Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[pmcd9]

What I meant to say is there are only two teams because there is only offense and defense.  To accomidate a third team you would need a new aspect of play.

~Paul

[Golfhaus]

Paul, I realize there's enough bs games out there, but I don't think the NBA is disappearing anytime soon, so we move on.

As far as game theory goes, three- or more- cornered contests are nearly impossible to balance if all sides are to be in conflict at all times.  Even the simplest complicit cooperation between any two sides would be enough to change the game from one of skill to one of numbers.  This begins to even out if there are enough sides (say, nine or more), but it's still a sizeable advantage if two teams work together against others who are competing alone.

I still have confidence that this game of numbers can be restricted, if not eliminated, through unique game design. In the case of a defense that's twice the size of the offense, this could potentially be deflated by reducing the team members on defense (like in the tri-baseball example) or through the implementation of zones on the field where numbers are restricted (I'm thinking at this point of handball, where only the goalkeeper is allowed within six metres of goal).

On a side note, it pisses me off that I only get to see handball once every four years. I think I'd really love that sport if I could just, you know... watch it.

The thought of a multiteam game with a larger number of teams (like twenty or more) crossed my mind too. Not sure how something like that would play out, but it works in auto racing.

[Carlos del Vaca]

This is a very good question.

Someone sometime should have written a science fiction book where the team sports are like that.  And if they did, someone on this board knows about it.  Anyone?

Goddammit I am a dork.  There's an installment in Robert Asprin's "Myth Adventures" series in which the protagonists need to retrieve some talisman that is now being used as a trophy in a rugby/soccer-type game with goals at each end.  They set up a match with a triangular field, a goal at each corner, and three teams playing.  The score is tallied as goals against, and the good guys win when they split the ball in half with an axe, and score on each of their opponents' goals as time expires, and thus triumph 1.5-1.5-1.

DORK

[Golfhaus]

The score is tallied as goals against,

Well, there ya go.

[wombat]

I knew a dork would triumph eventually.  One Dr Pepper to you, sir.

[Ben-San]

Goddammit I am a dork.  There's an installment in Robert Asprin's "Myth Adventures" series in which the protagonists need to retrieve some talisman that is now being used as a trophy in a rugby/soccer-type game with goals at each end.

It's not a talisman. They just promised the trophy to someone as a birthday present without realizing what they were getting into.

[Turbo Ninja]

Back when I lived on-campus in college, our Residential Life dogooders would organize a pseudo-olympics for our particular neighborhood.  The South Green Games featured, among other contests, a four-way volleyball game.  Imagine four nets set up in X shape with each team of four (or was it five?) players in each quadrant.  The game was played just like regular volleyball, except you could hit the ball over any portion of the net into any other quadrant.  The objective was to be the first team to score 15 points, winner take all because you couldn't play very well with just three teams.

My team (Hoover House) was bad at four-way volleyball, but that's what happens when you're the honors dorm.

[Pedro Picasso]

There's already too many ridiculous bs sports out there, we don't need to invent any more.

~Paul

Nuts to that!  I want my SlamBall back!

Imagine four nets set up in X shape with each team of four (or was it five?) players in each quadrant.  The game was played just like regular volleyball, except you could hit the ball over any portion of the net into any other quadrant.

Does this remind anyone else of Warlords for the Atari 2600?