Thoughts@Mohta

Monday, January 01, 2007

Management Lessons - From AoE

From the time I have started playing AoE, and from the time I have understood the intricacies of the game - I have always tried to justify the game - in terms of all the lessons that one learns while playing it. This article is dedicated to all those who have spent countless nights especially during their college years - farming, cutting wood, mining, making buildings, building armies, fighting armies, plundering etc. AoE actually makes you do a lot of things in life.
Coming back to the management lessons, they are listed and justified as follows

1) JIT - The first lesson that I learnt from AoE. Today, almost all manufacturing companies talk about JIT, Lean, etc. Books like "The Goal", "Toyota Way" have become bibles for these organisations. A good player in AoE, ensures that

- There is no extra inventory of Wood, Food, Gold and Stone, and if he is maintaining them, it is only because he has some bulk usage in mind
- That none of his villagers are idle
- That if he is assigning a villager for a particular work, he has to ensure that the villager walks for the minimum amount of time to get to the place where he has to work, thereby minimising the losses in time due to walking
- That he does not have armies that are idle, and if they are, it is for a strategic reason, for example
- he could be waiting till he has enough army to attack
- That none of his buildings are idle, and are working full time in generating either more villagers, or more armies, based on the requirement and resources available

2) Lateral Thinking - Sometimes, a particular player may be completely thrashed in the game and may still turn out to be the winner. My friend Adi is a mastermind in this, and you could just never assume that you have defeated him. Guess, something that cannot be learnt as a lesson, it probably is a talent which is more inherent

3) Team Work - In a multiplayer game, without team work, assuming that the opposite teams are more or less balanced, winning a game is impossible. There have been numerous instances when, in trying to achieve personal glory, some members have made the team lose.

4) Managing Width - At any poing of time, a player may have to keep in mind numerous issues, such as, amount of gold, stone, wood and food available with him, population of his civilization, no. of army personnel, no. of villagers, no. of houses, no. of military buildings and their locations, mix of the army, position and condition of the enemy etc. The list is endless. To be able to tackle such requires tremendous alertness as well as an ability to reach decisions based on multiple variables.

The Game is undoubtedly one of the best strategic games ever developed. For all those who have never played it, I would urge you to try it out.

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