Re: virus: Virian Tarot

Jason McVean (jmcvean@acs.ucalgary.ca)
Mon, 30 Sep 96 12:28:50 MDT


Martin Traynor wrote:
> Good concept, but please don't allow it to become what 'Magic' is; a
> game where how much you can afford to spend on the cards influences
> your capabilities in the game.

Admittedly, I haven't played the game that much but I did play
with some people who had way more cards than me and never found I
was completely out-classed. I suppose I had to stick to more
basic strategies for lack of really rare cards but I rarely
encountered super-instant-death combinations that worked
reliably. Perhaps that's what really needs to be avoided for the
game to remain fun.

I say this because the size of the deck is crucial to the success
of the game. You never know what is going to happen next,
particularly with new cards being created all the time. Also, the
very idea of memetics is open-ended (i.e, there is no complete
set of memes) so to lose that aspect of the game would be unfortunate.

A few questions/ideas to toss out:
What would be the underlying goal? In Magic it is to kill your
opponent by inflicting damage. In Virian Magic (needs a name)
would it be to have the most successful memes? Or does a player
represent a single meme and s/he is trying to become more
successful than competing memes from other players through
various propagation techniques? Memes can be symbiotic,
parasitic, mutually exclusive or not... These ideas would
obviously need to be included.
Just rambling...

Jason

-- 
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Dept. of Physics and Astronomy            University of Calgary         
jmcvean@acs.ucalgary.ca         http://www.ucalgary.ca/~jmcvean

"All my life I've been waiting, and watching, and waiting for flesh that smells familiar." Sara Craig - Thank You (Very Much) ---------------------------------------------------------------