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NewsvineThroughout history, wars have been ended for many reasons, but among the most frequent and compelling reasons have been final exams.
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In keeping with this rich tradition, Stanford Turf — an online, Risk-style game where students vie for control of the campus — concluded at the end of winter quarter. A short post on the main site, www.stanfordturf.com, declared that “the first battle for Stanford began on February 24, 2008 and formally concluded on March 16, 2008.” The victors in the conflict were a four-team alliance who agreed to a joint victory: Branner / Toyon, Sterling/GovCo, Wilbur, and Mirrielees.
The game developers sealed the victory after a period of controversy. The dominance of team Roble/Lag led to the formation of a strong, five-team counter-alliance (the victors plus Manzanita), which ultimately led Roble/Lag to exit the conflict by banning its players. Late in the game there were also reports of mutinies within many teams, including Wilbur, FroSoCo, and even very late within Branner/Toyon.
Alliance members felt that Roble/Lag’s exit only sped up the eventual results.
“Their defeat was probably inevitable” said Jeff Chern ‘10, retired Branner/Toyon commander. “I think they just accelerated it.”
“Well, it’s not fun to lose, or to lose to five teams, or to the whole campus...” added Dean Lowell Young ‘11, retired Roble/Lag commander. “Our team just disappeared off the map, to call to attention to how we had been the source of the fun.”
The decision posed a challenge for the developers and the allies, but after the elimination of Manzanita — which decided to fight on, rather than seek an allied victory — hostilities quietly ceased.
“We never really anticipated that someone would ban their whole team,” said Matt O’Brien, one of the developers of the game. “But it generated some controversy and interest near the end, with people saying: wait, Roble killed themselves, what?”
Players agreed that the game provided a fun pastime, however, even with the drama at the end.
“It’s naturally fun,” said Chern. “Everyone wants to go out and shoot a Nazi or some other bad guy.”
“The game lends itself to World War II analogies, I apologize for that,” he added.
Game developers Kirkland North, formerly Space Capsule Games, felt the experience was positive, and look to return the game to Stanford in the future.
“We were really pleased with how it went,” said O’Brien. “And we have a much better understanding of the Stanford campus now. There’s already a lot of interest in us heading back next year.”
While the conflict emphasized rivalries around campus, participants and the developers still kept their eyes on the larger picture.
“I think the end result is that someone from Harvard just sucked up thousands of Stanford man-hours,” said Chern.
“Well, a Yale [alumnus] managed to do the same thing to us, so we figured we’d do it to other schools,” added O’Brien.
Watch out, Cal.