The Geryk Rebuttal
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In our search for a rebuttor, I approached Terry Coleman, a former Computer Gaming World editor who went to work for SSI, which has since mutated into a series of different companies with names like Mattel Interactive and The Learning Company. I'm not sure what it's called now. Mr. Coleman was the actual producer of Reach for the Stars, the sequel to Reach for the Stars. In a testament to the power Quarter to Three wields in this industry, Mr. Coleman ignored me.
Next, I turned to the guys at SSG who developed Reach for the Stars, the sequel to Reach for the Stars. They also ignored me. I didn't take it personally. They're in Australia. I figure it's some weird international date line thing where my email is perpetually a day away from reaching them.
Then I tried Tim Chown, Mr. Geryk’s old boss from Games Domain. Mr. Chown actually replied. However, he pointed out that it would be difficult to get someone to argue with the assertion that bad backstories are bad. Being the sort of sporting British bloke that he is, he offered to have a go at it if I really wanted him to. Old chap. What ho. Blimey. That sort of thing. I asked him instead to tell us about ECTS, which he’ll be doing shortly.
Finally, I turned to Alan Emrich, one of the fellows creating Master of Orion 3, which is related to Reach for the Stars in that it has a backstory. Here’s what Mr. Emrich had to say:
I found the article to be the biggest pile of bombastic bullshit that I've encountered in a good long time (and I listen to talk radio!). The author's penchant for losing and trying to retrieve his point forced me to re-read several execrable sentences, which is like trimming your fingernails by being dragged across a parking lot while clawing your fingers into the asphalt.
To coax him into responding to the article, I had told Mr. Emrich he could also plug MOO3 in his rebuttal. Which he did.
I'm happy to say that the entire opening of the game in MOO3 is very much set by its backstory. The workings of the New Orions, the Orion Senate, the Antarans, and every species and race in the game has been touched and shaped by its backstory. There's a reason we have Harvesters. There really is an Antaran mystery to solve. Events really do play into the backstory from time to time and advance "the plot."
We call that part of the '5th X' in strategy gaming. Many people are familiar with the term '4X' game that I coined in Computer Gaming World magazine many years ago: eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate - the pattern of your typical multi-player strategy game that goes from early development to domination. The 5th X is eXperience. Where you put the player in an actual role and it works together with the story. We're trying to advance the strategy gaming state of the art here such that these games are not mere exercises in abstract number-crunching resource allocation. That the world (or galaxy) is full of beings, and although some of them might be under your control, you can't always control their desires. You have to work together with them and make the best of what you've got.
Oddly enough, it sounds like Mr. Emrich and Mr. Geryk are both in the anti-Reach for the Stars/pro-Alpha Centauri camp. I'm sure he didn't really mean that stuff about fingernails and asphault. I looked up the word 'execrable' to see if it meant what I thought it meant. I'm sure he didn't mean that either.