While I agree with most of the reactions to this review voiced here, I can't help but think that the review points out a couple of problems of Traveller quite directly. The first is that the game might be doomed to disappear because it does not provide any quick & fun entry points for new generations of gamers, in particular new generations with heavily shortened attention spans (yeah, thinking of my students at university right now). And while we might react to that in a dismissive way ("who needs them?"), the realities of supply and demand mean that as demand decreases, supply will dwindle, and we will see less and less products, with the astonishing consequence that well-respected game designers are not able to make a living out of their professional choice. Oh wait, that has been happening since GDW's days (if not for the internet, would there be any Traveller left?). Anyway, in my opinion the first problem is that the game, in any incarnation, seems to have given up the target of being a "popular" product.

 

The smartphone-computing-power comment in the review also ties in quite nicely with the recent comments that a) a great deal of Traveller is anachronistic, and b) most of the key elements of the setting are unrealistic. None of those are a problem per se (e.g., fantasy games don't have to face such criticisms), but the second problem I see is that Traveller does not seem to appeal to any significant segment of the market. Not hard-SF gamers, not troubleshooting smash-grabbers, not rule-bent roll-players, not any other group I can think of (but I might be somewhat disconnected, so correct me if I am wrong). So the game also does not have a niche.

 

If a product is not of general interest and does not have a niche either, it does not have a bright future in the market. It seems that, regrettably, the game just appeals to old (including myself) Traveller gamers. And why does it appeal to us, but nobody else? Well, I am afraid it might simply be an instance of cognitive dissonance, or choice-induced preference change, which is a very real psychological phenomenon. We all liked Traveller a long time ago, decided to use it, and now we like it because we chose it, very much incthe same way natives of certain countries "like" certain kinds of food that everybody else in the planet finds awful or disgusting (like Japanese Natto, German Sauerkraut, American Peanut Butter, or Spanish Horchata---<wink>). In other words, our preferences might have changed and be unrelated to those of the general population of gamers. And what is worse, we *want* to like new Traveller products, no matter what.

 

Oh boy. I did not want to sound depressing when I started typing, or give a lecture (I've been teaching too much this semester). But on a positive note, it is my not-so-humble opinion that Traveller has managed a notable feat, which is to draw together a more-than-remarkable community of experienced gamers, many of whom have dipped their toes into producing at least some game materials. The TML and CoTI are expressions of this community. I view this community as the real bearers of the flame, as opposed to any more-or-less-opportunistic firm getting their paws into the next version of the game (yeah, thinking GURPS there, but YMMV). And what I would like for the future (hey, one can dream) is to see the often-very-instructive discussions here crystalize in ideas for new games and game mechanics, **separate from Traveller** (heresy! burn him! bring the pitchforks!). That is, bury the game with honors and some tears, and move forward. Give me game ideas without the flat space, the absurd economics, the 7-day-jump rule, and without the name "Traveller" on the cover, but tapping the same sense of wonder and adventure that the original Traveller tapped into (and which does NOT belong to the game). I suspect many of the "home rules" out there could be developed into short but full-fledged games or game-rules modules, and many of the homebrew universes languishing in our drawers could be dissociated from the grandfather-to-3I setting and still give rise to quick, dirty & fun entry points. Of course almost none of us has the time for writing long pieces, but most of us could actually contribute alternative modules (e.g., "my combat rules", "my take on characters & skills", "how space travel works", "a better way to describe worlds replacing UWPs", etc) which might be quite interesting if we free ourselves from the need to squeeze them into the (alas) absurdities and quirks of good ol' Traveller.

 

Just food for thought.

--
Carlos Alós-Ferrer
Chair of Microeconomics, University of Cologne
http://www.decisions.uni-koeln.de

Am 14-May-2016 01:35:11 +0200 schrieb xxxxxx@simplelists.com:

This email was sent from yahoo.com which does not allow forwarding of emails via email lists. Therefore the sender's email address (xxxxxx@yahoo.com) has been replaced with a dummy one. The original message follows:

This is a pretty harsh review and after reading T5 I understand where
he's coming from. I *want* to like T5, but I find that it's almost
painful to read because there are just too many charts and too many
acronyms that the fun sort of filters out.

https://blackcampbell.com/2016/05/12/quick-review-traveler-5th-edition-or-the-ultimate-edition/

Kurt
--
Kurt Feltenberger
xxxxxx@thepaw.org/xxxxxx@yahoo.com
“Before today, I was scared to live, after today, I'm scared I'm not
living enough." - Me
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