^.^

Before I get into my subject matter for today, I must note that I have been off for about 195 days,
a HUGE amount of time in the podcast world. In large part, this has been because of two opposite
things ... too little has been happening in the local game world, and too much has been happening
in my local game world. This was because while my gaming group has been playing, the campaigns
have been rather short, and short campaigns tend to not have much to blog about...

So ... silence from the blog...

However, while mot much is going on in my own gaming universe, there are other games out there
that are well worth your while.

If you have ever thought about running your own country, consider looking around the Internet for political
or economic games, and get involved. Games such as Struggle For Power 1937 allow you to take the role
of a national leader. You control almost all aspects of your nation's policymaking. You control the foreign
policy and military, you make economic decisions, you control some parts of production and manufacture,
and you deal diplomatically with other nations. The GM moderates the game and comes up with the
responses and consequences of your actions, and then you react to those...

While the game is not flashy or video-involved, as popular games as World of Warcraft or such, the main
draw of SFP1937 and other diplomacy games is that you make decisions, and then you can see the results
of your decisions. Most of the time, this comes in the form of the newsflash, which comes out once per game
turn, with urgent bulletins sent to the entire group when necessary.

SFP1937 actually has an edge over other diplomacy games such as Diplomacy, and strategy games such as
RIsk in that in the case of Diplomacy, there is a broader focus. You can play an activist regional power, or you
can be quite isolationist in your outlook, whereas in Diplomacy, you have to focus on taking more territory,
and everything in the game is geared toward that. Risk has an even bigger focus on the taking of territory.

Currently in the game, the year is 1942, and Nazi Germany is a major threat to its neighbors in Europe. However,
where in real history, the world was deep into World War 2, and German hopes of domination were lost, in
SFP1937, that has yet to be determined, with a wily German government playing off one Western nation
against another. At the same time, other interests sometimes take center stage, such as a war on the Iberian
Peninsula, a war between Argentina and Brazil, the war between the Soviet Union and China (both communist
and non-communist), and other questions, such as the continuing empires of Great Britain and France, and the
rise of nations such as Japan, Greater Syria, and Greater Egypt, among others.

To join the game, or to simply look and see how the game is run, visit:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/StruggleForPower1937/

---
John B.
Blogger Guy