04-03-2011, 11:51 PM
Speaking to ixnay's initial post, S&S Tribes of Crane did not charge more for larger tribes. You were charged for special actions and combat (actually large combat initially). Tribal turns, city turns, special actions and combats were all hand moderated early (when I say early, I played from 1977/78 till 1981). Players provided handwritten instructions for field battles as well as city battles, attackers and defenders both, so you can see the time the gm put into the turn results. So yes, they charged for those and I didn't have a problem paying for them.
With respect to the current MMOG's and their current practice of allowing players to buy immeidate success, not for me. I do realize that even in some of the old PBM games players had ways of 'purchasing power' by buying additional positions, but even then they had to nuture those additional positions to the point that they were of benefit and those players usually ended up facing a coalition of opponents. This was not uncommon in 'power games' (that's why they were called power games) and typically the majority of the players making up those games were power players that ran multiple positions. Power games were almost invariably open-ended.
With respect to the current MMOG's and their current practice of allowing players to buy immeidate success, not for me. I do realize that even in some of the old PBM games players had ways of 'purchasing power' by buying additional positions, but even then they had to nuture those additional positions to the point that they were of benefit and those players usually ended up facing a coalition of opponents. This was not uncommon in 'power games' (that's why they were called power games) and typically the majority of the players making up those games were power players that ran multiple positions. Power games were almost invariably open-ended.