Re: [piecepack] So Copycats and Confusion Win??

[Ron Hale-Evans <rwhe@...>]

"Lesser artists borrow; great artists steal." (Attributed to Igor
Stravinsky.)

First of all, I'd like to congratulate Phillip Lerche, the designer of
Pharaoh's Heir, the winner of the fourth piecepack game design
contest, and Mark Biggar, the designer of Chariots, the runner-up.
Well done, guys!

Second, I'd like to put in a word on the "copycat" (what a childish
word) controversy.  I am speaking as one of the judges of the second
competition, which was won by Mike Schoessow's entry Alien City.  (The
other judge was my wife Marty.  I am speaking for myself only; perhaps
Marty will comment later.)

When I played Alien City for the first time, I thought it was one of
the most original games I had ever seen.  It is still my favourite
piecepack game by a wide margin, even including the games Marty and I
have designed.  Since we announced Alien City as the winner, I have
discovered that there are a couple of games that incorporate
mechanisms similar to ones in Alien City and were released before Mike
entered his game into the contest.  Fresh Fish (1997) uses a "one big
road" mechanism that is similar in some ways to Mike's game, and
Medina (2001) uses a building/capping mechanism that is also similar.
However, assuming for the sake of argument that Mike "stole" these
mechanisms for his game, he still combined them in a fresh way and
added many twists of his own.  The scoring mechanism of Alien City is
totally different from either of the other two games I mentioned.
Also, Alien City is a two-player head-to-head contest, almost a pure
abstract strategy game, whereas social considerations such as
leader-bashing enter into the other two.  Given a choice of playing
any of the three games, I will always pick Alien City over either
Fresh Fish or Medina, and were I to judge the contest today, after
having played Fresh Fish and observed a couple of games of Medina, I
would still give the laurels to Alien City.

Thus, although I haven't yet seen _any_ of the rules for the games in
the current contest, I cannot blame Rob LeGood for giving first place
to Pharaoh's Heir, even though he thinks the game is heavily
influenced by Puerto Rico and some other games on the market.  When a
chef makes _boeuf bourgignon_, chances are good he did not ferment the
wine that goes into it himself.  And the beef was definitely made by a
cow!  It's not the ingredients, folks, but the skill with which
they're put together.

I also have a question for Electronic Waffle: Rob's entry in the last
contest was a German-style game, and he stated that his decision on
the winner of the current contest would be subjective and determined
by how much he enjoyed the game.  Why did you think games with
"simplistic" rules (your word, not mine) would win the contest?

Finally, I'd like to say if you're not prepared to lose, don't enter
the contest, and I agree with the following comments of Rob's.

Ron Hale-Evans

On Tue, Aug 19, 2003 at 01:38:40AM -0400, Rob LeGood wrote:
> I'm sorry you didn't win, Eric, but there's no need to get pissy about it.
...
> Coming to this forums and publically whinning
> about the fact that you didn't win in a completely subjective contest, shows
> a great lack of class and I believe you owe me, and everyone else reading
> your note, an apology.

-- 
       Ron Hale-Evans ... rwhe@... & rwhe@...
	 Center for Ludic Synergy, Seattle Cosmic Game Night,
Kennexions Glass Bead Game & Positive Revolution FAQ: http://www.ludism.org/
Home page & Hexagram-8 I Ching Mailing List: http://www.apocalypse.org/~rwhe/