Three Moves Ahead

Ken Levine from Irrational Games drops by the show to talk about what made Freedom Force so special. Is it an RPG or a strategy game? We discuss the virtues of pausable real time play, the fine line between homage and parody and learn about what games Ken plays when he is not writing kick ass game stories. Freedom Reborn - a fan community

This week, Troy and Rob are joined by Jenn Cutter in a trip down memory lane. The topic: How did you end up the gamer you've become? When did Rob and Troy learn they were strategy gamers? How do games fit into the rest of your life? How do you deal with being the only gamer in a social circle? Which games poke which aspects of our character? Troy and Jenn also explain BBSes to Rob.Also, a date is set for the Washington DC area Flash of Steel/Three Moves Ahead meet up.

This week, hardware expert and long time strategy gamer Loyd Case joins Troy, Julian and Rob in a chat about how various advances and changes in the technological environment have changed how see and approach strategy games.

Gameshark's Editor in Chief Bill Abner joins Troy, Rob and Bruce to talk about Disciples 3, Heroes of Might and Magic, Jagged Alliance, King's Bounty - strategy games with tactical components. To what extent are these RPGs? What differentiates a good one from a bad one? Bruce mentions Odium again.The good doctor also promises to write something.

With E3 2010 in the books, Troy talks about what he saw and is generally concerned about "everything fits together". Julian gives us a preview of Risk: Factions and Rob runs down what 1C has coming your way, based on what he saw in San Francisco.Also, bonus tip on how not to prepare vodka.

Promises to listeners are not kept, so Troy flies solo for an interview with Jon Shafer, the lead designer of Civilization 5. 15 minutes of Hex Based Strategy Gaming.

This week, Troy, Julian and Rob are joined by PR pros Joe Ziemer (Triple Point PR, Paradox shill) and Stephanie Schopp (Tinsley PR, Stardock water carrier) to talk about marketing strategy games in this gaming and business environment. Is strategy gaming really dead? How do you find new audiences and keep the old ones? How do PR people deal with media and developers?

Oy. Troy breaks his computer and therefore sounds like he’s calling in from a submarine. But the rest of show is a long discussion about Games Masters experimenting with RPG and miniature mechanics. Julian and Rob discuss a fascinating game session before the team digresses onto iterative learning in game design and whether games do a good job of teaching through systems at all. Promised images will have to wait until I have a computer that can resize them properly. Stupid netbook.

Good Old Games has made the classic SimTex games Master of Orion, Master of Orion 2 and Master of Magic available for low, low prices. So Troy, Tom, Bruce and Rob spend an hour talking about what made SimTex special. What do we mean by personality in strategy games? Does the UI hold up? Which of these games has aged the most poorly? When is tactical combat an impediment in a turn based 4x game? We answer these questions and more in this new analysis of classic game design.Troy’s Revisionist History on SimTex Tom’s Retroview on Master of Orion II Buy Master of Orion 1 & 2 and Master of Magic at Good Old Games. Master of Magic Intro

Tom Chick returns after a month away from the podcast to join Troy and Rob in a discussion about designing tutorials for strategy games. Is the failure of tutorial design a root of the decline in strategy gaming? Can you really integrate a tutorial into a story based campaign? What are the responsibilities of the gamer to learn what he/she is doing on a battlefield? Dave Perkins’s tutorials for Solium Infernum