Soren Johnson quits in a huff and leaves podcasting so he can try his hand at making games. But first, Soren, Rob, Julian, and Troy talk about franchises and how they develop, or don't. Rob tries to make the case for considering Paradox-developed games as a single franchise, but Troy explains why that doesn't work. Soren talks about the Civilization series, and why it has evolved the way it has. The panel considers franchise exploitation, and the Blizzard model.
Sep 29, 20110
Computer and boardgame designer Paul Sottosanti joins up Soren, Julian, and Rob to discuss how board games are evolving, and how their design philosophies differ from computer games. Is the popular success of games like Catan something that will lead to wider acceptance of board games in general? Why do Julian and Paul love drafting mechanics so much? How does the transparency of board games change our relationship to them in comparison to computer games?
Sep 22, 20110
Zynga's Brian Reynolds makes Planetfall on Three Moves Ahead and, along with Soren, Troy, and Rob, founds a discussion of Alpha Centauri . He explains what went wrong with the " Civ in space" idea, and the role of the game's fiction. He and Soren talk about how Alpha Centauri changed the Civilization series, and take a look at some of its strange features, like the design workshop and climate change. Brian reveals he used the cast album of Les Miserables for inspiration as he wrote for the game,...
Sep 16, 20110
Tropico 4 gets Rob, Troy, and Julian talking about city-builders and their quirks. Why are their politics so artificial? Troy notices that videogames say the business of cities is business, but at least they give strategy gamers something to look at. Soren joins midway through, because he can't stay away, and Julian wonders where the genre should go. Rob's Tropico 4 Wot I Think...
Sep 09, 20110
Soren Johnson and Tom Chick join Rob for a discussion of Age of Empires Online. Tom opens by short-listing the game for "worst RTS ever made" and it's rough-sailing from there. Soren marvels at the disastrous interface, while Rob wants to napalm those cutesy Smurf villages. Then the panel talks about how AoEO could be redeemed, and finds there are some simple changes that could make AoEO a very good game. Tom's GameSpy review Rob's GamePro impressions and additional notes...
Sep 01, 20110
Soren Johnson kicks off an extended visit to 3MA by joining Rob, Julian, and Bruce to talk about smaller-scale strategy games, and how they compare to their more traditional cousins. Julian thinks they let developers play to their strengths, while Soren worries about their potential to be ephemeral. Bruce suspects that if great games are ephemeral, that says a lot more about gamers than it does about games. Rob wants to like "big" strategy games more than he does, but likes the more contained ex...
Aug 25, 20110
Troy takes a victory lap after finishing his National Character series , and together with Rob delves deeper into some of the themes he brought up in the series, and considers some stray ideas that didn't quite make the final cut. Can stereotypes ever really be escaped, and do we even want to escape them when they provide such a reliable shorthand in strategy games? How would national character be portrayed by someone other than Anglo-American game designers, and does national character find a c...
Aug 19, 20110
Irrational Games' Ken Levine join Rob and Troy for a discussion of the Combat Mission series, realism, WEGO turns versus continuous time, and what we'd bring back to the future. Tim Stone on "Ignorance Is Bliss"
Aug 11, 20110
Freelance writer Phill Cameron joins Rob and Troy for a discussion of the games they've been playing that haven't quite fit into recent writings or podcasts. New Men of War DLC, Troy and Rob's changing views on Panzer Corps , RTS time-traveler Achron , high-level Blood Bowl , Out of the Park 11 , and racing games all come up for discussion in this open-ended discussion.
Aug 05, 20110
GWJ's Cory Banks finally dips his toes in the waters of turn-based wargaming with Matrix / Slitherine's new Panzer General remake, Panzer Corps. He joins Julian and Rob to talk about wargaming-lite, whether this really improves on Panzer General , and Panzer Corps' puzzle-based approach to scenario design. Rob realizes a newfound appreciation for daunting complexity.
Jul 28, 20110
PC Gamer EIC Logan Decker joins Rob and Julian for a discussion of Christoph Hartmann's comments that strategy is not a contemporary genre. They dig into his interview, and what he meant. They also cover other publishing models, and how they stack up to what game publishers do, and discuss how Hartmann's comments reflect a much broader struggle to figure out what people want in a new media landscape. Does being relegated to a smaller market actually make strategy healthier for those of us who st...
Jul 21, 20110
Troy and Rob are over the moon about Longbow's Hegemony: Philip of Macedon , and invite programmer and writer Rick Yorgason to the show so they can ask that timeless question: "How awesome is your game?" The three go into detail on the game's simplicity, its superb camera controls and artwork, its integrated and effective tutorial, and the compromises and adjustments Longbow made to the design along the way. Then Rick says there are two copies of the game available to loyal 3MA listeners, and Tr...
Jul 14, 20110
Taking a moment from their respective vacations, Rob and Julian pick up the pieces after a couple show ideas fall apart at the last minute. Julian wants to talk about card mechanics and why he likes them so much. Rob wonders if most PC games eschew cards because they tend to symbolize and abstract concepts, and the PC tends to place a premium on the literal. Julian also theorizes that poker's popularity changed games.
Jul 07, 20110
Ars Technica's Ben Kuchera visits Three Moves Ahead to continue a discussion he started about reviewing standards and practices. Troy and Rob try to keep up as the panel discusses how writers' relationships with their readers can affect their approach to reviews, what are a reviewer's obligations, and the value of genre expertise.
Jun 30, 20110
Mode 7's Paul Taylor visits with Julian, Rob, and PC Gamer's Dan Stapleton to talk about Frozen Synapse . They discuss the game's development, its lengthy beta process and how that has contributed to the game's success, and the decision to sell the game as a 2-for-1 package. Paul gets into the fiction a little bit, and how it has been received. Apologies for any audio issues. Some interference got onto Paul's audio track, and there were nearby lumberjacks chopping down trees with chainsaws....
Jun 23, 20110
Paradox France's Philippe Thibaut and GWJ's Erik Hanson colonize 3MA this week to talk about Pride of Nations , Paradox France's new grand-strategy game of imperialism. Erik and Rob are intrigued by Pride's cynical view of colonial competition and its novel mechanics. Philippe explains the game's origins and how it is at once a departure for Paradox France and a natural extension of their work as AGEOD. The Victoria II comparison comes up for discussion, and Erik and Philippe discuss the game de...
Jun 16, 20110
Vic Davis rides back into town to talk about Six Gun Saga , his new solitaire card-based strategy game. Julian is mighty fond of it, but wants to play with the rest of his posse. Rob is curious how Vic's Armageddon Empires and Solium Infernum fans have greeted this unusual game, and where Vic is headed next.
Jun 09, 20110
An exhausted Julian and Rob welcome Cory Banks back to the show to go over what they played at Julian's board gaming retreat. Could Agricola's position be threatened by young up-and-comer 7 Wonders ? Why is Battleship Galaxies the best space game since Sins of a Solar Empire ? Is Castle Ravenloft a baby game, or an appropriate introduction to strategy and wargaming for children and novices? On the other hand, why would you play that when Last Night on Earth and Invasion from Outer Space are so m...
Jun 03, 20110
Ralph Trickey takes a break from updating and improving The Operational Art of War III to talk about the series with Rob, Troy, and Bruce. They discuss how the game is changing through patches, and then debate whether TOAW is a game so much as it is a set of tools. They also talk about how scenario designers have put those tools to use, and what shortcomings afflict the system. Everyone shares his favorite scenario, but Rob cannot contain himself and names three. Ralph mentions plans for The Ope...
May 26, 20110
Elemental and Civilization V come in for a follow-up appointment with Julian, Troy, and Rob. Have the major changes that have been patched into these games translated into major improvements for the player? How much post-release support should players reasonably expect, and what can developers accomplish with it? What flawed games have become great with patching?
May 19, 20110
Here come the creeps, led by Rob and Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Quintin Smith! Fortunately, they encounter a maze of discussion and towers of topics. Inspired by first-person tower defender Sanctum and tower attacker Anomaly: Warzone Earth , Quinns and Rob explore how these games change the tower defense formula, and what about that formula needed changing? Are we doing a disservice to a neat mechanic by insisting that it is a genre? Why are we continually drawn in by games we often find shallow and...
May 13, 20110
Rob is pleasantly surprised by Revolution Under Siege and rounds up Troy Goodfellow and Broken Toys ' Scott Jennings to talk about it. What is the context for a Russian Revolution game, and how does Revolution Under Siege communicate that? Is the AGE system a good one for this kind of game, and why is it such a turn-off for some people? Most importantly, how the hell does an armored train work? Why wouldn't you just stay away from the tracks? Seriously guys, what the hell?...
May 06, 20110
Gamers With Jobs continues colonizing 3MA, but the natives still welcome Cory Banks because he brings whiskey and podcast topics. Fantasy Flight games is upset about an iOS game that bears a significant resemblance to Richard Borg's Command & Colors system, and Bruce, Cory, and Rob wonder what it all means. Before they reveal themselves as ignoramuses yet again, William Flachsbart , intellectual property expert, arrives to tell them what it all means. How carefully must new products tread ar...
Apr 28, 20110
Ah, good day, Herr General. The General Staff have prepared this podcast analyzing the strength and dispositions of the Panzer General series. You will have access to some new units for this mission. Bruce will shatter its defenses with an explanation of why he is not very fond of it, and Julian and Rob will go through the gap with an argument for its simplicity and refinement. Troy can provide air cover by placing the series in a wider context of genre and gaming history, but be careful. He con...
Apr 21, 20110
On the 150th anniversary of the attack on Fort Sumter, Troy and Rob rally around the bonnie blue flag and find Gamers With Jobs' Erik Hanson waiting for them there. Then they march off to discuss the American Civil War and its gaming legacy. They discuss how changes in a game's scale also change how the war is presented, why the war has such a hold on the imagination, and what were its defining features. A Along the way, Rob calls the Shenandoah campaign the Cumberland campaign, incorrectly plac...
Apr 14, 20110
Bill Abner and Dan Stapleton arrive to help Rob sort out the long-delayed Dawn of War II: Retribution episode. Rob isn't wild about the campaign for a few reasons, and eventually he starts to figure out why. Bill dislikes Chaos Marines wailing on electric guitars, and he thinks that's indicative of the direction the 40K universe has gone. Everything goes brilliantly until the show ends and Dan asks, "Wait, was I supposed to be recording?" Then Rob executes him, inspiring everyone to greater feat...
Apr 08, 20110
GameShark's Bill Abner joins Troy and Rob to discuss Shogun 2 , mortality rates among Japanese generals, and Bill's enchanted copy of Shogun 2 , in which everything awesome that can happen, does. Rob's Gamepro series: Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 Bill's GameShark review...
Mar 31, 20110
After the panel completely falls apart on the eve of recording a Dawn of War 2: Retribution episode, Troy and Rob soldier on by themselves. Troy hasn't played Retribution , but he is happy to announce his upcoming marriage to Field of Glory . Rob forgets that he's on a podcast and just starts talking with Troy, and along the way he mangles a great Provost Zakharov quote and explains why he thinks refinement is undervalued compared to innovation. At the end, Troy talks about his upcoming meet-up,...
Mar 25, 20110
Julian and Rob are at death's door following PAX East and a week of cruel beatings at the hands of Men of War: Assault Squad . Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Jim Rossignol, author of This Gaming Life , comes to their rescue, and together they try to figure out why this genre-breaking, rule-defying battlefield simulator exerts such a tremendous fascination. Wot Alec Meer Thot of the original Men of War Jim, in The Escapist , on Men of War and heroism Jim on Men of War: Red Tide Jim on Assault Squad...
Mar 17, 20110
During GDC, Tom Chick and Soren Johnson hosted a talk that was so good that a single panel couldn't contain them. They have invaded Three Moves Ahead to talk to Rob and Bruce about why strategy gaming is in a platinum age, how the business of development is changing, and the relative importance of AI in the development process. Then Tom, Bruce, and Soren freak out over League of Legends , although Bruce is convinced it's Land of Legends . Whatever it is, it sounds pretty good....
Mar 11, 20110
