Front page of Kuro5hin!

MattH · June 18, 2004, 18:16

Apolyton and the ISDG have made it to the front page of kuro5hin, a popular news site. It's a long, informative article about the Intersite Democracy game. Great work whoever wrote it!

sabrewolf · June 18, 2004, 18:21

thanks for the link... good text!

Quote:

With over three million posts among the fan sites, it almost seems like the players prefer talking about Civilization to actually playing it, and it's not without truth, either.

nothing new, but it somehow must hurt hearing that

alva · June 18, 2004, 18:39

Nah, people talk more about football than playing it too, goes for many other things too, come to think of it.

Solver · June 18, 2004, 18:41

They say that Poly and CFC have 39 and 34k users respectively. When was that, a year ago?

MattH · June 18, 2004, 18:47

The bottom of the article says

Quote:

Since this article was written in late 2003, three teams have been knocked out of the game: the Creative Design Group, the Grenouille team... and Firaxis.

Locutus · June 18, 2004, 18:48

Quote:

Originally posted by Solver
They say that Poly and CFC have 39 and 34k users respectively. When was that, a year ago?

Last September.

alva · June 18, 2004, 18:58

Good article

:) Smiley · June 18, 2004, 19:06

Quote:

From the article:

While a tank is likely to beat a group of cavalry in battle, based on their relative attack and defence strengths, there's still a small probability that the cavalry could emerge victorious, in effect by getting lucky and rolling two sixes.

Or a spearman rolling a full freight train of boxcars...

Ming · June 18, 2004, 19:33

Actually a good story. A good read!

Theben · June 18, 2004, 19:50

Very interesting. Has anyone heard of the concept of Demo games at another gaming forum (outside the Civ ones)?

Arnelos · June 18, 2004, 19:52

Arian Hon is the author and a member of the Apolyton ISDG Team. He thought to post a link in the ISDG private forum, but I'm glad someone noticed and posted a link out here in public.

Needless to say, I'm glad his article made it in there.

- Consul Arnelos

Arnelos · June 18, 2004, 19:55

Quote:

Originally posted by MattH
The bottom of the article says

Quote:

Since this article was written in late 2003, three teams have been knocked out of the game: the Creative Design Group, the Grenouille team... and Firaxis.

And both GCA and CGN are effectively out of the running for winning the game.

The game has ultimately come down to two alliances: One lead by Apolyton, the other lead by the German Webring Team (GWT). The allies of Apolyton are CFC and CGN. The allies of the Germans are GCA.

MattH · June 18, 2004, 19:59

Is there anywhere I, as an outsider, can go to get the story on the game so far?

Arnelos · June 18, 2004, 20:02

Quote:

Originally posted by MattH
Is there anywhere I, as an outsider, can go to get the story on the game so far?

You could always, as a member of Apolyton, join the team.

Post in that thread and PM Beta if you want to join.

If you're just looking for a public story, I know we've had a few News updates on the Civ3 page, but I forget how long ago the last one went out. Lemme go look.

MattH · June 18, 2004, 20:06

The thing is I don't have time or experience to add to the team so I won't waste anybody's time.

Arnelos · June 18, 2004, 20:14

Geesh, the last one was a long time ago and I'm not entirely sure whether this made it on the front page because Togas sent it to MarkG when he was off on army duty. Anyhow, here's the last one that we tried to post back in December, 2003 on about Turn 140 (230 AD):

Quote:

Originally posted by Togas
Heading into Turn 140 (230ad) of the Intersite Civ3 Competition (using PTW), Team Apolyton is still in the hunt and going strong against teams from the other major civilization sites!

On Apolyton's continent, the team from the Creative Design Group was the first eliminated. They were destroyed by the Gamecatcher Alliance team.

At present Apolyton and the Civ Fanatics Center are both at war with the Gamecatchers, and the Gamecatchers are close to defeat. Apolyton has conquered most of the former Gamecatcher territory on one side of a continental chokepoint, and the Civfanatics have conquered most of the territory on the other.

On another continent the Civilization Gaming Network and the Civilization Webring Team (aka German Webring Team) have both defeated their neighbors (Grenouille and Firaxis) and now face off as the world's top two powers. Relations are tense between the two super powers.

The Apolyton Intersite Team is now lead by a trio of "Consuls": NotYouEither, Arnelos, and Trip. Every month one of the Consuls is up for election. Most recently Trip won the election, replacing the retired former Consul BigFree.

The ministers who advise them are: Aggie (Minister of War), E_T (Domestic Minister), and Togas (Foreign Affairs Minister).

Arnelos · June 18, 2004, 20:58

I'm going to see if we can get something of a "story thusfar" out here in public. Working on that now.

Harry Tuttle · June 18, 2004, 21:05

and now I know the story about the modders at CDG. I've always wondered why they have so many WW2 mods...

Arnelos · June 18, 2004, 21:27

Well, a few notes I can make right now in public:

* We just played Turn 185 (690 AD).

* Apolyton is 2nd in the world in most demographic statistics, behind the German Webring Team (GWT), which has 1st in most categories.

* CGN, previously the world's dominant economic and cultural power, has been all but wiped out by GWT's sizable army of Ansar Warriors over the past 20-30 turns.

* Apolyton has recently been involved in a massive REX effort to resettle the lands conquered from GCA. I don't think I've ever played a game where I was moving around that many settlers all at the same time.

*Apolyton and GWT are the dominant world powers now, with CFC in a distant 3rd and GCA in an incredibly distant 4th (having been gifted lands by GWT on their continent to save them from destruction at the hands of Apolyton and CFC). CGN has only two cities left, one on their home continent (whose days are most certainly numbered) and one on our continent which was gifted to them by Apolyton to keep them in the game.

That's probably all I should say out here until we can draft up a news report for public consumption.

DarkCloud · June 18, 2004, 22:01

Quote:

Great work whoever wrote it!

it is pretty good

funny to see the people who don't play civ (those who wrote back) wondering whether this might promote real life diplomatic activity... and all the concern about cheating

-
by the way, adrianhon actually posts here at apolyton MattH, so you can send him a PM to congratulate him if you like

Arnelos · June 18, 2004, 22:32

Hey, DarkCloud, *you* should check out last turn's report, seeing as your name appears in it.

MattH · June 18, 2004, 22:50

Is there any chance that saves etc. from the various teams will be made public when the game is over? Screenshots maybe?

MarkG · June 19, 2004, 00:48

Quote:

Originally posted by Arnelos
Geesh, the last one was a long time ago and I'm not entirely sure whether this made it on the front page

well you do have a civgroup where you can post news yourself

Adrian Hon · June 19, 2004, 03:31

Thanks guys, I'm glad you liked the article. As soon as I heard of the ISDG I knew I had to write about it to get the word out to as many people as possible; hopefully I should be able to write up another article when the game finishes.

MarkG · June 19, 2004, 07:38

Thank you for the article Adrian

Solver · June 19, 2004, 07:48

Yes, again, it was a good read. I am not a fan of democracy games myself, but I have to admit that they are a very interesting phenomena and definitely worthy of attention.

Donegeal · June 19, 2004, 11:00

Quote:

Originally posted by MattH
Is there any chance that saves etc. from the various teams will be made public when the game is over? Screenshots maybe?

I hope my teammates don't mind, but here is an edited screenshot for turn 140.

Map removed for security purposes.

Quote:

Originally posted by Togas
Heading into Turn 140 (230ad) of the Intersite Civ3 Competition (using PTW), Team Apolyton is still in the hunt and going strong against teams from the other major civilization sites!

On Apolyton's continent, the team from the Creative Design Group was the first eliminated. They were destroyed by the Gamecatcher Alliance team.

At present Apolyton and the Civ Fanatics Center are both at war with the Gamecatchers, and the Gamecatchers are close to defeat. Apolyton has conquered most of the former Gamecatcher territory on one side of a continental chokepoint, and the Civfanatics have conquered most of the territory on the other.

On another continent the Civilization Gaming Network and the Civilization Webring Team (aka German Webring Team) have both defeated their neighbors (Grenouille and Firaxis) and now face off as the world's top two powers. Relations are tense between the two super powers.

The Apolyton Intersite Team is now lead by a trio of "Consuls": NotYouEither, Arnelos, and Trip. Every month one of the Consuls is up for election. Most recently Trip won the election, replacing the retired former Consul BigFree.

The ministers who advise them are: Aggie (Minister of War), E_T (Domestic Minister), and Togas (Foreign Affairs Minister).

(PS, If you guys think this is too much, post here or PM me and I'll remove it)

Kloreep · June 19, 2004, 13:06

Quote:

Originally posted by MattH
The thing is I don't have time or experience to add to the team so I won't waste anybody's time.

You wouldn't be wasting anyone's time.

You're not required to contribute, just follow certain rules like not spying for other teams etc.

Feel free to join.

Arnelos · June 19, 2004, 17:01

Donegeal,

Posting here. Please remove map. GCA and GWT do not have maps of that entire territory and publicly posting it would allow them to see parts of our territory they cannot see in-game (basically everything north of about Karina).

If we could create a map that showed everything SOUTH of about Karina (which they already know) and left the areas north of it blacked out, that would be acceptable since it would reveal no new in-game info.

Master Zen · June 19, 2004, 19:40

Quote:

Originally posted by MattH
Is there any chance that saves etc. from the various teams will be made public when the game is over? Screenshots maybe?

Just join up!!!

There are a huge amount of members, many of who just lurk around and vote in polls. You are not required to contribute anything or post anything at all, just send Beta a PM and you'll likely be authorized.