[Card Game]: Terra, reviewed by ShannonA (4/3)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/10/10076.phtml

Shannon Appelcline's Summary:

An interesting thought experiment on the nature of greed and generosity and an average card game.

Go to the full review for more information.

Post originally by Andrew White at 2004-02-05 07:38:29
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Shannon,

Typo "Typical *co-operative* games ..."

I'd also be interested in whether you've experienced "scorched-earth" tactics - "I'm not going to win so I'm going to do my best to take you all down." Or is the game able to work around this?

Post originally by Shannon Appelcline at 2004-02-05 10:39:18
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I haven't experienced any scorced earth tactics. Theoretically, the fact that your hoards are all hidden should alleviate it, but I have heard of the problem from other players.

Personally, I think it points to a basic disconnect in victory conditions for different gamers. In my mind:

winning >> 2nd through 6th place >> everyone losing

But there seems to be general consensus among gamers for none of those. Some people seem to think that 2nd place and everyone losing are equivalent, in which case they might try and wreck the game if they're not doing tip-top.

Shannon

Post originally by BlackSheep at 2004-02-06 07:29:47
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Is it just me, or does this game remind anybody else of the RPGnet subscription situation? From the point of view of an individual, you really don't get much from subscribing that you don't get anyway - that is, you're better off keeping your money. But, on the other hand, if everybody thinks that way, then RPGnet can't sustain itself - and everybody loses.

Just something that occurred to me. And yes, I'm a subsriber.

Post originally by Ralph Mazza at 2004-02-06 09:49:24
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First, ante up. Real Money.

For a 6 player game $20 apiece...$120 total

Winner gets $40, 2nd gets $30, 3rd gets $20, 4th gets $15, 5th gets $10, and 6th gets $5.

If the World ends, the entire pot of $120 is burned, shredded, flushed* Noone gets anything.


Now, scorched earth tactics have a real downside.

I'd BE VERY interested in a study done of this game...games played as written vs. games played with the above $ variant vs. games played with the money variant jacked to $100 or $500 or more apiece (i.e. a level we'd really feel)instead of $20

And see what this does to individual play tactics.



*or for a more socially concious variant, donated to a charity selected by the player with the fewest points (i.e. who hoarded the least)

Post originally by Shannon Appelcline at 2004-02-08 21:18:50
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Heh. That's good. And that's Olson's Paradox to a tee.