
The prototype that was banned from Halfbrick (2013) [video] - yumaikas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9WMNuyjm4w
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JimmyAustin
We played a game of Neptune's Pride, and had a similiar result, with a few
differences. Neptune's Pride is played over 24 hours, and most actions
(attacking/moving ships) require a great deal of time. It's also completely
deterministic.

Highlights include: \- People covertly supplying weapons technology to the
people fighting their allies to prolong the conflict, so that they would be
weaker when they had to betray them. There was a lot of dealings at the coffee
machine regarding trading technology. \- A cold war standoff between myself
and our lead frontend dev. I'd setup an ambush by setting up ships on a star
out of his radar range, but close enough that I would be able to reinforce the
juicy target I had setup for him. The only catch was that I only had an hour
to move the reinforcements once he began his attack, so I had to constantly
watch the game. We had a Game Of Thrones finale event that I was going to
attend, but he skipped. Knowing I would be distracted, he launched the attack
15 minutes after the scheduled start of watching the finale. Luckily I checked
the game on my phone in the middle, saw the incoming attack and was able to
defend successfully.

This kicked off people checking the game as the last thing they did before
they went to bed, and the first thing they did in the morning. A few of us
even set alarms so we could launch surprise attacks.

We definitely had a similar sort of breakdown of relations. There were
accusations of screen-cheating (if you can call looking at a map of everything
in your empire on a 27" monitor in the middle of an open-office screen-
cheating). One game even collapsed into anarchy when one of the players
dropped out rather then attack one of her coworkers.

Either way, it was a ton of fun. Definitely wasn't great for productivity
though.

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Eridrus
Seems very similar to the classic board game Diplomacy[0], which had similar,
though not as drastic results, when we played it at work, though we played 1
move every 3 days, so it had a much smaller impact on productivity since
there's only so much strategising you can do over a single move, and you only
got new concrete information every 3 days.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomacy_(game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomacy_\(game\))

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db48x
I was thinking of Diplomacy/Machiavelli too. Machiavelli nearly ruined some
Christmasses, but I still want to get it out and play it again...

~~~
terminado
Diplomacy is mentioned by an audience member briefly during the Q/A session at
the end of the video, near the ~49 minutes mark.

~~~
db48x
Yep. That saved me from having to do it, which would have been awkward at this
point.

I think the major difference between the two is that in Diplomacy/Machiavelli
you can't give your armies to someone else the way you could give your actions
to someone else in the tank tactics prototype. That prevents the chaining, but
wow, it still makes for a fun family gathering when you "accidentally" move to
the wrong place and your "enemy" and your "ally" wipe each other out.

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jszymborski
I'm not entirely sure I agree with their overarching philosophy that games
should never "make you feel upset at times". Obviously it should leave you
with an overall good feeling, which is something I think is attested to by
it's popularity (unless their is a reward mechanism I'm missing here).

And while the fact that this was played in an office context was addressed, I
think they under attributed it's affect. I think there are two major problems
that are addressed by moving this into a general public, MMO context:

(1) Productivity Loss I mean, this can almost entirely be addressed to the
context. The game exists only at work, and so you can only play it when you
are supposed to be working.

(2) Negative Effects of Friend/Work relationships I expect from people I've
nurtured friendships and work relationships a certain amount of respect and
loyalty. From a faceless internet foe, I expect nothing.

I find the coddling attitude slightly frustrating, and I think that if video
games are to be considered art, they need to be able to hurt us if they ever
want to be able to lift us up. Art is a proxy for life experience, and in my
opinion, good art leaves you changed.

Obviously, it's bad if it leaves you with crippling depression or paranoia,
but certainly some level of sadness and anxiety is critical for it to have any
meaning.

One thing, however, that I do think is important is knowing what you're
getting yourself into. If I feel I'm in a certain head space where being
deceived or betrayed in any context would result in me feeling particularly
shitty, then I wouldn't want to play Diplomacy any more than I would want to
watch Lynch's Eraserhead. In that respect, I feel like artists are a little
responsible to represent the experiences that are commonly felt in the
consumption of their art.

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kazagistar
It depends entirely on what kind of game you are making. There is clearly a
market and demand for simple, fun, positive experiences. But there is also a
massive market for games exactly like LoL and DotA and CS:GO, where a major
part of the experience is failing, losing, feeling horrible about it, and then
trying to do better next time. There is an urge for game designers to try to
mitigate negative experiences, but in doing so, they make the game. You can't
have the feeling of a competative game that ends in a crushing victory without
the feeling of crushing defeat.

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foolrush
It is an hour long, but whoa, is this presentation excellent, illuminating,
frightening, and absolutely compelling.

Can't help but draw analogies to politics and many other things.

Great post.

~~~
mrspeaker
Yes, really interesting video - I watched the whole thing (and it was good),
but I think the first 20-odd minutes are the best for HN... makes me want to
try this at my work!

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bballard1337
Wow, I'm impressed lol. They went through some serious measures to gain an
advantage. Such a simple concept and it has the power to turn friends into
enemies. Reminds me of back when I use to play Mario Kart battle mode with
friends, let's just say there was screaming and possible throwing of
controllers lol.

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zitterbewegung
Don't we see a lot of similar behavior on mmos like Eve Online ? I agree with
the other commenters that the game may not have all its detrimental effect if
it came to market.

