My thoughts on what makes a good game

I'd rather talk about board games than study.

I can't think of a good way to introduce this topic, so I'll just jump into it. I think that to analyze whether a game if 'good' or not, you need to consider two things:

1. How many choices does a player have?

If a player makes no or few choices during the game, the game is not good. For example, consider the card game War. Both players flip the top card of their pile. There is no choice involved, so War is not a good game. Similarly, Snakes and Ladders has players rolling dice and moving their pieces with no choices to make along the way.

2. Is it obvious to players which choice is best for them when faced with a choice?

Suppose now that while playing Snakes and Ladders, players throw two dice and choose which die determines their movement for the turn. The game is still not good, because a player can easily see which roll will benefit them more based on where their piece will land. Similarly, in Monopoly, when a player lands on an unowned property and has enough money to purchase it, it is usually in their best interest to buy it. Even if the choice is not obvious (for example when trading properties with other players), there are so few choices that one bad decision can cost a player the game (which relates to point 1 about how many choices a player makes in the game).

Now in Vegas Showdown (currently my highest rated game), players make at least one decision per turn, and the outcome of each option they have is not easily determined. Should you outbid a player to get a slots room? Or should you take the lounge at the minimum price? Should I save my money for a premier tile next turn? Each decision is quite tactical (which is a topic of its own), and the outcome of each is quite different in terms of the immediate and long term effects. Since there is no noticeable 'best' option, any choice the player makes will have a minimal, yet distinct, impact on the game.

For the most part, I think that's what makes a game good. There are plenty of other considerations such as player interaction, runaway leader issues, king-making, complexity, and plenty of other stuff that I haven't mentioned, but I think this is a good start.

Listening to... Transplants - D.R.E.A.M.
Link of the moment... A good resource for game design and the such.

OMG NEW BOARD GAMES

I think I'm already starting to freak out with regards to school. I keep getting more and more work shoved under my nose. The algebra course is the least of my worries since I'm pretty well versed in it already, but even the first assignment is taking way too much of my time up. On top of that, I'm taking a seminar on operations research where I've been told that I have to prepare and deliver five hour-long lectures in October. Again, at least there's a fair bit of material that I already know a little bit about. The real kicker is the Measure Theory graduate seminar I'm taking, where I have a presentation to give in a little over a week on how to do a sample question and I don't even have the pre-requisite knowledge to keep up in class. The prof has been relating everything we do in class to metric spaces that everyone seems to nod their heads at. Well, I suppose the one analysis course that I took neglected metric spaces, so now I have to learn 39 pages worth of it ASAP. On top of that, I absolutely abhor analysis, so trying to understand the material is like trying to eat hot coals.

But, I just have to keep telling myself that the worst that can happen is I'll fail miserably in my courses, have to drop out of grad school, and disappoint a few people. It's really not a big deal at all; I applied under the assumption that I might not be able to hack it anyways. Life is too short to worry!

On the bright side, it looks like I have Mondays and Fridays free! Of course, all I'll wind up doing on the weekends is working and studying anyways, but at least now I don't have to brave the elements five days a week. As a side effect, every time I get a new email, I'm too scared to see who it's from and what it's about, because lately the majority of my emails are from profs who are either shoveling more work my way or asking me to come in to see them on my precious days off so they can shovel more work my way.

Good news though: all the board games I ordered are now sitting in my collection! I went to pick them up yesterday and spent all day cuddling with them and fondling their components. I really can't wait to play them now. I actually had to re-reorganize my storage solution since I couldn't comfortably fit all of my new games on my shelf. Everything is very well organized at the moment, and there's plenty of space for future games.

My games nights are on Wednesdays now, as suggested by Dan (who originally suggested they be moved to Thursdays). I couldn't really care less if Dan and Sheena want to go to the Outpost on the occasional Thursday night (who would go before 10 anyways??), but I really made the change for Chanel, cause she watches Grey's Anatomy which is on Thursday nights and will be starting its new season soon. I know the feeling, cause there's no way I'll ever make ongoing plans for Monday nights (that's my Prison Break and Heroes night!)

At the last games night, I got another 8 people (I'm starting to get decent turnouts again!), so we split up to play Catan and Vegas Showdown. Those finished within about fifteen minutes of each other, someone left, and then we decided to play a game that accommodates 7. No one wanted to play Bang, and the usual split of "I don't like Balderdash" and "I don't like Pictionary" prevented either of those games as well. Bohnanza was excluded for length, and I guess Apples to Apples got looked over as well.

I decided to introduce Saboteur for something new (I don't think it had seen the light of the outside world for a good year and a half). This is one of those games that is really good with the right people, and the people I played it with are very much the right people. It's got the same hidden role element as Bang and Werewolf without the player elimination, and also that some players have more information than others. It went over well enough to play four rounds, and I'm sure it will hit the table quite often in the future.

Listening to... Hoobastank - Say the Same
Link of the moment... My game collection, along with ratings and comments

Woohoo! 14 hour sleep!

So, the other day I decided that going to bed at 4 AM probably wasn't going to work well with my school schedule, so I resolved to do something about it. Of course, you can't just shift your sleep schedule back 4 hours on a whim, so my plan was to pull an all-nighter and then go to bed early the next night. I wound up staying up for an entire 32ish hours without any sleep (well actually, I sort of passed out around hour 30 for ten or fifteen minutes). I went to bed that night at 9:30, and slept 14 hours straight (I probably could have kept going if my dad didn't wake me up). Unfortunately, I don't think it fixed my sleep schedule all that much, but it was a fun little experience.

I placed an order for my board games the other day. I'm still waiting for one to get in stock, but it will probably ship within the next week or so. When choosing games to buy, I tried to get a game that would fill every need I have. I got Power Grid for a heavy game, Citadels for 4-7 people, For Sale as a quick filler game, Coloretto for another filler, Shadows Over Camelot for a good thematic game, and San Juan for a fairly deep 2-3 player game.

I think it's interesting that ever since I've put serious thought into placing an order for games online, my list of "must haves" has changed quite a bit. The first game I really wanted to buy was Alhambra, and I've since changed my mind to buying San Juan as a substitute. I was also very intent on buying Category 5, but it didn't make the cut either.

I've transformed the back room into a games room now (well, it has other purposes, but what I mean is that my tables are permanently set up in there). The lighting is a bit better in there, and there's a bit more elbow room, but there are a few nitpicky drawbacks. The fridge and microwave are now no longer within sight, and I have to shuffle chairs around quite a bit to seat everyone. We'll see how I like the setup in a few weeks.

John's in town this weekend for a wedding and most of next week as well. I can only assume I'll see him tomorrow. It'll be fun to hang out with him again.

Listening to...
Link of the moment...