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I’ve tried competing media teams in the past with the Brynania series of games. Sometimes it has worked well, other times not (largely because each rival media team is smaller than it might have been, and so more overwhelmed by the pace of news).
I think it is key to have media players who enjoy being the media, and enjoy the intrinsic reward of breaking a story. Interestingly, the one request we had from players who had megagamed elsewhere was “please don’t assign me to the media.” Clearly some people just like to be able to blow things up!
Regarding the press it is possible to have a press game that has competition between different media outlets.
I was press in the last Southampton megagame and we were competing with different outlets with very different agendas.
The more in depth the story and the more control verified evidence we had the better and that altered our viewership and respectability.
There was a feedback for other players as well as the things we reported on influenced how effective different factions were.
This was so much fun! Props to the game organizers for a great day!
Megagames can be a steep learning curve for everyone involved … and not everyone can keep up and hence problems can arise. I have taken part in several, and on one occasion I was part of the Luftwaffe HQ team (chief-of-staff) during a re-fight of Operation Sealion. We controlled several smaller subordinate teams, one of which just refused to communicate with us. The team was a group of wargamers from a club, and they were just playing it as a wargame. They ignored the briefing they had been given, and carried on as if they were not part of a command structure. The situation got so bad (there was a danger that they were going to ruin the megagame for everyone else) that I was sent to the team, ‘sacked’ the team leader (who was sent to HQ), and took his place. The rest of the team refused to talk to me until they realised that they had to if they wanted the umpires to listen to them. Within an hour they were acting as they should have been from the start and I returned to HQ and their former leader came back.
I learned a valuable lesson from this; having megagame teams that are drawn from pre-existing groups can create problems. You need people who can work together but who also understand concepts like command structures, obeying orders when they are given, and giving regular situation reports. I know that Jim Wallman and Tom Mouat do a certain amount of ‘casting’ when if comes to some roles in the megagames that they have run, and this can set the right atmosphere and provided a disciplined and knowledgeable structure of experienced players in crucial roles who can ‘bring on’ less experienced ones.