Game Mechanics-EG, War, War, Economy?

Day 1,550, 00:06 • Published in USA USA • by Aren Perry

Hey Everybody,

Welcome to the War Horse, 'think about it' again.


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Today I bring to the forefront a reality which we have all known for a long time.

Besides war (and a little politics, granted), there is nothing truly left to this game in its mechanics. There are things that happen- player created things, funny articles, artifacts of conversations or personal interactions of various types... but within all the buttons we click on a given day.



There is only one purpose-War








Just think about it. Without wars, this would be an even more terribly boring game.




Run for Presidential office? On what campaign? Nobody is fighting us. Perhaps the guy with the cooler photos will win, or who spends more time on irc.


Work for your companies? Why? Stockpiling more weapons and food-for war. Sell them? To who? Who wants excess if there was no war.



This has always been true to some level. Even back when there wasn't mega-overproduction before the Admins who never probably even read my solutions I presented created more overproduction-all goods had a singular reason to be bought.




We used to have something that is missing, though...




An Economy




Let me explain, all ye who have forgotten and ye young newer players.


Back when we didn't have so many goods flying around nobody could use them all, we used to run out of weapons.


That's right, we used to run out of weapons. Novel idea, huh? I can recall Operation Taco Bell, our first invasion of Mexico and a real test for the eUS (botched, by the way, by our 'current' president Uncle Sam who later was impeached-with good reason).



Only the very, very top players had enough guns for themselves. It took strategy to portion out the guns within the military properly, giving better or worse quality guns to stronger and weaker players as strategy deemed fit.


Sustained, continuous fighting for one nation wasn't possible without running the weapons supply dry, causing nations to have to THINK before they jumped into a fray. These days, you wake up, grab a cup of coffee, click a button, and WHAM. A gazillion battles going on. It's almost mindless.



Nobody, country or citizen, had an arsenal like some citizens do today



Just your average, run of the mill player who's been around for over a year and a half. Or, who spent a little plastic protecting himself from having long term patience babies with Plato



Ohhhh yea hot stuff. Making them plato-babies with unprotected plastic



A higher demand than supply created strategies and real decisions beyond what we have currently.

We used to have meaningful, deep articles. We used to have a real monetary market that wasn't flooded with fake cash, and decisions on where you set your MM were not only possible but essential depending on your countries need for imports vs. exports.


We don't have any of that anymore. Some of our most well known players used to be known not for cool articles, or for being super strong, or even super social (all perfectly good and well), but for being smart and savvy at running the numbers, counting the cost, and estimating how much we could do with our economy.




And I miss it.





I'm not quitting the game or saying you should, but here is my truly constructive criticism. We need more than one note to this game. It's not that war shouldn't be an essential part of it, it's just that we need a little more than that to keep the focus of players.


This is especially true for new players because they can't do alot on the war front.



So, admins. Take a shot:

Revamp the party system. Make it more interesting and actually have some meaning outside of meaningless societal flavors.


Even better, give us a new reason to produce products besides the machines of war.


Re-do the way we find articles, it's way, way, too complicated.



Make teamwork more important in battles. The current battle system was an upgrade compared to the last, for sure. I applaud the admins for that. The current system focuses too much on strength/rank. Give bonuses for people who fight in concert with people from their regiment. Something, just make fighting a social event, too.




Make starting battles cost something again so that nations have to be SELECTIVE about what they do. So that actual discussions of strategy need to be taken. There used to be epic battles remembered in tales because fighting for that one "Hello Kitty" region was an epic event that was not taken on lightly, for the costs, difficulty, and weapons that had to be used to take it on.



Lastly, and most importantly, gives us a real economy back. I sympathize with the current situation that you find the game in. It's hard to make people produce less again without complaints, but until we have some semblance of a balance between supply/demand economic discussions and ideas are mostly useless thoughts. Bring this element back!

I will warn you: As messing around with the bot has taught you-the moment you re-institute a real economy, this fake economy that uses so much inflated cash to create companies, etc, will need to be adjusted so that when we start dealing with real 'cash' we don't suck our economy completely dry of local currency.





This article is not an attempt to knock on admins. No. The War Horse loves war and appreciates the insight that the creators of this game had, to make it. I look forward to writing many articles that are interesting on wars own merits. But, let's 'think about it'.

This game can be so much more. When we make real supply decisions, in a real economy, with a larger social aspect, it will enrich our fighting experience as well.



What ideas do you have?









Aren Perry