So longtime listener, first time caller... etc etc. In fact, ended up finding this forum and creating an account just to offer some positive feedback on #267 .
Rob, you were curious about how this show would be received, but personally I *loved* this episode. Examining the assumptions behind the interpretations of history presented in strategy games is a rich but unfortunately rarely explored topic. You & Troy struck a nice balance of humor and insight, and Jon was an excellent addition. I hope you'll do more shows like this in the future, examining the frames and assumptions that cut across individual strategy games.
One possible idea that was triggered by #267's discussion is to look more deeply at how institutions are portrayed in historical strategy games. The group talked about how historical strategy games typically focus on the role of leaders, often putting the gamer in the position of the "Eye of Sauron" (to use your phrase) who can command the entire army from Corps to Squad level with a single focused will. The claim was made that institutions don't make for interesting choices, and thus games will always have difficulty portraying their historical role. I'm not so sure. The development of specific historical institutions (the Prussian General Staff, the Venetian Arsenal, the Royal Navy Admiralty, perhaps DARPA in our own time) have been critical to the success or failure of their sponsoring states. I think there are rich grounds for exploring how games could better model how elite institutions develop (the willingness to anger existing power structures and entrenched interests inside a state, the placement of innovative thinkers in positions of power, the conscious shifting of societal prestige & economic rewards towards members of the new institution at the cost of the former "winners", etc.), and how that could be built into existing games in a way that still makes for interesting choices, yet shifts the balance towards a more historically accurate blend of individual leaders and long-term development of institutions and cultures.
Moving to World War I strategy games in particular, I'd highly recommend "Commander: The Great War", by Slitherine Games (http://www.slitherine.com/games/ctgw_pc). Came across it by chance late in 2013, but it ended up pulling me into one of those epic "gamelock marathons" where I was reading multiple books on the side to learn more about what I was playing, then playing long hours to try out what i was reading in the books. That's historical strategy gaming at its best, and I learned an enormous amount about WWI through playing through the 1914-1918 scenarios from both the Entente and Central Power perspectives. CGTW covers the Western and Eastern Fronts equally, along with the naval war and the underlying economic/production struggle. With the recent patches, it's one of the best strategy games I've played in a long time, and could make a terrific topic for your next episode. (Note - I have no relationship whatsoever with Slitherine or Matrix).
Cheers,
Chris
