Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Ready, aim, aim, aim, aim . . .

It is three weeks into the campaign. After days of delicate maneuvering and pained diplomacy, you finally have your enemy in your crosshairs. Ever arrogant, they charge through your defenses - right where you want them! - and the trap SNAPS shut. Congratulations! Weeks of trench warfare have just paid off, and you can now blaze, godlike, towards glory and VICTORY!

This is every tactician's fantasy.

Grand strategy allows for thrilling drama - everyone loves to see a well thought out plan come to fruition. But how do wars of attrition actually play out on a digital battlefield like GXC?

After multis, a stalled game is probably the most damaging thing that can happen to team morale. To be fair, no game is ever really "stalled". Despite the seemingly static map, Commanders are always furiously working backstage to wrangle a satisfactory outcome for their team. There are, however, unfortunate consequences to this.

First comes the boredom. Troops energize less frequently. Compliance plummets.

Then comes the cabin fever. The chat rooms are stuffy and the tension is so taut it sets your teeth on edge. Previously likable teammates suddenly turn nasty. Even in the best run teams, impeachment polls begin popping up with alarming frequency. People become impatient and launch individual forays...just for the lolz. But then they get spy polled. And then they get pissed. Loudly.

Pretty soon the kids are spending fifteen hours in bed rereading Animorphs, Marge won't get off the phone, the Swedish exchange student runs up a credit card bill large enough to fund a small military coup and the cats won't quit keeping you up at night and it's all MADNESS. The MADNESS never stops. IT JUST NEVER STOPS!!

. . . these things happen.

It's also impossible to assign blame, because Commanders really do believe they are acting in the best interest of their teams when they play it slow. Players, however, also cannot be faulted for expecting a bit more ACTION. The game, after all, is meant to be FUN.

Perhaps it is enough that Commanders simply keep in mind that even the most brilliant strategies might backfire if they take too long to effect.

Anyone have any ideas how to prevent games from stalling, or at least make the slow moments more bearable? I know a guy with a banjo...

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

GXC Press: Teambuilding 2.0

Title: Teambuilding 2.0

Source: The Bumblebee

About: GoCrossOffice

Excerpt:

"GoCrossOffice integrate both virtual and physical elements into their team games. I am sure GCO are not the only player in this space as it looks like a very promising future market area. The GCO website references a number of independent research reports on the use of gaming for non-educational purposes by IBM, and Forrester."

Monday, December 29, 2008

No Lightning Game on Wednesday


Hey everybody,

This is just a quick note to say that there will be no lightning game on Wednesday to allow for the New Year celebrations.

HAPPY 2009 (in advance) EVERYBODY!!


Love,
The GXC Team.

Lightning GXC: Weekly Roundup!

Congratulations to the following teams and their commanders for games well played!

MONDAY

Marge in the Simpsons in Britain! game

Cdr. Mariah Jimenez '09
Cdr. phillip morrin '08

===

TUESDAY

Professor Plum in the Clue in a Haunted House! game

Cdr. Inar Graur '08
Cdr. phillip morrin '08

===

WEDNESDAY

Ariel in the Disney Girls in the Cafeteria! game

Cdr. Inar Graur '08

===

THURSDAY

The Cardassians in the Star Trek in Disney World! game

Cdr. Emma Elfeirr '13

===

FRIDAY

Sean in the Founders in Manhattan! game

Cdr. Matthew Ahn '08
Cdr. James Tabush '10

===

SATURDAY

The UK in the WWII in SoCal! game

(no comanders at game end!)


Pam in The Office in Springfield! game

Cdr. Jeremy Sobczak '09

===

SUNDAY

The Teen Titans in the Superhero Teams on the Internet! game

Cdr. Chad Kimes '08


Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter in Britain! game

Cdr. L Cheung '11
Cdr. Matthew Ahn '08

===

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Sunday, December 28, 2008

GXC IRC Channel

Quint Sakugarne recently resurrected the GXC IRC channel. It's #gxc on irc.chatspike.net . Like Mariah Jimenez said, the new chat is "hawt" so you should consider checking it out.

For those of us who know little to nothing about IRC (Internet Relay Chat), the following is a brief "how to" that should be helpful.

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IRC is an instant messaging platform like AIM and MSN. To join it, you need to get an "IRC client". Pidgin (which pretty much runs on all major operating systems) is one of the clients that was suggested to me so that's what this tutorial will be based on.

1. Download Pidgin here.

2. Once you're done with the download process, you'll be prompted to "Add" an account

3. From amongst the options of possible IM services, remember to select "IRC"

4. Also remember to type in irc.chatspike.net as the Server of choice.

5. When you're done, type in /join #gxc as the channel you want to connect to, and voila:

6. If you're interested in taking advantage of IRC's many features, a handy list of IRC commands can be found here.

7. More IRC clients can also be found here.

Thanks to Quint for restarting the channel, and for digging up much of the info in this post!

Update: It's probably a good idea to sign up with your GXC name, so that people can immediately identify you. Cheers.