I focus on actually running games rather than just talking about them because that is the real ritual of our hobby. There are many things we do to support that ritual (write newsletters, hold meetings, banquets, and write rules) but without games there is no point to it. What is involved in running a game? First, one has to have the rules and props to represent flow of action and show it with an economy of effort. Next, one needs players. Then a way for players to communicate their intentions and to learn what results. And lastly a place to debrief - to discuss what the game taught or what was fun. Games are notorious as art. They happen - like a play - and then are over. If you weren’t there, you can never experience it. A performance art piece. Which makes it difficult for non-gamers to take us seriously. They don’t know what we do and think it foolish. Yet people are very open to computer games. Curious? Maybe an open door… Angles on using web pages in gaming attach to one of the above functions. I’ll deal with each function in turn. 1. Rules: The Internet is awash with rules to wargames. I think that in the future most amateur games will be published and distributed in this way. Since we amateurs are not really concerned with money (I have a day job, thank you very much) and since web pages essentially take away the cost of printing and mailing, rules pages will proliferate. Unfortunately they will likely be unfindable. Rules can only reach people when there is a good links nexus (like what I want the Matrix Game Nexus to do) that make it easy to find. This will develop and I predict will be the trend of the future. 2. Props: I have bought many games for good maps or background information. I’ve also bought a ton of toy soldiers. My game scenarios include pages of written info on characters, lists of forces and maps. Till now these have had to be in books. Costly to print - difficult to sell. My old efforts looked very amateurish. Web pages allow one to put out pretty nice looking stuff - pictures and text - so that anyone who wants to look can find a nice game ready to play. 3. Finding players: This is a hard task. One can put up a web page with a game scenario and lo… gamers do NOT flock to one’s door! If people can’t find a site then they do not know about the game. Game get found when they link up to other game pages. I’ve found lots of wargame sites (Web Gronards, Wargame Developments, and various HMGS pages) but not found them leading to games very well. There is a PBEM central page that I like that acts as a clearing house for new PBEMs. But I think a lot of special interest gaming happens on lists. The Matrix Gamer list (that distributes this newsletter) is a prime example of a email list that allows people to advertise and play games online. Friends of mine belong to DBA lists, Command Decision lists and Volley and Bayonet lists. The local club where I live uses a list to decide what games to play next week. The trouble with lists is that they can only handle a small number of active participants before they break down from too much input (imagine a 100 person list where everyone sent in one message a day? 100 messages a day - Don’t not check you mail for a week!). Which is where nexus web pages come in. Links pages can act as a series of filters, which select out the mass of input to that which you alone are interested in. I don’t see this really existing now (at least for wargames) but it would be fun if it did. What prevents us from creating the integration I’ve suggested above? Well, partly it is lack of technical skill. There are too many of use noodle head - technophobes out there who resist out of fear. Then there are the proprietary interests. If I am selling my games, I don’t want to link up with others due to competition. A foolish notion really (just look at Middle Eastern markets - sellers of carpets join up on one street. People learn that is the carpet seller’s street and make a point of going there if they want a carpet!) Lastly, it will take a few dedicated people to set up the pinnacle of the latter and the next two or three levels of filters and maintain them. This will be a lot of work and should probably be done as a business (maybe some gamer who wants to set up a dot com can do this). The company should not be a game seller since that brings in the proprietary element again. Maybe if they charged a small fee (say a buck a year) to list a page. That would do it. Anyway, its an idea that could work. 4. Communicating intentions and getting results: Game are played by the exchange of information. That information may be recorded in words (as in Matrix Games), in numbers (as in RPG character statistics), or even in the location and facing of troops (as in miniatures games). Right now people play “Play By E-Mail” PBEM games. This works (especially for MGs) but is not the only way. I think we have ignored the potential for giving turn result feedback using web pages. This would work with a opening page that describes the scenario that linked to turn result pages. Players could literally click to the page they wanted to see the turns results. This has the added advantage of remaining on the internet for some time - acting as a magnet for future gamers surfing the next looking for a game. They can read old games and get the experience of actual play without have to play. So the page serves to run the game and defacto advertise gaming to future players. As before this is not an idea that is well explored (at least by me!) 5. Debriefing: When I go to the local club we always sit around and dissect the game after it is done. But then when people go home they jump on the club email list and write up their thoughts. These sharings lead to rules changes - incorporated in future games. The Matrix Game list is another example of a place where ideas are discussed. I realize that many people are reticent about writing on the internet - for fear that their ideas will be stolen. This is a valid concern. BUT since our ideas largely have no real financial value, why not write about them!!! Lists are very good at this. Newsletters (like the Matrix Gamer) can pull the best ideas from lists (ie filter them) to present to a larger public (via a magzine web page like Mag Web). Information flows up and down the pyramid from gamers to writers. Is this just selling out to computer video games? I think not. By their very nature, video games have us beat hands down for glitz and marketability. But that does not mean that we have to abandon the electronic media to them! We have something to say. Something a little more traditional perhaps, but a message none the less. We just have to figure out how to deliver it. Back to Table of Contents -- Matrix Gamer #23 To Matrix Gamer List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by Chris Engle. 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