1) There exist quite a few single player cardboard board games so assuming they're inherently multiplayer doesn't work. Mostly wargamer sims. I have a copy of Steel Wolves and some of the Field Commander series. Also the * Leader series where * is Phantom, Hornet, Apache, probably others. There are some card game "sims" that play pretty well as one person, the new pathfinder card game comes to mind. Pretty much any "multiplayer" game which depends on cooperation works pretty well solitaire. On the other hand, something like Federation and Empire is going to be difficult to "pretend" you don't know the opposition's secret plans.
2) There's two ways to share DF that I know of, one is the PBEM style where a group gets together, and each guy plays one game year and then does a (usually) entertaining and hilarious creative writing history of his year, repeat until final meltdown. Boatmurdered is probably the oldest, genre defining story. The other way is pretty much VNC/screencasting style play where many people fight over control of a mouse and yell at each other on video conferencing hardware. There are pretty good screencasts like the Vanguard of Valor series, his casts are a bit beneath my current level... my current level achieved (in part) from watching his casts, so a master/apprentice interactive screen sharing would probably be very fruitful (watch as I build a well without flooding anything or drowning anyone, now you've watched so you make one the same way, repeated for a zillion other tasks...)
I don't see any inherent contradiction in the game play or UI with having multiple UI windows open on a single DF game; it wouldn't destroy any game play mechanics to have ten guys on ten screens each running one level of the fortress, or having one guy dedicated to each DF-ish task, like one guy doing nothing but .mil, another doing nothing but construction, another one (or several players) doing nothing but workshop babysitting, perhaps another doing nothing but food gathering. I don't know of any technology to implement this, is there some patch you can download or some set of forums I'm not reading? I have just enough DF experience to be dangerous; not an expert or noob.
A fairly obvious startup idea would be some "dual controls" software library that could be applied to most any game for tutoring purposes. Not just DF but any game written to use the library. The social models would be interesting; compete to see who's the "best" instructor and "best" apprentice? How to handle what is griefing vs lack of skill?
1) There exist quite a few single player cardboard board games so assuming they're inherently multiplayer doesn't work. Mostly wargamer sims. I have a copy of Steel Wolves and some of the Field Commander series. Also the * Leader series where * is Phantom, Hornet, Apache, probably others. There are some card game "sims" that play pretty well as one person, the new pathfinder card game comes to mind. Pretty much any "multiplayer" game which depends on cooperation works pretty well solitaire. On the other hand, something like Federation and Empire is going to be difficult to "pretend" you don't know the opposition's secret plans.
2) There's two ways to share DF that I know of, one is the PBEM style where a group gets together, and each guy plays one game year and then does a (usually) entertaining and hilarious creative writing history of his year, repeat until final meltdown. Boatmurdered is probably the oldest, genre defining story. The other way is pretty much VNC/screencasting style play where many people fight over control of a mouse and yell at each other on video conferencing hardware. There are pretty good screencasts like the Vanguard of Valor series, his casts are a bit beneath my current level... my current level achieved (in part) from watching his casts, so a master/apprentice interactive screen sharing would probably be very fruitful (watch as I build a well without flooding anything or drowning anyone, now you've watched so you make one the same way, repeated for a zillion other tasks...)
I don't see any inherent contradiction in the game play or UI with having multiple UI windows open on a single DF game; it wouldn't destroy any game play mechanics to have ten guys on ten screens each running one level of the fortress, or having one guy dedicated to each DF-ish task, like one guy doing nothing but .mil, another doing nothing but construction, another one (or several players) doing nothing but workshop babysitting, perhaps another doing nothing but food gathering. I don't know of any technology to implement this, is there some patch you can download or some set of forums I'm not reading? I have just enough DF experience to be dangerous; not an expert or noob.
A fairly obvious startup idea would be some "dual controls" software library that could be applied to most any game for tutoring purposes. Not just DF but any game written to use the library. The social models would be interesting; compete to see who's the "best" instructor and "best" apprentice? How to handle what is griefing vs lack of skill?