A simulation game is always going to be stronger-themed than a family strategy game, but the family strategy game may still have good thematic strength at its own level. As an example, if we play a game where stock values rise and fall on the basis of the turn of a card this is still thematically strong because in the real market stocks rise and fall and people make and lose money on them. If we take another game where various tables are consulted and market influences determined, then players also have specialist knowledge of their own that other players are generally not privy to then the theme is similarly strong (perhaps a little stronger), but the simulative level runs deeper. I hope this doesn't seem like I am contradicting my earlier posts, because it shouldn't; a simulation will generally be stronger themed than a normal game however it does not necessarily follow that a game with simpler mechanisms lacks thematic strength merely because it lacks the same accuracy. Returning to the Settlers example, while I agree this is not thematically strong, I disagree that the distance rule is unrealistic. A city or town will exert a sphere of influence; the city or town token can be said to represent satellite villages as well that extend into this sphere. A level of abstraction from the simulative is necessary and does not necessarily detract from the theme. Where I believe Settlers lacks thematic strength more than anywhere else is the whole concept of settling. It is merely a building and trading game that can have any of umpteen settings, so thematic strength is absent. If the game was represented as a game about building things and extracting raw materials then I could use this as a guide for my strategy and everything would fit Roos' rule given above (which I think holds up quite well in certain cases), but as it stands I don't feel I am settling a newfound island at all; and to apply my knowledge of that theme would be no help in my strategy whatsoever. Back to Table of Contents -- Game! # 3 To Game! List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by George Phillies. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com