As I write this entry, postal employees around the world are delivering copies of MMP’s latest ASL release, Action Pack 6: A Decade of War, into the greedy little hands of ASLers. The thematic notion of the pack—essentially a scenario per year (not quite achieved) for ten different years of war—is not its appeal; the “hook” that drives the product is that it comes with three maps that are a new style of geomorphic mapboard.
These “new” geomorphic mapboards mate with each other on their lengthy sides, but those lengthy sides can each also mate with two “old” geomorphic maps on the narrow edges of those maps. Similarly, two narrow edges of the “new” maps can mate with the lengthy edge of an “old” map. Theoretically, a series of such “new” maps can greatly increase the effectiveness and flexibility of the existing geomorphic map system.
Nice, right? But here’s something to chew on. These maps have debuted in 2010. That’s twenty-five years after the birth of ASL. And when one considers that the “old” geomorphic maps debuted in 1977 with the release of the original Squad Leader, it turns out that it has taken people 33 years to come up with this variation to the original geomorphic map style.
If this same level of innovation had applied to the development of the Internet, you might well be reading this essay with a CRT linked to a mainframe, and it might have originated as a multi-part Usenet posting. Over three decades for such a simple yet practical innovation? Really?
