Alamaze is a game which has deep and extensive roots in play by mail gaming. Indeed, it traces its origins into PBM antiquity, having been first published as a PBM game of the postal gaming variety back in the PBM year of 1986.
The venerable game designer that first breathed life into what became Alamaze was Rick McDowell. The new and current owner of Alamaze is John Mulholland and his company, Old Man Games, LLC. These days, though, Alamaze is played via an online web interface. Alamaze is no longer available for play via the postal medium, having given up that ghost long, long ago.
The Alamaze website can be found here:
https://alamaze.net/
The Alamaze forum can be found here:
https://alamaze.net/forum/
An Alamaze player account can be created here:
http://fallofromegame.com/alamazeorders/createplayeracct.html
Alamaze is currently undergoing some changes - some long overdue changes, in my considered opinion. And it is my understanding that more changes will be forthcoming in future programming updates. Hooray for that!
Like many other PBM games of either the postal gaming variety or of various technological lineal descendants thereof (PBeM, Web interface, and client software varieties), Alamaze continues to seek out a larger and more active player base. It has been a challenging reality for many years, to say the least - and it still remains a challenging reality, even today, with no end in sight.
Some of the changes included in this most recent programming update, I, myself, pushed for. And to be certain, there are some very good and worthwhile changes that have been implemented as part of this February 9, 2024 batch. Notable among these are a host of changes that will eliminate gold dependency for a number of character actions. Of course, old habits are hard to break, sometimes, so some of Alamaze's prior gold dependency mechanisms remain in place.
But at least the game is beginning, at long last, to see some serious changes made to some of its dated mechanics. If it weren't for my old friend, Rick McDowell, Alamaze would never have existed, at all, much less catered to the gaming tastes of the PBM hordes from way back when right up to the current day. These days, though, the PBM hordes are less numerous in number and less frequent in appearance. But as I have attempted to explain over past months and years in different PBM publications and venues, there are a variety of different reasons for this falling off of the PBM populace.
To read and to learn about all of the different programming changes to Alamaze in its February 9, 2024 update, go here:
https://alamaze.net/forum/thread-9769-post-87233.html#pid87233...
In addition to changes made to the programming of the game, itself, this programming update also includes changes to the online game interface, which is called the Alamaze Online Order System. These interface updates are a plus in their own right. Kudos to the Alamaze programmer, who goes by the online moniker of unclemike, for the Alamaze game interface updates.
I encourage PBM Chaos readers to browse and read and digest all of the new programming updates that were implemented in this last batch. There's certainly real progress to be found amongst them. That said, I can't honestly say that I think that they all hold hold equal merit. Some, in fact, seem to be a step backwards. That said, I'm confident that Alamaze's current owner, John Mulholland, has invested considerable thought of his own into this large batch of programming updates. One can't fault the owner of a game too much, I suppose, for having ideas of his own about what strikes the "right balance" of competing issues, where rules and mechanics for a PBM game are concerned.
Some of the most glaring imbalances or overpowered mechanics in Alamaze are not addressed by any of the programming changes in this batch. That said, it is also my understanding that one or more additional batches of programming changes will be forthcoming for the future. With this large of a batch of programming changes included in the February 9, 2024 update, it will likely require some time before additional programming changes in any number or breadth can be programmed and implemented. Such things simply take time.
In several recent games of Alamaze, I acquired an affinity for the Demon Princes kingdom. Now, immortality within Alamaze has been watered down, and immortals really only exist in name only, as they can be killed - which is wholly at odds with what it means to be immortal in the first place!
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
immortal - exempt from death
Cambridge Dictionary
immortal - living or lasting forever
Collins Dictionary
immortal - Someone or something that is immortal will live or last forever and never die or be destroyed.
Dictionary.com
immortal - not mortal; not liable or subject to death; undying:
wiktionary.org
immortal - Not susceptible to death; living forever; never dying.
wordnik.com
immortal - Not subject to death.
yourdictionary.com
immortal - Not subject to death. Not mortal; everlasting.
thefreedictionary.com
immortal - Not subject to death
In the Alamaze forum, Alamaze player Windstar3 recently said, "Since Immortals are no longer Immortal, maybe we should call them something else?"
And in retort, Alamaze's owner replied, "I believe they are effectively immortal, as their avatar reconstitutes itself, albeit with a century-long interval between each occurrence."
It reminds me of an old saying about being pregnant. "Effectively immortal" is an attempt at qualifying language. Qualifying language, however, is not the same thing as persuasive language. One is either pregnant, or they are not. Similarly, one is either immortal, or they are not. Now, something like a vampire of legend may come to mind - immortal, but. Immortal, until you drive a stake through their heart. Sort of like an immortal-lite, I guess that you could say. Almost immortal. Somewhat immortal. Quasi-immortal. If something is actually immortal, then why characterize it as "effectively" immortal? Because the two are not one and the exact, same thing. That's why.
If it requires a qualifier, then it's something other than an actual immortal. Just like those supposedly rare warlords in Alamaze that are actually as common as daisies in the field. Nothing, whatsoever, rare about them. Rare in name only. Someone at Alamaze might be well-served to invest a little more time in reviewing the meaning of certain words in a dictionary, before attempting to sell the public on them. A demi-god is NOT a god, and a demi-immortal is NOT an immortal. Such clumsy word trickery falls flat on its face.
A mere exercise in word play does not automatically cure the defect that inheres in an attempt to reframe what an immortal is, and especially when its flawed from its point of inception. Since immortal characters in Alamaze have already been slayed (by a programming change), players being left with sub-par mortal clones that can be killed is a far cry from what immortals were in Alamaze not so very long ago. Certainly, players can simply imagine that their immortals-who-are-not can reappear a century later, but they could also likely just as easily imagine playing a different game, instead - one where immortal characters are actually immortal and can't be killed, rather than one with imposter dopplegangers with newly-inflicted mortal DNA.
Since none of my Demon Prince characters in Alamaze Game #5728 are actually immortal, anymore, as this new batch of programming changes have now gone into effect, perhaps a new player can simply be imagined to take my place, as I prepare to bring my play in that game to an end. Maybe I can reconstitute myself as an Alamaze player, a century from now, if off-the-cuff reconstituting theory is to now be the order of the day. It won't be a rage quit, since I'm not mad.
Rather, it will be a diminished interest quit - and the phony immortals will only play, at best, a partial role in my decision to abdicate ruling what previously was my personal favorite of the Alamaze kingdoms that I had tried my hand at playing. Watering down the imagination in an imagination-based wargame taking place in a fantasy setting, whether done in one fell blow or done piecemeal, will likely only make it harder to do two things:
1. To sell people on the game to begin with.
. . .and. . .
2. To retain people who already have some degree of familiarity with the game.
Perhaps others will find the emasculation of immortals to be a more interesting concept to play in a fantasy-setting game than I do. Blah. Bland. Meh. Just as a half-orc isn't the same thing as a full-blooded orc, and just as a half-elf is distinct from a full-blooded elf, a repackaged partial-immortal is definitely not to be confused with a full blown immortal. Yeah, it's only a game, when all is said and done, but whenever games make less sense, rather than more sense, it automatically becomes an inherently harder sell. I have really strong doubts that this kind of approach will prove to be a better way to sell Alamaze to the gaming public at large.
But hey, by all means, go for it. Give it a try.
Maybe all of the this-is-that and that-is-this, and up-is-down and down-is-up, nonsense has somehow overflowed from the hobbled Woke Era of the current real world into the fantasy setting of Alamaze. But more likely, it's probably just a good-intentioned attempt to change and improve the game - somehow, someway. But what's that road that's paved with good intentions called, again?
I suspect that what will likely happen in the coming weeks and months is that the more experienced Alamaze players will begin to easily slay these new half-breeds pretending to be immortal characters with overpowered artifact weapons which will remain in play. At the end of the day, what's actually been gained? A counter-productive nothing burger, where this new take on immortality for characters in Alamaze is concerned. Pardon me for not swallowing hook, line, and sinker the premise that a "limited time only" immortality offer is an adequate substitute for the genuine, real deal. It's not. It never has been. It never will be.
Even if a kingdom with pretend immortals still has plenty of benefits in other areas and in other ways, none of that transmogrifies these "pretend immortals" into actual immortals. Even suspension of disbelief strains to the breaking point, sometimes. This is one of those times.
Transforming immortal Demon Princes into immortals-in-name-only eunuchs doesn't exactly tempt me into signing up to play them, anymore. But as with many changes to many different PBM games over the years and over the decades, individual changes come and go, with some being retained over the long term, whilst others soon end up in the trash bin of history. Opinions can - and will - vary, as they rightly should, but time will ultimately bear out which particular programming changes prove themselves to be steps in the right direction. Who knows? Some may even actually end up preferring immortals-in-name-only as characters in Alamaze. Plus, too, players always retain the option of dropping out of games, once their so called "immortal" characters start dying (dying is antithetical to the very concept of immortality), and they can just join a new game to play with this new breed of lesser "immortals."
If reconstituting is how immortals is "explained away," then players can "explain away" their dropping and starting anew as reconstituting, also. What's good for the goose can be good for the gander, as the old saying goes. However, this would only increase the player dropout rate from beyond what it already is. Player dropouts are a problem across many turn-based games, PBM and otherwise. Players dropping is not a problem unique to Alamaze, by any stretch of the imagination. That said and conceded, Alamaze must find its own path to reducing and minimizing player dropouts. If actual 100% immortals are no longer desired within Alamaze's framework of game design, then from my perspective, it would be better to delete them, entirely, rather than to try and pass off something else as immortals, when they so clearly are not. If Alamaze cuts corners on immortals and immortality, then what all else in its design will get scheduled for this watered down treatment, as well?
Of course, all of the good changes that are included in programming updates to Alamaze and its online game interface with a big four-word name should not get lost nor overshadowed by whatever changes that don't seem particularly inspired or especially well thought out. But by the same token, just as one bad apple can spoil the barrel, deficient changes can sometimes actually result in a reduced level of enthusiasm for changes as a bunch. Maybe I can include my thoughts at length on some of the others new programming changes for Alamaze in a future article, including some that I actually agree with - which extends beyond just the new changes that reduce or eliminate gold dependency in some/many instances.
Now, my opinion is always, at best, still an opinion of just a single, solitary individual. That's all that it will ever be. No PBM game needs to rise or fall based upon what I, alone, think. Simultaneously, though, it isn't my place to give PBM games a free pass on scrutiny, where I think that they fall short. All things considered and taken together as a whole, there's probably more good to be gleaned from this latest batch of programming changes than bad. That conceded, in order to begin to make real and substantial change towards transitioning Alamaze to more of military game, as some have previously suggested, a significantly bigger lift than even this substantial batch of new programming changes will be required.
The real measure of success or failure will, I suppose, encompass more than any singular programming change, and more likely, more than all programming changes, combined. For Alamaze is going to need and require an investment in sustained advertising - and all of the programming changes, both now and in the future, are really more about refining and strengthening the foundation upon which an effective advertising campaign can be erected atop of.
For whatever collective praise and/or criticism that can be heaped upon Alamaze, Alamaze actually sits in a rather enviable position, right now. It started out with a sharp-minded game designer, originally, and a multitude of different changes and improvements were implemented over the years. And currently, the game benefits from a capable programmer, combined with the fresh blood of a new owner who bought Alamaze because he loves the game. That love and passion combined with a willingness to purchase Alamaze at considerable expense, as well as an additional willingness to invest in even more programming and in a forthcoming advertising campaign, translates into Alamaze having a better-than-average chance of achieving some degree of future success, I think.
In light of the long and inglorious fact that some PBM games never really seem to make any changes or improvements, at all, these days, the Alamaze crew should definitely be commended, at the very least, for their willingness to try. I am persuaded that they are serious about being committed to making some serious efforts to improving Alamaze, to both transform it into an even better game than it currently is (and even before this most recent large batch of programming changes, Alamaze actually already had a lot of solid things going for it), and to grow the player base in a noticeable manner.
To really capture the imagination of a large swath of the gaming public, though, I do think that Alamaze still has a lengthy road ahead of it, yet. Visually, it needs multiple additional updates. For instance, Alamaze and Alamaze players, both current and future, need a new map - to better capture their imagination and to more ably motivate them to redouble their commitment to the game. The current Alamaze map is better than several that have come before it, but even it now appears dated, at best. Or said another way, the current Alamaze map doesn't cut the visual mustard that modern era gamers have become accustomed to and spoiled on.
Also, player drops from individual games of Alamaze still happen with a frequency that gives reason to pause. I, myself, will soon be dropping the last game of Alamaze that I am still in. Will I be returning to Alamaze at some point in the future? Honestly, I just don't know. My gut at the moment tells me, "No."
And why all kingdoms' armies still field the visual equivalent of Roman legions, instead of each fantasy kingdom fielding better visual renditions for their respective military forces, by way of sharing one common, generic set of military group icons, is beyond me. I don't think that Alamaze is a bad game. I do, however, think that Alamaze tends to have suffered quite some time, now, from the proverbial death of a thousand cuts. Not a thousand cuts/problems, literally, but rather, a multitude of what are, individually, problems of a relatively small scale.
More small problems than big problems, for sure, but all PBM games these days seem to face some big problems - of which continuing to grow their respective player bases is a primary one. Programming changes can boost the odds of success in other areas, but programming changes, alone, are only part of a larger, more comprehensive approach to a solution.
At least Alamaze is now on the road to that journey. That's not something that can be said for all - nor even most - PBM games that exist, currently.
Again, just my opinion. All of you out there reading this are free to form and to hold and to voice and to share opinions of your own on this and other PBM-related topics. Feel free to write in and discuss and debate any or all of these newest programming changes to Alamaze.