How do YOU play the game?

[Norfleet]

Sandboxers are actually a kind of "foil" element in a multiplayer dynamic: While their lack of competitiveness basically assures that they won't win the ultimate victory, they exist, they can still potentially cause a lot of damage, and if you're in a game with other cutthroat players, the presence of these other people actually serves as a kind of foil: Launching an attack on them outright can be a mistake, since it leaves you open for attack by one of the other players, but ignoring them isn't necessarily a sound plan either, since they *DO* take up space, and could be potentially manipulated into opposing you directly or indirectly. As such, while unlikely to be the ultimate winner, they still play an important role in the game.

[Vicious Love]

On the one hand, I'm ALL sandbox, with a pail and little pLastic stars and lego blocks, awwwww yeah.
On the other hand, my IC pretender USUALLY plays to win. Consequently, I'm functionally identical to a gamer, but instead of seeing myself constantly selecting Groups of blood hunters and pressing Shift-Z, I envision the sci-fi/fantasy cliche of a bunch of haggard, world-weary, melodramatic politicians and generals sitting around a table, arguing about precisely how and why they are doomed, why they will not condone a course of action that will lead our people to war, and why the hobbit can't bloody well take the ring until he gains a few levels. Ah, good times.
On a related note, my favorite bit of the Last LARP I was at was near the endgame, when everyone was going to war, the Apocalypse was at hand, history was being made, and myself and the ruling class of my quasi-Italian mercantile faction convened and had A COMMITTEE, which Lasted well into the Final Battle and ended a few minutes before the world did.
I'm bringing this up because I have the sudden urge to let three or four idle turns pass each time something monumental happens and distracts the senate in my Pythium games. So, basically, I've just persuaded myself to disregard everything I said at the start of this post, about my IC Pretender playing to win. Solid.

[von_Schmidt]

ROTFL - fantastic post there, Vicious L.

You just earned yourself a few rating stars. ;-)


von Schmidt

[Tris]

Given that there are only two ways to ultimately survive the ascension wars

1) Don't be a pretender, and get lucky.
2) Be a pretender and win.

And that you are forced to play a pretender, playing for survival is the same as playing for victory.

I am Gamer +1. This is somewhat misleading, as I love the roleplaying side of things, and would also rate myself as Roleplayer +2 (in Dominions) but am competitive enough that I like playing to win.

I am not +2 or +3, as I will purposefully ignore certain strategies if I believe they will spoil the game for me or others.

Strangely, in traditional RPGs I am roleplayer +3. My character is more important than my stats, and than any viscereal (sp?) success I enjoy through his deeds.

[st.patrik]

hm, I'm unsure about these categories. I'm definitely a sandbox player in the sense that I don't like the 'feel' of certain nations/pretenders and thus don't tend to play them - for example, I wasn't particularly tempted (pre 2.12) to use a VQ pretender, even though I can see the game-play advantages, because I'm not that interested in playing a Vampire Queen.

On the other hand, enjoying the neat little things about each nation has only so much entertainment value. I won't really enjoy a SP game beyond the first few turns, because it's not an interesting challenge (it can be a challenge without being an interesting challenge). Seeing my archers mow down the hapless enemy troops who don't even try to change their strategy is only so satisfying.

I am interested in winning, and love the challenge of utilizing my forces in the most creative way I can (which isn't necessarily very creative) to try to beat the enemy. But on the other hand, I don't necessarily have much interest in certain "winning" strategies/combinations that I don't feel are in theme.

So I'm not a sandbox builder and not a gamer, rather someone who wants to win, but in the confines I choose for myself. And that's the challenging and fun part (at least for me).

[LintMan]

I'm not sure I fit on that gamer/sandboxer scale at all.

While I like challenge, and I want to win, neither of those is my absolute primary goal. (I only play SP). On the other hand, I don't really have a strong need to roleplay or stick to a theme.

Probably Wauthan's 4th kids is most similar to mine, though perhaps I'd be a 5th kid: He avoids the others as long as possible, building up a massive elaborate castle with every possible weapon and defense, up to and including strategic nukes. Only when provoked or there are no new "toys" left to research/build does he launch his attack and utterly decimate the other kids castles.

So my ultimate game fun is to expand and tech up to be able to access the coolest spells/items/summons/etc, and then unleash these against my opponents.

Usually, it's possible to win the game well before those top techs become available, but I don't push to win, so that I can get to play with all the cool toys. That's also why I never go for dpilomatic victories or vitory-point victories in games that allow those types of options. Winning with iron dragons are so much more fun than with trolls...

So I guess I'm one part sandboxer, one part gamer, and one part munchkin. Or maybe I'm all munchkin/min-maxer, depending on how you look at it.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by LintMan:
Probably Wauthan's 4th kids is most similar to mine, though perhaps I'd be a 5th kid: He avoids the others as long as possible, building up a massive elaborate castle with every possible weapon and defense, up to and including strategic nukes. Only when provoked or there are no new "toys" left to research/build does he launch his attack and utterly decimate the other kids castles.

Yeah, that sounds exactly like me. I was also the kid, who, as a child in said sand-castle wars, came up with the idea of embedding seashells and twigs as internal supports inside my castle to provide it with increased structural integrity. The resulting castle ended bearing little resemblance to a traditional castle, as I incorporated advanced features at the time such as sloped armor.

Clearly, my defensive mindset was already firmly in place as a child.

[ June 07, 2004, 20:20: Message edited by: Norfleet ]

[Starfighter08]

Originally posted by Wauthan:
If sandbox players are thematic roleplayers then I'm the fourth kid in Prince Megahertz example. The one hiding behind a rock out of fear that his carefully decorated sandcastle might get ruined by hurled rocks and stomping feet.

For some reason I have very little drive to actually win games. I just want to create something I find interesting and see if it works. If it's really competitive I tend to go for the quickest win possible just to get back to empire building. I think I'm running about 22 mods on Dominions now for the sole purpose that I want the game to reflect my vision on how the factions ougtho behave. If they ever make a Civilization spinoff from this game consider one copy sold already.

It's greatly annoying that noone seems to be interested in creating the ultimate game for a player like me. It would be something like a Dominions/Master of magic/Alpha Centauri hybrid. But the future seems to be all realtime 3D hackfest were the fastest and most focused tactics win all the time.

You could consider two copies of that hypothetical game sold. I've been waiting for something like MoM2 for ages.

Btw, I'm a sandbox player too.