Last time, I talked about player interaction as a struggle. This time, I'll talk about it being cooperative... kind of. You're directly competing with each other, but the bulk of player interaction is mutually helping each other. This is done in the form of trading.
Let's take a favorite of mine, Bohnanza. This is a card game where you plant beans to try and make a profit. You have very limited space in which to plant, and you have to plant the next card in your hand. You're not allowed to rearrange your hand, and chances are the next card in queue is going to force you to sell one of your farm plots prematurely. None of this depends on other players so far. Nobody can do anything to your plots of land, nobody can manipulate your hand in any way, and you're not competing over land space.
The player interaction in Bohnanza comes from trading. On my next turn, I'll be forced to plant my wax bean, which will ruin what I have planted already. My opponent, on the other hand, happens to be growing wax beans. And maybe he has a stink bean I want, but isn't going to do him any good. On your turn, you can trade any card in your hand, and any cards traded that turn must be planted. This quickly gets into everyone helping each other, but not too much. Sure, I don't need this cocoa bean, but you having the cocoa bean is way more beneficial to you than the chili bean you're trying to trade would be for me. How about you sweeten the deal a little?
If you don't cooperate in Bohnanza, you'll lose. On the other hand, if you help your fellow players too much, you'll also lose. This is where the player interaction, and fun, comes from. You're not at a constant struggle with everyone fighting over beans and farmland. You're just simple farmers trading beans back and forth... and the trading isn't always nice. I mentioned last time about foiling plans, which can definitely be done in Bohnanza. My room mate will sometimes refuse to take your bean for free, just because he'd rather you be ruined by it than him get a slight benefit from it.
Another game with a similar trading mechanic is The Settlers of Catan. You need resources to build things on the map, but you'll often end up short of certain resources throughout the game. Players who trade with others will usually beat the players who don't. Now trading isn't as built into the game as it is in Bohnanza, and there is some other player interaction in the game, it still ends up being an important part. And, much like Bohnanza, you might refuse to trade because you just don't want to see that player succeeding...
So while some games can create tension with direct conflict, other games can create tension with mutual handshaking... and then arm crossing and head shaking. Maybe some evil grinning.
Friday, November 30, 2012
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Why deck builders are fun
Deck building games have been rather popular lately. It all started in 2008 with Dominion, which quickly became very popular. Lots of games have come out since then with similar mechanics, trying to cash in on the success of Dominion. But why are deck building games actually fun?
For those who don't know, deck building is a mechanic where each player starts out with their own (usaually very small) deck of cards. Players will attempt to get new and better cards throughout the game, which are typically added to the discard pile. Once they run out of cards to draw, the discard pile is shuffled and the deck starts over, now with (hopefully) better cards.
1: Customizaion
Well, first off, this mechanic lends itself to a lot of variety. Dominion, and many others, employ a drafting system for gaining cards. You can see exactly which cards are available, letting you plan ahead. Do I get card X this game, or should I change things up and get card Y? Even in games where you can see exactly which cards are available, the cards to chose from are typically different every game. This gives these games a lot of replayability, with the attitude of 'never the same game twice.'
Plus, customization appeals to people. This is my deck. Most popular roleplaying games try to employ this idea too, giving players a myriad of options to make their characters feel more personal to them. You tend to get more attached and more invested in choices that you've made.
2: Progression
I once had a friend tell me that he's a sucker for any game with a level progression. "If I can level up in a game, I'm happy." A similar idea is used in MMOs, giving player small and gradual rewards as they invest hours (months) into the game. They can see and feel their characters getting better.
Deck building games are somewhat similar in the sense that you can definitely see your deck progress. Remember that gold I bought a few turns ago? Well now it's in my hand, and I have more money this turn than ever before! Not only do you get to mold your deck how you want, but you get to play it as it changes. You get to feel it gradually getting stronger and stronger.
3: Payout
So in Dominion, you can only play one action card per turn. Most of the cards that are available to buy are action cards, so cards that let you play extra actions on your turn can be valuable. Because of this, new players are often attracted to the Village card. This lets them draw another card immediately, and they get to play two more actions. This card basically plays for free, because it regains the card and action spent when you played it, but also gives you an extra action to use that turn. So not only are actions important, but this card plays for free, so new players will often try to buy as many of these as you can. Honestly, this isn't a good tactic but....
... the payout is pretty nice. When I was new, I did similar combos. Pulling off an 8-card Village chain can feel very satisfying (despite being pretty much pointless). You build your engine (deck) to do cool things, and you've just now done this cool thing. It doesn't matter if that cool thing was pointless and lead nowhere, it felt awesome!
When you obtain your cards, you're not always sure if you're going to be able to do exactly what you want to do with them later. But, if you do, it's very satisfying, despite how little utility it might have in the end.
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So these are a few things that deck building games can tap on, that a lot of other games aren't able to. In Monopoly, you may be progressing in wealth, but you don't really feel like anything is really yours. You just buy as much property as you can, for the most part. You may feel great when another player lands on your hotel, but you didn't set up a trap for them to fall into... they just happened to roll and land on it.
The appeal of deck building games can be pretty strong, especially with the blowout success of Dominion. Lots of designers would love to make a fraction of its sales. The deck building market is rather saturated, and not all of them are that fun. Still, it's a fun and creative mechanic, and I'm thankful for Donald X. Vaccarino for making it popular.
For those who don't know, deck building is a mechanic where each player starts out with their own (usaually very small) deck of cards. Players will attempt to get new and better cards throughout the game, which are typically added to the discard pile. Once they run out of cards to draw, the discard pile is shuffled and the deck starts over, now with (hopefully) better cards.
1: Customizaion
Well, first off, this mechanic lends itself to a lot of variety. Dominion, and many others, employ a drafting system for gaining cards. You can see exactly which cards are available, letting you plan ahead. Do I get card X this game, or should I change things up and get card Y? Even in games where you can see exactly which cards are available, the cards to chose from are typically different every game. This gives these games a lot of replayability, with the attitude of 'never the same game twice.'
Plus, customization appeals to people. This is my deck. Most popular roleplaying games try to employ this idea too, giving players a myriad of options to make their characters feel more personal to them. You tend to get more attached and more invested in choices that you've made.
2: Progression
I once had a friend tell me that he's a sucker for any game with a level progression. "If I can level up in a game, I'm happy." A similar idea is used in MMOs, giving player small and gradual rewards as they invest hours (months) into the game. They can see and feel their characters getting better.
Deck building games are somewhat similar in the sense that you can definitely see your deck progress. Remember that gold I bought a few turns ago? Well now it's in my hand, and I have more money this turn than ever before! Not only do you get to mold your deck how you want, but you get to play it as it changes. You get to feel it gradually getting stronger and stronger.
3: Payout
So in Dominion, you can only play one action card per turn. Most of the cards that are available to buy are action cards, so cards that let you play extra actions on your turn can be valuable. Because of this, new players are often attracted to the Village card. This lets them draw another card immediately, and they get to play two more actions. This card basically plays for free, because it regains the card and action spent when you played it, but also gives you an extra action to use that turn. So not only are actions important, but this card plays for free, so new players will often try to buy as many of these as you can. Honestly, this isn't a good tactic but....... the payout is pretty nice. When I was new, I did similar combos. Pulling off an 8-card Village chain can feel very satisfying (despite being pretty much pointless). You build your engine (deck) to do cool things, and you've just now done this cool thing. It doesn't matter if that cool thing was pointless and lead nowhere, it felt awesome!
When you obtain your cards, you're not always sure if you're going to be able to do exactly what you want to do with them later. But, if you do, it's very satisfying, despite how little utility it might have in the end.
----------
So these are a few things that deck building games can tap on, that a lot of other games aren't able to. In Monopoly, you may be progressing in wealth, but you don't really feel like anything is really yours. You just buy as much property as you can, for the most part. You may feel great when another player lands on your hotel, but you didn't set up a trap for them to fall into... they just happened to roll and land on it.
The appeal of deck building games can be pretty strong, especially with the blowout success of Dominion. Lots of designers would love to make a fraction of its sales. The deck building market is rather saturated, and not all of them are that fun. Still, it's a fun and creative mechanic, and I'm thankful for Donald X. Vaccarino for making it popular.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Player Interaction
So when we sit down at the table with our friends and we pull out a game to play, what is the main goal here? What is the appeal of it? Why don't I just go back to the couch and pop in a video game? Well the biggest reason is to get that interaction with other people. But a lot of popular games seem to miss this point...
Let's take Dominion, for example. This game is very popular, the mechanics are solid, there's a lot of strategy, and it is competitive with other players. The problem is that the only thing you're really competing over is the limited number of cards on the table, and usually just one card that is in every game. Ignoring attack cards (which many games won't have anyway), the only player interaction in nearly every game of Dominion is just fighting over the limited number of Province cards on the table. In fact, there are even cards that will easily let you win without holding a majority of the Provinces, which can lower the player interaction even more. Dominion is commonly criticized as being a 'multiplayer solitaire' game, and rightfully so.
While I do think that Dominion can be fun, and the strategy can be very deep (despite not knowing what cards are going to be in each game), the lack of player interaction kills me. My room mate and I were playing an online version of it with all the cards, and nearly every game was played completely ignoring what the other was doing. I'd usually be watching something while waiting for my turn. Aside from attack cards and him buying provinces, what he did had zero impact on my game.
Now let's take Puzzle Strike next. It plays quite a bit like Dominion, and honestly shared more similarities with it than most other deck building games. But instead of the win condition being usually 'whoever has the most provinces once they're all gone', you're trying to survive a constant onslaught of player attacks. This makes the game a lot more tense. What the other players do greatly matters. I generally enjoy a game of Puzzle Strike more than I enjoy a game of Dominion because I feel like I'm actually playing with my friends, and not next to them. We're constantly struggling with each other, not just seeing who can make the best Lego engine.
Another example in the deck building genre is Quarriors. This game uses dice instead of cards, but it still falls into the same genre. Now this game involves a lot more luck on your turn (rolling the dice), and most of the decisions are just what things to buy on your turn, but there's still some player interaction. On your turn, any creatures you summon will attack everyone else's creatures automatically. Any creatures that survive a whole turn will score you points. This can kind of feel like autopilot sometimes, but it can still be tense, and what happens on everyone else's turn does matter. The drama comes from your smirking grin as you get a great roll and are able to summon three creatures to the field, and then your shaking fist as your opponent rolls the perfect combination to wipe them all out. Your plans were foiled yet again, thanks to the wonders of player interaction.
Player interaction is important. To me, at least. Not every game I play has to feel like a constant game of Tug-o-War, but I need to feel like the other people at the table are making a difference.
Let's take Dominion, for example. This game is very popular, the mechanics are solid, there's a lot of strategy, and it is competitive with other players. The problem is that the only thing you're really competing over is the limited number of cards on the table, and usually just one card that is in every game. Ignoring attack cards (which many games won't have anyway), the only player interaction in nearly every game of Dominion is just fighting over the limited number of Province cards on the table. In fact, there are even cards that will easily let you win without holding a majority of the Provinces, which can lower the player interaction even more. Dominion is commonly criticized as being a 'multiplayer solitaire' game, and rightfully so.
While I do think that Dominion can be fun, and the strategy can be very deep (despite not knowing what cards are going to be in each game), the lack of player interaction kills me. My room mate and I were playing an online version of it with all the cards, and nearly every game was played completely ignoring what the other was doing. I'd usually be watching something while waiting for my turn. Aside from attack cards and him buying provinces, what he did had zero impact on my game.
Now let's take Puzzle Strike next. It plays quite a bit like Dominion, and honestly shared more similarities with it than most other deck building games. But instead of the win condition being usually 'whoever has the most provinces once they're all gone', you're trying to survive a constant onslaught of player attacks. This makes the game a lot more tense. What the other players do greatly matters. I generally enjoy a game of Puzzle Strike more than I enjoy a game of Dominion because I feel like I'm actually playing with my friends, and not next to them. We're constantly struggling with each other, not just seeing who can make the best Lego engine.
Another example in the deck building genre is Quarriors. This game uses dice instead of cards, but it still falls into the same genre. Now this game involves a lot more luck on your turn (rolling the dice), and most of the decisions are just what things to buy on your turn, but there's still some player interaction. On your turn, any creatures you summon will attack everyone else's creatures automatically. Any creatures that survive a whole turn will score you points. This can kind of feel like autopilot sometimes, but it can still be tense, and what happens on everyone else's turn does matter. The drama comes from your smirking grin as you get a great roll and are able to summon three creatures to the field, and then your shaking fist as your opponent rolls the perfect combination to wipe them all out. Your plans were foiled yet again, thanks to the wonders of player interaction.
Player interaction is important. To me, at least. Not every game I play has to feel like a constant game of Tug-o-War, but I need to feel like the other people at the table are making a difference.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Dungeons of Gold
A simple idea for a deck building game. Classic fantasy setting. Players start with a certain amount of money in their deck, and maybe a few abilities and/or basic items. The game begins in town where people use their money (trash, not discard) to buy items for their deck (auction, maybe?). Then they go into the dungeon and use their items/abilities to defeat monsters to collect loot and treasure.
But treasure is cards, and they're useless in the fight. If you have a ton of money, your deck will be severely slowed down, but the winner of the game is whoever has the most money in the end. This way the player in the lead is slowed down, giving the other players a chance to catch up. This would also work as a balancing for people who possibly got a better set of items in town, as they might acquire treasure faster, and get slowed down before the other players.
And maybe a few times throughout the dungeon, players go back to town. Or possibly find a wandering merchant. Perhaps a few events on the cards that would give the players a chance to waste some money from their hands. At the end of the game, any items purchased are worth less than what they were purchased for (like 1/2, or maybe even 0).
The monsters and events in the dungeon would work very similarly to Munchkin. Draw a monster, everyone tries to defeat the monster, then gain treasures listed on the card if its defeated. You can only attack monsters with the cards in your hand, so even some of the easiest monsters can be a challenge for adventurers carrying heavy sacks of gold....
But treasure is cards, and they're useless in the fight. If you have a ton of money, your deck will be severely slowed down, but the winner of the game is whoever has the most money in the end. This way the player in the lead is slowed down, giving the other players a chance to catch up. This would also work as a balancing for people who possibly got a better set of items in town, as they might acquire treasure faster, and get slowed down before the other players.
And maybe a few times throughout the dungeon, players go back to town. Or possibly find a wandering merchant. Perhaps a few events on the cards that would give the players a chance to waste some money from their hands. At the end of the game, any items purchased are worth less than what they were purchased for (like 1/2, or maybe even 0).
The monsters and events in the dungeon would work very similarly to Munchkin. Draw a monster, everyone tries to defeat the monster, then gain treasures listed on the card if its defeated. You can only attack monsters with the cards in your hand, so even some of the easiest monsters can be a challenge for adventurers carrying heavy sacks of gold....
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