PANZER GENERAL (DOS) PBEM RESEARCH CENTRE
ARTICLE 003

PANZER GENERAL (DOS) IS DESERVING OF SERIOUS STUDY BECAUSE IT IS A CLASSIC

The PBEM Panzer General (PG) experience is most challenging and enjoyable when there is a deep-seated commitment to fair and exciting play among well informed, communicative and gentlemanly opponents. Stating this in rather succinct terms: RESEARCH, FRIENDLINESS, EDUCATION.

Now, dedicated hobbyists have always managed to squeeze some fun out of the games they have been playing despite the occasional aggravating opponent. For some of us, this is simply not good enough. In our gaming practices, we will go out of our way to ensure that our opponents are gentlemanly, friendly types. We collectively put a high premium on friendliness. THEREFORE, in all Internet-enabled gaming activities, we ALWAYS subject proposals to the "friendliness" impact test (namely, if we were to adopt such and such policy or practice, what would this do to the friendly predisposition of our fellow gamers ?). Furthermore, a central tenet of our thinking is that well informed opponents are bound to have more fun ! In other words, ignorance, far from being bliss, actually detracts humans from experiencing the ultimate in playing enjoyment. THEREFORE, again, we ALWAYS subject proposals to the "education" impact test (namely, if we were to adopt such and such policy or practice, what would this do to gamers' learning process re: PG "wargaming" ?).

The foregoing paragraph allows us to bring the responsible gaming support function and its constituent activities into the picture in a most natural way. Namely, we CANNOT wave a magic wand and turn somebody into a sophisticated and well mannered "wargamer" if that person is not, somehow, made out of the right stuff. However, given a person's decent quality gaming inclination, the RIGHT atmosphere can greatly up his enjoyment through enhancing overall play quality. In turn, play quality will definitely be fostered by an atmosphere of mutual respect, friendliness and learning. This is it ! The loop has closed.....

I need to tell you now about my views on the connection between classic games and education. My entire approach to the subject matter at hand is predicated on the assumption that, a group of hobbyists will be playing PG for MANY YEARS to come. They will be doing this because they have already decided that this is a CLASSIC PBEM GAME ENGINE that will withstand the test of time (at least in their hearts and minds), pretty much like chess. In my humble opinion, education is meaningful ONLY in regards to CLASSIC GAMES. Anything ephemeral, any faddy game title that is going to be toyed with for a few months only to be tossed aside when something new and glittering comes along does NOT deserve to be the subject of serious study. Such effort would be a monumental waste of time.....

Companies like SSI do not make money by intentionally producing and marketing classic game titles. In fact, as profit maximisers, they most probably make sure that what they produce IS ephemeral and faddy ! A great way to keep on selling products is to release half-baked, buggy titles, NEVER intending to truly patch them up in any responsible way. If I were to guess, SSI's "marketing research" specialists have probably concluded that, MOST consumers of that company's products tend to always rush and buy that next, newly released title, wishfully thinking on their way to the computer games store that, this is it, SSI has finally come clean and has released something significantly better than the mess they are toying with at any point in time.... So, if I were you, I would not hold my breath for Allied or Pacific General to improve any time soon....Simply put, a game like PG (DOS) was a fluke and an accident. That is all !

If there is any truth to the above, players looking for classic game titles (including relevant supporting "documentation") would be knocking on the wrong door by approaching SSI. From where the company stands, the serious PBEM hobbyist market segment is statistically insignificant. So why devote any "resources" to address their needs ? At best, such players are potential nuisances. At worst, they are positively threatening as they tend to be quite knowledgeable about game title weaknesses. To this effect, a sufficiently frustrated hobbyist could even compose and publicise something that may adversely impact on SSI's sales (in reality, this is not such a big threat; most magazines and Internet venues dedicated to reviewing, advertising and "supporting" computer game titles know who is buttering their bread and on which side...).

The author, Panos Stoucas, is a long time Panzer General (DOS) PBEM enthusiast and is currently the "Facilitator" of the PG (DOS) PBEM RESEARCH CENTRE. He can be reached at pstoucas@istar.ca