Game Log/Game replay as a helping/teaching resource?

[Ingix]

Something AdamH wrote in forum.shuffleit.nl/index.php?topic=878.msg6311 I find very interesting, though I don't totally agree:

Having game logs that look great and are very useful (and shareable) is a really good way to bring in new people to the game.

That sounds really strange to me, because looking at game logs, even if they are looking nice, isn't IMO something that brings in new players. What I do think however, is that the ability to replay/re-experience a game can be a good tool to getting into that game and/or getting better in a game.

For classic games like Chess or Go the method of choice has for decades (and longer) been some form of recording. Purely textual for Chess ("1.e4 e5 2. ...") and with formal pictures of the board for Go. This allowed countless generations of players to learn the theoretical lessons of their teachers by actually experiencing and observing them in a game where they can concentrate on understanding, not finding the good moves themselves.

Of course, computers have helped immensely, lifting the burden of actually placing stones on the Go board after finding the next move in the picture from the player. If I so wanted, I could replay the games of the last Chess World Championship or some mayor Go tournament. But I can't replay a very good game of Dominion to learn from, or even just my last game, to analyze where it went wrong.

At the moment, I can reload a game at a certain position, and since deck and hands are the same, it will continue similarly. But after the next shuffle everything is off. What would be nice would be to have the ability to "walk through the game log", but not in a textual version but the actual client version. Then I could re-experience a game, complete with seeing what each player saw.

This could be used to introduce players that know the game but are new to the online version to the interface by showing it to them in a simple game, where they only need to click "Next" or "Go Back". It could be used to teach completely new players the game (interface and rules). It could be used to explain certain tactical and theoretical concepts with actual real world examples that can be seen and experienced. It would make it possible to see how a very good match of Dominion looks like.

[AdamH]

Something AdamH wrote in forum.shuffleit.nl/index.php?topic=878.msg6311 I find very interesting, though I don't totally agree:

Having game logs that look great and are very useful (and shareable) is a really good way to bring in new people to the game.

That sounds really strange to me, because looking at game logs, even if they are looking nice, isn't IMO something that brings in new players.

I'm thinking about the opportunity to share game logs on the internet. I can link someone to a game log and they can look at it and say "wow, that game log looks great, how did you get it?" and then I'm all like "you can play Dominion online" and they're all like "wow that's so cool" and then I link them.

It's how I found out about Isotropic. Pretty much everyone IRL that I talk to about Dominion has never heard of an online client, and the more different ways people can be exposed to it, the larger the potential customer base.

Once the software is in a state that's worth advertising I'd say improving game logs is one of the higher priorities. Of course I have no delusions of that actually happening but what do I know?

[tufftaeh]

I made that replay option my personal #1 request (missing the most - April edition).
I'm just too lazy to go through the game backwards (repeated undos should work) but would love to re-visit my decsions in a comfortable way.
Buttons for "Forward"/"Back" would be great, maybe additionaly "Continuous Replay" and "Pause".