Thread: The Importance of HeroScape
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Old June 3rd, 2007, 02:59 PM
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The Importance of HeroScape
In 1931, the mathematician Kurt Godel proved his postulate that any system sufficiently complex to be interesting or useful cannot be proved from it’s own postulates. What that means is deep, but the light version for HeroScape is this: Any game interesting enough to keep being played will always have nuances (read “rules questions”) that have not been previously solved.

That leads me to the assertion (if not conclusion) that playing HeroScape is an art as well as a science. There is a finesse to the game. There are things (beyond the mere rolling of the dice, which, in terms of probability, can always be exactly calculated) that are always new in the game, even beyond the human dynamics.

This is not to say that the “human dynamics” are not important or interesting; they are. The psychology of HeroScape competition, like that of Chess, Bridge, or even Checkers, is in and of itself interesting. There is a life’s worth of study of opponents and their various proclivities, tendencies, and foibles. (I do love that word “foibles.” It always sounds, vaguely dirty to me.) But there is more to HeroScape than just the psychology that is so important (and central, in fact) in Rock-Paper-Scissors.

HeroScape is a “complex system.” That’s a technical term. The more interesting statement is, “HeroScape is an art.” Our game may be a complex system, a chaos system, a self-actuating system. It behaves on its own, even without the human (and very complex) input. This game plays itself!

Of course, that is not literally true. But HeroScape, because of the infinite variability of the maps, the great variety of armies (both of size and composition and other limitations, such as “one General armies” or “no range armies”), and the complexity of the rules is such a complex system that it has the characteristics of a complex, self-evolving, intelligence generating system. This is a self-interactive system and we have been sucked into it, not so much as players or controllers, but as just another game component.

This means two things: First, HeroScape will never get old. Even if new units (may heaven forbid) ceased today, the game would continue to be new and to evolve, not in it’s written rules, but in the living play of the game. And, second, HeroScape, if let loose, like an Andromeda virus, will take over the whole world. I’m waiting for that to happen. It’s going to be fun. And the game will go on and on.

Of course, I may have gotten this all wrong.
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