This article talks about my reflections on fun games. It includes:
What makes a board game more (or less) fun? It is based on my experience playing games at Ludica, my own observations, along with my thoughts about the principles from 2 readings (Why We Play Games, and GameFlow),
A simple physical or social game (not a board/video game) I find that me and my friends can play, and
How did the "fun-ness" of the game I chose to play compare to what I learned about board games at Ludica.
Part 1: What makes a board game more or less fun?
At Ludica, I played Scrabble (a classic word game), Pentago (an abstract strategy game), Bears VS Babies (a monster building card game) and Dream Factory (a movie producing card game). Based on my understanding of the three pre-assigned readings, my experience and observation, I think the following principles can make board games more fun.
Challenges:
From my observation, people who are board game enthusiasts enjoy more challenging games than people who seldom play board games. Hard fun creates emotion by structuring experience towards the pursuit of a goal (Lazzaro, 2004). Have different levels of challenges in the board game that fit players’ skills will very likely create more enjoyment for players; the level of challenge can increase as player progress through the game (Sweetser & Wyeth, 2005), and they will get a sense of achievement after they accomplish the level.
Entertainment:
Board games don’t have to be challenging all the time. Different games serve different purposes to users. For some people, they play board games because they just want to have some relaxing time. Easy fun maintains focus with player attention rather than a winning condition (Lazzaro, 2004). For example, when I was playing the Bears VS Babies game at Ludica, I was attracted by the weird body parts on the card. I was excited to figure out what monsters I might create, and I did not care about the winning conditions.
Social interaction:
If a board game supports and creates opportunities for social interaction, it will create more fun for the players. In my hometown, sometimes after a family gathering dinner, senior adults like to play Mahjong (a traditional a tile-based game). It is a way for them to communicate and socialize. They usually talk about their old days, about their work and life or just gossip. Similarly, for some of my friends (20 to 28 years old) who grew up in western countries, they like to play board games or video games after they have parties at home. My friends say board games give them the reason to invite friends over and catch up. Playing with friends adds more fun to board games themselves.
Simple and visualized cards/props (avoid lengthy manual and text-heavy cards):
At Ludica, I checked some board games that looked very fancy. Once I opened the boxes and read the manual, I lost patience because of the text-heavy manual. Even when I finally understood the rules, I would give up the game if it requires more than 5 minutes to set up the game props. For example, Dream Factory, a movie producing card game, took me and my classmate a long time to set up the cards. There were 8 categories of cards that needed to be put in different places on the map. The long preparing process already killed most of my excitement.
Environment:
When and where to play board games also affect whether players enjoy the game. For instance, for me, regardless of what board games I play, playing in a pizza restaurant in the afternoon is more enjoyable than playing them in a noisy kitchen in the early morning.
Handcrafted board games:
Making board games by players themselves also makes the playing experience more fun. Compared to playing board games bought from the store, playing games that are made by players or their friends brings more meanings and emotional attachment to them. There was a time when I was in middle school, me and my classmates were passionate about making simple games with stationery. We drew maps on the notebook, cut rubbers into cubes and created rules for games. We played the game during class breaks. Sometimes, we added new mechanics or created new levels to improve the game. Although the board games we created would be regarded as very ugly made and unbalanced, playing them was a lot of fun for me at that time!
Reference
Lazzaro, N. (2004). Why we play games: Four keys to more emotion without story.
Sweetser, P., & Wyeth, P. (2005). GameFlow: a model for evaluating player enjoyment in games. Computers in Entertainment (CIE),3(3), 3-3.
Part 2: A physical game:
I played this game a long time ago. I didn’t organize my friends to play this game again for this assignment, but I found a similar video that can demonstrate how to play it.
Flip cup catch game:
Props: a table, 40+ cups, 2 empty bottles
Rules:
- Divide people into two groups.
- In each group, person A is in charge of flipping the cup from the table, person B stands 1.5 meters away from the table and needs to catch the cup with the empty bottle in his/her hand.
- After using up 20 cups, person B replaces person A, and person C replace person B.
- Two groups compete and the group who catches more cups within 5 minutes win.
Part 3: How did the "fun-ness" of the game I chose to play compare to what I learned about board games at Ludica?
Compared to the board games I played at Ludica, the physical game I choose creates “fun-ness” in different aspects.
Requires little background knowledge about a certain area:
Some board games may require players to have some knowledge about the game. For example, to play “Star War” board games, it’s better for players to know the characters’ background. However, the physical game needs no background knowledge from the players. Anyone can play as long as they are physically healthy.
Easy to grasp rules:
Instead of spending a few minutes to read and understand rules, players can understand the game by watching people demonstrates it once or twice.
Atmosphere created by team members and audiences:
another aspect that makes the physical game fun is the cheers from team members (or the audience) and the heated atmosphere. When people are not playing, they usually cheer for the players; players’ funny failures of even create laughter. The atmosphere brought by the physical game is incomparable to that brought by board games even though people also laugh when they play board games.
© Wenyi Gong 2019
Comments