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Designer's Notes |
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Merchant Adventurer wasn't originally meant to be a video game. But I decided that I |
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wanted to create a video game version with more complexity and features than the |
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tabletop game. I also wanted to create a game less complicated than Colonial Aeon |
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while developing that game. Both games share the same look and feel, but the aesthetics |
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of Merchant Adventurer were originally imagined for Colonial Aeon. |
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TIMESPAN |
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The game begins in 982 CE, when Erik the Red was banished from Iceland for 3 years. |
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He then sailed to Greenland in hopes of eventual commercial success, though he was not |
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the first to have discovered it. The game ends after 1601, early in the next year the |
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Dutch East India Company was born along with a new era in business and trade. |
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ASSOCIATIONS |
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During most of the era that Merchant Adventurer takes place in, joint-stock companies |
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and commercial corporations were a very rare thing. Some exceptions did exist, most |
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notably the Bazacle Milling Company of Toulouse. And though by the last half of the |
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16th century joint-stock companies started to become more common, they were still not |
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the norm. However, I still chose to structure commercial organizations in this fashion. |
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In those times networks of partnerships were often the primary method of business, and |
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shares were often issued by individual expeditions or for individual properties, such as |
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ships and mines. Since Merchant Adventurer is played on such a large scale, and there is |
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more to focus on in the game besides commercial obligations, associations are meant to |
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represent and streamline all of these socioeconomic phenomena so that players can better |
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concentrate on economic strategies efficiently, rather than spend too much energy |
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incessantly micromanaging social and business affairs. Those are excellent gaming |
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topics as well, however, they are best suited for another type of game. I also chose not to |
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allow associations to switch hands to represent the family ties in many business back |
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then. In addition to this, automatic dividends are paid to shareholders in certain |
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circumstances to prevent associations from accumulating too much capital, without going |
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out of their way to do so. This simulates the temporary nature of most commercial |
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contracts in the pre-modern business world, which usually resulted in payouts of revenue |
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from a particular endeavour as soon as it was available. |
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GOVERNMENT |
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During the late medieval age and renaissance Europe was ruled by a patchwork of |
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plutocratic republics and monarchies. In either case the nobles were usually a strong |
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factor in governance. Rather than delve into the particulars of these sociopolitical |
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elements, I chose financial influence as a simple method to determine local political |
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power. The reason for this is because I meant for the political aspect of this game to be |
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a secondary tool for player's to utilize for their business strategies, rather than a |
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detailed subject. Sacrificing one's own coins for political influence to gain a strategic |
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edge in a particular region simulates the balance of power across both the republics and |
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monarchies quite well. This, coupled with the potential for the military domination of |
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these same regions provides a dynamic atmosphere of alternative strategies in a |
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predominately economic game. |
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CIVILIZATIONS |
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I wanted to give players the ability to control non-European entities in this game, unlike |
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in the tabletop game. This is another idea taken from the game Colonial Aeon, though the |
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depth of non-European entities in this game is even more limited than it is in Colonial |
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Aeon. In both games players aren't able to manage individual non-European commercial |
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organizations. This is covered in other games. For example, in Dynastic Investors players |
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are able to control private businesses in China during the Song Dynasty. The mechanics |
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of non-European entities in Merchant Adventurer and Colonial Aeon are more like a |
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traditional strategy game, where 1 player controls an entire civilization. And these |
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civilizations are dynamically tied into the economy. They aren't meant to explore the |
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details of non-European civilizations of the time, but meant to add another dimension |
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of strategic complexity to the game. They offer other ways to manipulate the game, both |
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economically and militaristically. |
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