon meant especially for one's games. "7.54" or "Level 2" may mean something to somebody, but no two people will have the same picture of what it is supposed to mean. "TET" and "WEC" may sound imposing, but to the average game player this abbreviated newspeak is gibberish. Whatever happened to words like "simple" or "very complex" for game ratings and design? Rather than get wrapped up in ourselves and our designs, it's about time we communicated again with the game players. Game players want to enjoy the simulations they play. As an intellectual exercise, or serious pastime, games are useless unless they are played. And what is "playable" to an experienced wargamer may be impossible for the novice. Game design is complex. Why complicate it further, either for the designers or the players? There are only so many "new" innovations that can incorporated in a wargame. We designers are all working upon basic ideas established long ago. In the quest for "unique" concepts and innovation, many designers forget the basic fact that someone else has to play their game. And if a designer cannot communicate these "basics" so another person can play the game, all the innovations in the world will not save the simulation. Conflict is attempting to present a variety of games and levels of complexity. This means games such as NORAD (issue four) for the novice or just for fun. Or Khalkhin-Gol (issue five) and Dien Bien Phu and Battle for Hue (this issue) for the more experienced wargamer. And even Assassin! (issue three) type games for the science-fiction fan. Variants and "Expansion Kits" will be added from time to time to maintain interest in "old" designs. But to make sure Conflict continues presenting simulations for game players, you also have to communicate with us. Back to Conflict Number 6 Table of Contents Back to Conflict List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1973 by Dana Lombardy This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com