A concept for Strategy games

Photo by Felix Mittermeier on Unsplash

In most of the competitive strategy video games (eg. “StarCraft”, “Rome Total War”) the player’s goal while playing a game scenario is to dominate by eliminating other players that compete in the same scenario. In reality, absolute dominance has never been accomplished, though under certain circumstances dominance within a defined chronological period and geographical area has been achieved (eg. Roman Empire). In non competitive strategy video games (eg. “SimCity”) the goal is to achieve a state of balance that will secure player’s survival within the scenario, but real-time interaction between the players is not supported.

Apart from competitiveness, time is also one significant parameter in classification of strategy video games, based on which they are distinguished into real time (RTS) with continuous gameplay (eg. “Warcraft”, “Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War”) and turn based (TBS) with discrete phases (eg. “Civilization”, “Heroes of Might and Magic”) [Wiki, strategy games]. Some video games combine turn-based strategy and resource management with real-time tactical control of battles (eg. “Total War”) [Wiki, total war series] in order to simulate reality, while others keep both features in a real-time basis (eg. “Age of Empires”) lacking of simulation. In both categories (i.e. RTS and TBS) time is conventional since battles and exploration of the map might be performed and handled in real time, allowing players to compete for hours, while building constructions and collecting resources is summarized in pre-defined, in terms of time, processes.

The strategy video games are further classified in dependence of the fictionality of their scenario, placed on a scale from fictional to historic. The historical or near-historical accuracy is the main aspect of historical strategy video games which are also known as wargames. Among the released wargames, those which attempted to reach a higher level of historical accuracy, they did not manage to gain commercial success or to create an impact on the overall sub-genre of wargames (eg. “Europa Universalis”). In contrast, some of those which emphasized more on other aspects such as gameplay or multiplayer mode by sacrificing part of the historical factor in order to appeal to a greater audience, they did succeed (eg. “Total War”).

A concept for strategy game could focus on the term of “accuracy” while designing a historical strategy video game, by taking into consideration archaeological evidence in order to position each faction within a defined time and space frame. Up to this point such games have not yet simulated the real world in terms of geographical and physical details regarding map representation and resource management. Geographical details have so far been limited to an overall positioning of each province on the map of the real world, which played a role in the war tactics but not in the further unique development of each province based on the facts of that certain area on that certain starting historical point of the game scenario.

In this sense, the notion of time will be approached dependently. Time is a relative non-physical size, that has been experienced differently throughout the ages. A travel in the ancient world might vary from weeks to months while in the modern world a message can be transmitted and communicated within moments. Thus, the phases throughout which a turn based strategy game is played are dynamic segments, dependent on the respective means of technology and sociopolitical conditions.

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