Feedback

[Jorge Arroyo <trozo@...>]

Hi all,

  Now that it seems this group has become more lively again since the wiki
has been fixed and everything, and it seems there's a bit more interest in
the piecepack system, I'd like to bring this important point forward again:
Feedback.

  The piecepack system is basically a way for people interested in game
design to experiment with their ideas and quickly create a working game
without all the hassle of creating custom components. It's an excellent tool
to learn about game design. But once a game is out there, it needs to get
played and tested because  when different people (especially people that
didn't learn the game from the designer) try the game is when problems or
things the designer didn't foresee arise. Feedback from unknown players is
very valuable. It's how a game can become better and finally reach a state
of quality that helps not only the designer but the piecepack system itself.
Just look at a game like Alien City. It has transcended the piecepack system
itself, but it is an excellent showcase for what can be accomplished with
this game system. We need more games like that.

  So, I'll say it again: We need feedback for existing games. The success of
a game system depends on its games, and if we want better games we need to
help designers make their games better. Also, we need to let people know
what games they might enjoy. For that we need reviews, but also simpler and
quicker efforts like ranking the game on BGG (if it doesn't have a game
page, then add it first), adding a comment on the game along with your
rating if you don't want to do a full review. Posting session reports and
pictures, etc...

  And last, I want to propose something: what about making a kind of "review
chain"? For example: Any designer that wants one of their games reviewed
says so (maybe in a special wiki page). Then when there are a few
submissions, each designer picks one of the other submissions (marking it on
the wiki page so each game gets chosen just once), plays it and writes a
review (posting a link to the review there). Of course this will only work
if people asking for a review are true to their word and do review one of
the other games, but if enough people are interested it should work pretty
well... what do you all think?

  Cheers

-Jorge