12-04-2011, 09:11 PM
Galactic Prisoners probably is the best game ever, or at the very least in the top 3. What made it great was the versatility. Its simplicity lent itself to allowing many different play styles to be successful. You could be very successful with aggressive, economic, group, or loner play styles. It all just depended on what you want to do. What pushed the game over the top though was the newsletter. Sometimes some of us would spend months planning, and printing messages to goad our opponents into making mistakes just so that we could destroy their ATV, or colony(economic base).
One thing I see with most games PBM, and current browser games is lack of play testing. Galactic Prisoners was a turn based game where turns could be processed once a week. Before ever going to market the game was play tested to 15-20 years out. That allowed Ed to see the synergy effects long term play could have, and he placed limitation into the game. This allowed new players to join the game, but after 1-3 years they could compete with the older players.
One thing I see with most games PBM, and current browser games is lack of play testing. Galactic Prisoners was a turn based game where turns could be processed once a week. Before ever going to market the game was play tested to 15-20 years out. That allowed Ed to see the synergy effects long term play could have, and he placed limitation into the game. This allowed new players to join the game, but after 1-3 years they could compete with the older players.