Liquid War, Othello and the Penalty-Reward Relationship

Like most RTS games, the goal in Gate 88 is to manipulate your army into a favourable position, but unlike most RTS games, there is a serious penalty which increases as the distance from you to the point of action increases (eg. building a factory in deep space requires you to spend a significant amount of time away from your own base). Jack, who's provided some excellent g88 testing/bug-tracking work, has found Liquid War which completely encapsulates this concept into one neat little package.

The game has each player in control of an army of pixels where the goal is to simply eat your opponents' army of pixels (see the rules). Curiously, your only method of interaction is the movement of a cursor that your entire army attacks towards. Because you can only attack in one direction at a time, your defense in the opposite direction is immediately compromised (similar to g88 in that building factories in deep space immediately puts your base at risk since you have to physically fly away). The crux of Liquid War involves managing this penalty-reward relationship in which immediate gains are coupled with immediate lose.

Somehow the concept reminded me of the basic gameplay in Othello (some of you may know it as Reversi) where the goal is to flip your opponent's discs to your colour. This is similar to Liquid War in that pixels you've eaten turn into pixels of your own. Yet there was something deeper about it which I couldn't quite put my finger on.

Being an Othello noob, I decided to scour the net for any information on strategies and tips. Upon reading that "because of the nature of the rules of Othello, most moves you make tend to increase your opponent’s mobility and decrease your own (there are suddenly more discs for your opponent to flip and less for yourself)," it finally hit me: the game's "battle for mobility" is exactly the same gameplay as the immediate penalty-reward relationship exhibited in Liquid War! The penalty is your opponent gains mobility on you, but your reward is you end up with more pieces.

Of course every game has some sort of penalty-reward relationship. In FPS games, shooting costs ammo, but it's the only way to kill. In RTS games, building costs resources, but it's the only way to grow your army. In shmups (shoot 'em ups), going for a power-up often puts you in danger, but it's the only way to upgrade. What's special about Liquid War and Othello is that while Liquid War strongly suggests the penalty-reward relationship (attacking compromises defense, but you do not have to attack), Othello specifically states it (flipping more discs decreases the amount you can flip in the future, but you must flip each turn). Then, if every game has some sort of penalty-reward relationship, and Othello specifically states it, does that imply that every game in existence is just an instance of Othello? (!?)

I think this is why Othello has become one of the classic games of today alongside Go and Chess.

-j