SpielByWeb

[Mabi]

No, I don't keep track of all that in real life. I don't even try, as it would remove most of the enjoyment from the game, exactly like mining the log in pbw. But I think that having that info available makes for a much better game, though in real life there is a drawback: analysis paralysis and consequent downtime between turns. For this reason game designers introduce the rule of keeping score/money/whatever hidden, to reduce downtime and keep the game flowing at a good pace. Some strategic elements must be sacrificed to the 'social' aspect of the game, which is very important in real life.
Here in pwb we lose the social aspect, but we have the advantage of not caring about downtime, so we can play the game at its best, with all info available.
Face-to-face and play-by-web are two very different gaming experiences. Each one has its own pros and cons and I see no reason to try keeping them as close as possible.
(well, all this IMHO of course: gaming experience is such a personal thing that everyone has his own preferences and no one can say what is right and what is wrong ).

[Würfel]

[Golux13]

Except that in a f2f game, you always have the opportunity to track what the other players are doing. Whether you choose to take that opportunity or not is your choice. Tracking information completely may be more complicated or slow than you want to deal with in a live game, but it's still an option, and I would say that if you don't at least make some effort to keep track of who has what, how many of a particular limited resource are left, etc., then you put yourself at a disadvantage. Do you honestly not try to figure out how many armies are in the tower in Wallenstein when you're planning an attack? Not try to track who has dropped how many tiles of which color coral into their parrotfish in Reef Encounter?

In the online implementation, you don't have the same opportunity without the game log. The gamelog makes it somewhat easier to track certain information than it might be in a live game, and if that additional ease makes you feel like you're not getting the "right" experience with the game, then you don't have to use it. But again, I'd say you're putting yourself at a disadvantage and, assuming you do at least some mental tracking in your offline gaming, you're not really playing the way you play a live game.

The gamelog lets us all be Rain Man to a certain degree -- we can go back and (if we are willing to take the time) have perfect "recall" of everything that has happened in a game. I doubt most people go to great lengths to gain complete information (I've tried with Reef Encounter and it is far more trouble than it's worth); but I also doubt most people are wandering through their games in blissful ignorance of everything that may not be obvious on the board.

The one thing I would like to see changed (not a "gamelog" issue, but in the category of information completeness) is the availability of information about money in Amun-Re. I am pretty sure Milksheikh or Ryan explained why they did it this way, and it's probably a very good reason, but I can easily envision an implementation where the only information you had about other players' money was how many cards they were holding, which is public information. And I think such a set-up would make the game a little more interesting, as your planning would have to allow for more "fog of war."


EDIT: Of course, I just reread your note and realized that you were not arguing against use of the gamelog, but against opening up all hidden information. I agree with you on that point. I do believe, however, that people should remain free to use the gamelog in whatever way is comfortable and useful to them.