GG - your creations are amazing!!! (semi-game review)

[MarkShot]

For example, I recently had a major misunderstanding regarding supply and depots. I applied my misunderstand and rather than optimizing supply, I totally starved my advancing forces. Intuitively, I realized what I had done wrong. But I decided it was time to go back and read the relevant sections of the manual again.

Of course, you cannot read the manual without stepping through many data displays you always skip over while playing. I am always amazed by the depth and breadth of modeling you do in these games. Normally, you investigated a topic for a game and within 1-2 hours you understand its full scope and implications.

But for your creations, I just keep going down and down. And it is not just the manual, but the game itself and the data presented ... like:

The world is made of matter -> matter is divided into compounds and elemental forms -> compounds resolve to elemental forms -> elemental forms are made of unseen particles -> there are three basic particles -> there are a few basic forces acting on the particles -> one of the forces and sharing of particles explains material science -> another one of the forces acting on particles explains nuclear science -> these particles are mostly non elemental -> they can be composed into further short lived particles -> these particles exhibit wave and object duality -> ...

I provided this physics example, because this is how GG's modeling goes. You say I just want to understand depots and you keep descending deeper and deeper.

Is this a chore? No, not at all. It is a wonderous discovery. And what do I love about the complexity? Some games are rife with complex calculations, but the complexity exists to make the game exhibit a rich world. In short, the complexity does not map onto anything intuitive about the world, but it only exists mainly to drive the smoke and mirrors. This is not at all what GG is doing --- he is modeling (meaning to building a digital representation of reality; an isomorphic representation/function).

I used to say about GGs approach that it is heavily based on die rolls and statistics that it was necessary given computer limitations and BG legacy. A physics based approach of objects and agents with equations would place too much load on hardware for a game of this scale. But I recently have been exposed to an area of mathematics in physics called Mechanical Statistics ... most are familiar with this when it comes to things like gas pressure and temperature. (One need not model the constituent elements to understand the system as a whole.) So, in fact, I would now say WITW/WITE-2 are not simply models determined by computer hardware. In fact, they are models that can stand on their own for the results they produce.

People often ask, "Is this a grog game, and it is right for me?". I am not going to call this a grog game as to me it is just an incredibly elegant software design.

Well, I have to get back to my reading. I just want to say I am incredibly impressed.

Thank you.

PS: I said this was a review of sorts. Tom Chick once described HOI as "war in a box". A nifty description, but like many he was taken in by graphics. This is your true war in a box. If to you immersion isn't your graphics card hitting 80C, but a system that is multi-dimensional from which you can experiencing the challengers of war planners. There is nothing out there that comes close.

[Der Kuenstler]

Nice take on the game - this really is a deep and rewarding game if you are willing to invest the time and effort into learning it.

[Nazcatraz]

War in the East 2 is the pinnacle of strategy videogames. While WITE & WITW are great, they feel like an experiment for ideas, and those ideas all come together in WITE2 with many improvements. My dream is for War in Europe to be made. I have a dream and I will have faith lol. That will be the ultimate WW2 strategy video game.

[ShaggyHiK]

A war in Europe is actually unlikely to be created, because there will be too many conventions of action. Allied landing in 42? Political decisions? After all, the Germans ended up in the East because they chose, among other things, for political reasons not to fight against Britain on the island.

There are a lot of problems that will arise in such a game that cannot be solved so that everyone would like it. Especially without going into an "alternative" history

[hossjww30]

I love Gary's games. I have been playing them since the 1980's.

However if I had to pick my fav it would be War in the Pacific - Admiral's Edition. It's not a game but a masterpiece work of art.