Alien City (was: So Copycats and Confusion Win??)

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

On Tue, Aug 19, 2003 at 02:26:04PM -0700, Mike Schoessow wrote:
> Since we are on the topic of game-play or mechanics similarities
> between new games and games previously published, and concerns about
> copying, etc., I'll describe how it worked for me to utilize a key
> mechanic of another game without, in my opinion, "stealing". At the
> same time, I'll also take this opportunity to clarify the origins of
> the similarities between Alien City and Fresh Fish.

Now that I have a spare moment, I want to clarify that I was not
accusing you of plagiarising either Fresh Fish or Medina, Mike.
Whether one calls it "borrowing" or "stealing" (because great artists
steal while lesser artists borrow, etc.), pretty much every game ever
invented takes some mechanisms from other games.  Game designer and
historian David Parlett calls such transferable mechanisms "ludemes".
Ludemes are like the genetic material for a game.  Just as every human
has a unique combination of genes inherited from other humans, every
game has a unique combination of ludemes inherited from other games.
Sometimes a game will incorporate a completely new mechanism; this is
analogous to a genetic mutation.

By the way, I don't think you give yourself enough credit when you
say, "I had seen a very short mention that Fresh Fish was an
out-of-print but very cool city-building game that utilized the
concept of negative space, in which areas not built upon automatically
became roads, and that the road distance between buildings on the
board was important in scoring and could therefore change when new
buildings were placed."  Fresh Fish doesn't really use negative space
as Alien City uses it or as I understand the term.  In Alien City, the
road is everywhere the buildings are not, whereas in Fresh Fish, you
have to build the road with road tiles (IMHO a much more pedestrian
mechanism).  Let me repeat that I will take a game of Alien City over
a game of Fresh Fish or Medina any time.

By the way, congratulations on your fine, scholarly article on
4x4 board games in the latest _Abstract Games Magazine_ (#15).

Ron

-- 
       Ron Hale-Evans ... rwhe@... & rwhe@...
	 Center for Ludic Synergy, Seattle Cosmic Game Night,
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