Signals from beyond
Hello....?
Is this thing on?
Hello....?
Anyway... after a long time away from this place I have returned to post the kind of things that Livejournal has become known for: whining that is too long for either Facebook or Google+.
Last night we had our weekly gaming night and got to play For Sale, Funny Friends and Race for the Galaxy. And it was a mostly dry and boring affair. This made me realise two things:
1. I need a fun gaming night once a week to unwind and relax. Without it, I'm bored, tense and whiny at work.
2. There are games, where playing to win or even playing most efficiently and effectively does not generate a particularly entertaining experience.
Case in point, we played a three-player game of For Sale, which is a blind bidding game. It's a filler game that shouldn't take more than 30 minutes and should be a laugh. I was stuck with two players who focussed on calculating their maximum bid for strategic effectiveness to maximize their victory points. A legitimate strategy, sure... but also a painfully dull and uninteresting one. There could be bluffing, goading or even teasing to make the game more interesting.. instead we were just bidding silently and picking up cards. Because apparently, that's how games are played now.
A fourth player joined us, as we wrapped up the game and we followed up For Sale with Funny Friends, which is essentially a nerdy and funnier version of Game of Life. It's a card game where you try to achieve certain Life Goals by adapting your life to qualify for them. One of my Life Goals was to be a single & happy, which required me to not be in a relationship, have some money, have some drugs and not be unhappy. (All qualities which you can influence during the game by playing certain events.) It's a funny game, where the various events end up creating sometimes hillarious narratives of a person's life. We had one "neutral character" (not played by another player) who ended up in a relationship with every one of us during the course of the game. And again, the other players were aggressively pursuing their goals to race to the finishing line. I think that the game invites and encourages players to just take funny detours with their characters, and make them do things because they are just fun (like joining a Bible class to steal somebody else's girlfriend). But sadly, none of this seemed to interest the rest of the group. What makes it all so discouraging is the realisation that none of them seem to acknowledge this part of gaming (creating a narrative as you play, infused by the social dynamics of the group) as something valuable or something to play towards. I think to them it's just something that happens accidentally during a game and they're happy when it does. But they don't really care if it doesn't... or worse, they blame the game design for it.
We wrapped things up with a game of Race for the Galaxy, which as you can probably guess, was right up their alley. No meaningful interaction, only the most rudimentary elements of narrative building and a race towards victory points. A game that is built around the idea of playing efficiently and strategically, and purposefully ignores the social dimension of playing games together.
I need new people to play games with.
Is this thing on?
Hello....?
Anyway... after a long time away from this place I have returned to post the kind of things that Livejournal has become known for: whining that is too long for either Facebook or Google+.
Last night we had our weekly gaming night and got to play For Sale, Funny Friends and Race for the Galaxy. And it was a mostly dry and boring affair. This made me realise two things:
1. I need a fun gaming night once a week to unwind and relax. Without it, I'm bored, tense and whiny at work.
2. There are games, where playing to win or even playing most efficiently and effectively does not generate a particularly entertaining experience.
Case in point, we played a three-player game of For Sale, which is a blind bidding game. It's a filler game that shouldn't take more than 30 minutes and should be a laugh. I was stuck with two players who focussed on calculating their maximum bid for strategic effectiveness to maximize their victory points. A legitimate strategy, sure... but also a painfully dull and uninteresting one. There could be bluffing, goading or even teasing to make the game more interesting.. instead we were just bidding silently and picking up cards. Because apparently, that's how games are played now.
A fourth player joined us, as we wrapped up the game and we followed up For Sale with Funny Friends, which is essentially a nerdy and funnier version of Game of Life. It's a card game where you try to achieve certain Life Goals by adapting your life to qualify for them. One of my Life Goals was to be a single & happy, which required me to not be in a relationship, have some money, have some drugs and not be unhappy. (All qualities which you can influence during the game by playing certain events.) It's a funny game, where the various events end up creating sometimes hillarious narratives of a person's life. We had one "neutral character" (not played by another player) who ended up in a relationship with every one of us during the course of the game. And again, the other players were aggressively pursuing their goals to race to the finishing line. I think that the game invites and encourages players to just take funny detours with their characters, and make them do things because they are just fun (like joining a Bible class to steal somebody else's girlfriend). But sadly, none of this seemed to interest the rest of the group. What makes it all so discouraging is the realisation that none of them seem to acknowledge this part of gaming (creating a narrative as you play, infused by the social dynamics of the group) as something valuable or something to play towards. I think to them it's just something that happens accidentally during a game and they're happy when it does. But they don't really care if it doesn't... or worse, they blame the game design for it.
We wrapped things up with a game of Race for the Galaxy, which as you can probably guess, was right up their alley. No meaningful interaction, only the most rudimentary elements of narrative building and a race towards victory points. A game that is built around the idea of playing efficiently and strategically, and purposefully ignores the social dimension of playing games together.
I need new people to play games with.