Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!mbarnett
From: mbarnett@cs.utexas.edu (Michael Barnett)
Newsgroups: comp.org.acm
Subject: Re: The Programming Contest IS A GAME!!!
Message-ID: <1462@earth.cs.utexas.edu>
Date: 14 May 91 14:27:43 GMT
References: <9105020134.AA29577@enuxha.eas.asu.edu> <1991May9.004140.1116@tc.fluke.COM> <-F7BOR2@xds13.ferranti.com>
Organization: U Texas Dept of Computer Sciences, Austin TX
Lines: 24

In article <-F7BOR2@xds13.ferranti.com> peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
>In article <1991May9.004140.1116@tc.fluke.COM> kurt@tc.fluke.COM (Kurt Guntheroth) writes:
>> I can't believe all this <expletive> about the programming contest.  How is
>> football or basketball like real life.  It's a CONTEST.  Y'know, a GAME?
>
>And what's a game? A model of a system. The closer it gets to reality within
>the constraints on playability, the better. Look at any war game out there.
>Eastern Front, or Afrika Corps. These games are considered the tops because
>of the level of detail and the closeness to reality.
>

I have to admit that I read the above paragraph at least three times
before I could believe what I was seeing. Would those games become even
more popular if the players ran an actual risk of death or injury? 

I would appreciate some self-editorship else this newsgroup risks being
swamped. I usually try not to respond, but this comment was just too much,
especially with our "just war" so recently over.

mike
-- 
But then, that's one of the great things about living in America:
moral superiority is so damned cheap.
		-- James Crumley "The Wrong Case"