tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14856978.post2601237402831615464..comments2023-09-27T07:39:16.056-07:00Comments on Gone Gaming: Free At Last for FreeColdfoothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11636345146138362966noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14856978.post-83205308575206243032007-04-03T20:19:00.000-07:002007-04-03T20:19:00.000-07:00I understand your criticisms of the components of ...I understand your criticisms of the components of the game. This was the best I could do as an amateur game designer and graphic artist. To become a good game Free at Last would need a professional designer and developer working with a group of playtesters. Any game like this requires endless tweaking and revision, but I do think the basic game system works well as a simulation of the events.<BR/><BR/>Court decisions and legislation are not too interesting of a subject for a game. I wanted to keep the focus on the confrontations in the streets. The media also played an important part in the civil rights movement. As a designer you have to think of ways to abstract these elements without making them the focus of the game. T\For instance the media column shift helps emphasize King's natural charisma as a major factor in the game, much as it was in real life. As you wrote I tried to make the Klan abstract and remove those decisions from the hands of the player as much as possible.<BR/><BR/>A lot of people have said they would not want to play the segregationist player in the game. I can understand that. I usually want to play the Americans and British in the Second World War or the Union in the Civil War. It's important to remember that although the events of this game are painful, the society that emerged was more noble and just. I like to think of the whites in the South as being transformed not defeated. I guess I am a dualist in this respect: you cannot show the goodness of the civil rights movement without showing the injustice it had to confront. Showing the firehoses and attack dogs let's the game demonstrate how committed the protesters were to their core value of peaceful resistance.<BR/><BR/>With regard to Malcolm X, I would say the game is not about a white and black struggle as much as a struggle for the hearts and minds of the American blacks of the time. The game assumes the Jim Crow system will fall. That's why once a city is integrated it remains so for the rest of the game. The question is the means to that end. King, Young and Lewis represent a different future for blacks than Huey Newton, Stokely Carmichael or Malcolm X. The end for each is black equality, but when you say "by any means necessary" you will end up with a different society than the vision of the I Have a Dream Speech. That's because ends and means are inextricably mixed. Malcolm X represents the lure of that message - "The ballot or the bullet" - which became dominant in the later years of the Civil Rights Movement.<BR/><BR/>If you get a chance to try the game try playing the 1960 scenario with split decks. It takes a couple hours. Oh, and I should mention the S and N units participate in the confronations just like B units, that was left out of the rules accidentally.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the write up. I hope you like the game.<BR/><BR/>Ted TorgersonAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14856978.post-51783358742031091872007-03-09T20:44:00.000-08:002007-03-09T20:44:00.000-08:00I'll have to check this out as the local high scho...I'll have to check this out as the local high school does like to use games in Social Studies from time to time...Dr. Matt J. Carlsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05966076479843177377noreply@blogger.com