Bill Kirby Empire was probably the most complex non-computerized game ever developed anywhere by any
Bill Kirby Empire was probably the most complex non-computerized game ever developed anywhere by anyone. It was in full blast when I got to Reed in 1961. It has been attributed to Dan[iel L.] Drake [‘64]. I don’t know about that, I always remember Alan [L.] Arey ['65] in connection with Empire. Alan was one of my most unforgettable characters of my whole life. He used to stalk around campus in a black Portuguese student’s cape. He also had a higher capacity for alcohol than anybody I ever saw, even after my three-and-a-half years in the Navy. But he was a genius when it came to Empire, also known as Academic Suicide. What we did to play a round of Empire, or a semester of Empire, was to construct a Mercator projection type of map of a mythical planet, and then put in natural resources, and rivers, and chemical deposits, and timber, and everything else we could possibly imagine in great detail, and then divide it up into mythical, fictional countries, which would immediately start developing their intelligence so they could declare war on each other. It was interesting that some of the more rabid pacifists on campus that got into playing Empire turned into warlords almost within twenty-four hours. -- source link