riskdeluxe - request for comments

[RiskDeluxe Support]

to all risk players everywhere,

we would like to open a discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of the
classic game of risk as published by parker brothers in 1959.

if you have ever played risk, we invite you to share your opinion - good or
bad here in this newsgroup.

we are game developers attempting to improve on the original game.

you can download and play our current implementation here:
http://www.riskdeluxe.com

there are basically two things we would like to understand:

1) why do people play risk? (i.e. why is the game a positive psychological
event)
2) why do people not play risk? (i.e. why is the game a negative
psychological event)

obviously, we are attempting to maximize the positive side of the game and
minimize the negative in order to please the largest possible number of risk
players.

no opinion is too small,

we look forward to your comments,

cheers,

riskdeluxe product support
http://www.riskdeluxe.com

[The Maverick]

Post by RiskDeluxe Support
to all risk players everywhere,
we would like to open a discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of the
classic game of risk as published by parker brothers in 1959.

Is this project being done in conjunction with Hasbro?

the Mav

[RiskDeluxe Support]

mav,

no,
riskdeluxe is not associated with hasbro.

we are a download software game company.
we deliver online multiplayer games to the general internet game playing
population.
unlike the retail software business, we always provide a free look at the
product before purchase ... (always). we are game players ourselves and we
feel that it is good business to allow players to understand the product
before they are asked to purchase it.

it is also our policy to include the players themselves in the development
process.
our philosophy is that the best game products are those that attempt to
implement what the players themselves actually want (which is the reason
for our open invitation to any and all risk players to provide their opinion
if they wish to do so)

it is very normal for us to implement a software change the same day a
player makes the suggestion. in that regard the version numbers on our
products always say

v.0.00 (beta) and they always will (software version numbers are old
school).

the actual (real) version number can be found in the datetime stamp in the
form

yyyy-mmm-dd hh:mm:ss

you can easily view this in the about box.

in the off-the-shelf retail product space the project lifecycle is usually
on the order of years (and patches and upgrades are usually on the order of
months).

in contrast, our company releases a new product version the moment a new
feature is added or a bug is fixed (and it is immediately available on the
very next client launch). our software philosophy is similar to that of the
linux community where you fix something or add something as soon as you know
it needs to be there and you release the fix and/or feature to the world
immediately (i.e. there is no reason to wait for the fix/feature).

you should also know that one of the reasons that riskdeluxe exists is
because several of us played the hasbro product (quite a bit) and we were
not happy with it. so we built a risk style multiplayer gaming product that
we like (same philosophy as the guys at blizzard)

hope this helps explain things a bit,

cheers,

riskdeluxe product support
http://www.riskdeluxe.com

Post by RiskDeluxe Support
to all risk players everywhere,
we would like to open a discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of the
classic game of risk as published by parker brothers in 1959.

Is this project being done in conjunction with Hasbro?

the Mav

[America Rules - DEMOCRATS]

Post by RiskDeluxe Support
mav,
no,
riskdeluxe is not associated with hasbro.
we are a download software game company.

You have an interesting model, Ray. May I know if you are a one-man
shop?


https://registrar.godaddy.com/whois.asp?isc=&se=%2B&from_app=&mscssid=&pl_id=1&prog_id=GoDaddy&domain=riskdeluxe%2ECOM

Registrant:
HixoxiH Software
4143 Red Laurel Way
Snellville, Georgia 30039
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: RISKDELUXE.COM
Created on: 10-Jun-04
Expires on: 10-Jun-05
Last Updated on: 10-Jun-04
Administrative Contact:
Bornert, Ray
***@hixoxih.com
HixoxiH Software
4143 Red Laurel Way
Snellville, Georgia 30039
United States
7707367870

Technical Contact:
Bornert, Ray
***@hixoxih.com
HixoxiH Software
4143 Red Laurel Way
Snellville, Georgia 30039
United States
7707367870


Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.DRAGON.COM
NS2.DRAGON.COM

[Paul Gifford]

Post by RiskDeluxe Support
it is very normal for us to implement a software change the same day a
player makes the suggestion.

So much for thorough testing.

[RiskDeluxe Support]

paul,

this comment obviously contains the assumption that the change would be
extensive.
obviously a same day mod/release is not feasible if the mod is complex.

however, if the suggestion is small enough we can make a mod rather quickly.
the underlying software architecture is fairly powerful and the source code
is organized well so changes and mods can be implemented rather quickly.

an example of a small mod, is where a user suggested we forsake the old text
symbols of '===' and '=\=' on one of the buttons and just simply use the
word 'join' and 'unjoin' and so that change didnt really require much
testing other than to verify the result visually as expected... so in this
case the testing is pretty straightforward .. and this is a super simple
example i agree.

we spend an incredible amount of time testing ... the bots come in real
handy for that ... many changes will see the bots play all night on a
private machine just to verify the results before releasing to the public.

my original point is that we really do want to implement user suggestions as
fast as possilbe (but not at the expense of proper testing).

cheers,

rds

riskdeluxe product support
http://www.riskdeluxe.com

Post by Paul Gifford

Post by RiskDeluxe Support
it is very normal for us to implement a software change the same day a
player makes the suggestion.

So much for thorough testing.

[Gabriel Velasco]

Post by RiskDeluxe Support
1) why do people play risk? (i.e. why is the game a positive psychological
event)

In no particular order:

1. Nostalgia.

2. Relatively simple mechanics.

3. Nice components. Lots of nice plastic pieces.

4. Relatively simple rules.

5. Plays well with all numbers of recommended players. Many of the
"German Style" games require three or more people and sometimes don't
scale well to more than four. I usually play in couples, so I tend to
play games that can handle 2, 4, or 6 players.

6. Nice balance between luck and skill. There is obviously luck
involved, but there are established strategies that can improve your
chances of winning. The game has also been thoroughly analyzed.

7. Interesting variations. Personally, I'm not into movie inspired
games, but I've read that LoTR Risk is actually a nice variation on its
own. Also, 2210 (?) is a nice variaton.

8. Broad age appeal. The rules are simple enough for a kid, but there's
enough strategy to make it interesting for many adults as well. (Not
all as I'm sure we'll find out from the Risk bashers our there.)

Post by RiskDeluxe Support
2) why do people not play risk? (i.e. why is the game a negative
psychological event)

1. Too long. For whatever reason, games tend to go into the wee hours
of the night.

2. Players are eliminated one at a time. It shares this problem with
Monopoly and many other "American Style" games. The people who die off
get to just sit there and watch, or whatever. One of the nice features
of "German Style" games is that everyone gets to play till the end.

3. Too hard to make a comeback. Once you get way behind, all you can do
is die a slow, tortured death. Even in Monopoly you can feel like
you're still in the game until you land on Boardwalk with a hotel. In
Risk, there comes a point where you can tell you're so weak compared to
the other players that there's no hope of ever staging a comeback, but
there's no graceful way to exit the game. (I can't remember how
resignations are handled, if they're even acknowledged.)

-=Gabriel=-

[RiskDeluxe Support]

gabriel,

many thanks for this post.
wish more people here could just be civil.
but hey, it is usenet.
various comments interleaved below.

Post by Gabriel Velasco

Post by RiskDeluxe Support
1) why do people play risk? (i.e. why is the game a positive psychological
event)

1. Nostalgia.
2. Relatively simple mechanics.

the dice can get tedious.

Post by Gabriel Velasco
3. Nice components. Lots of nice plastic pieces.

the original wood blocks are better imho.

Post by Gabriel Velasco
4. Relatively simple rules.

yes. quality game considering how generic the rules are.

Post by Gabriel Velasco
5. Plays well with all numbers of recommended players. Many of the
"German Style" games require three or more people and sometimes don't
scale well to more than four. I usually play in couples, so I tend to
play games that can handle 2, 4, or 6 players.
6. Nice balance between luck and skill. There is obviously luck
involved, but there are established strategies that can improve your
chances of winning. The game has also been thoroughly analyzed.

do you know of any sites that discuss risk theory?.

Post by Gabriel Velasco
7. Interesting variations. Personally, I'm not into movie inspired
games, but I've read that LoTR Risk is actually a nice variation on its
own. Also, 2210 (?) is a nice variaton.

i have lotr risk. have not played 2210

Post by Gabriel Velasco
8. Broad age appeal. The rules are simple enough for a kid, but there's
enough strategy to make it interesting for many adults as well. (Not
all as I'm sure we'll find out from the Risk bashers our there.)

yes. very true.

Post by Gabriel Velasco

Post by RiskDeluxe Support
2) why do people not play risk? (i.e. why is the game a negative
psychological event)

1. Too long. For whatever reason, games tend to go into the wee hours
of the night.

very true. (we have tried to address this issue in rd).

Post by Gabriel Velasco
2. Players are eliminated one at a time. It shares this problem with
Monopoly and many other "American Style" games. The people who die off
get to just sit there and watch, or whatever. One of the nice features
of "German Style" games is that everyone gets to play till the end.

in physical settings ... this is very true. in an online setting with a
sufficient number of players you can drop into another game fairly quickly
after you finish with your current game. this cannot happen in a physical
friend setting because the poor first loser has to wait 'til 1am to start
the 2nd game and by then everybody is tired.

Post by Gabriel Velasco
3. Too hard to make a comeback. Once you get way behind, all you can do
is die a slow, tortured death. Even in Monopoly you can feel like
you're still in the game until you land on Boardwalk with a hotel. In
Risk, there comes a point where you can tell you're so weak compared to
the other players that there's no hope of ever staging a comeback, but
there's no graceful way to exit the game. (I can't remember how
resignations are handled, if they're even acknowledged.)

the original 1959 ruleset does not deal with the issue of resignation ... in
live games ive played in ive seen this handled in various ways ... the best
way being to just declare the retired player armies as neutral (defense
only) ... this method seemed to meet the least resistance. riskdeluxe does
this as well. if a player drops for any reason, we convert all those chips
to neutral (defense only) chips.

Post by Gabriel Velasco
-=Gabriel=-

once again,
thanks for this kind response.

if you have any further thoughts please dont hesitate to post.

cheers,
rds,
riskdeluxe product support,
http://www.riskdeluxe.com

[Scott Hedrick]

"Gabriel Velasco" <***@austin.rr.com> wrote in message news:***@austin.rr.com...
. (I can't remember how

Post by Gabriel Velasco
resignations are handled, if they're even acknowledged.)

Flinging the board across the room is hard to ignore :)

[RiskDeluxe Support]

scott,

ive definitely been in risk games where this has happened.
any game with the power to incite that level of passion is worth looking at.
--
cheers,
rds,
riskdeluxe product support
http://www.riskdeluxe.com

Post by Gabriel Velasco
. (I can't remember how

Post by Gabriel Velasco
resignations are handled, if they're even acknowledged.)

Flinging the board across the room is hard to ignore :)

[Scott Hedrick]

Post by RiskDeluxe Support
any game with the power to incite that level of passion is worth looking at.

What a shame you've chosen to go to such extremes to *eliminate* any such
passion.