– PROMPT –
- Answer the following Board Game Playing Questions.
- Your blog’s topic should be about the emergent mechanic. If you have no idea about the emergence experience in games please read Chapter-3: “Complex System and the Structure of Emergence” – [use this material to support your idea]
- This page: Board Game Mechanics has much more mechanics than what you played in the board game club – [Find more mechanics and details to support your opinion and inspire your design in the Team Blog below]
– RESPONSE –
- What games did you play? Please address their name of them. 3 at least.
谁是牛头王；矮人挖矿；嫌疑人在跳舞。
- Which game is your favorite? Can you describe the mechanics that the most fun experience is derived from?
Among all three games, 谁是牛头王 is my favorite for its simple mechanics yet involving experience. In general, there are four rows of cards (with numbers 1-104 and random number of 牛头) with one head card given. In each round, every player would pick one card from their hand and put it next to the card with the closest number in ascending order. Whoever puts the sixth card in each row has to collect all the rest five. In the end, the player having the most 牛头 loses the game.
- Did you find the emergent game experience? Can you describe that? The description could be rules, mechanics, play experience, etc.
As is described in Chapter 3, “for gameplay to emerge from [emergence, the structure of game mechanics, and gameplay], the mechanics must be balanced between order and chaos… Ordered systems are simple to predict, while chaotic systems are impossible to predict, even when you fully understand the way the parts work that make up the system. Emergence thrives somewhere between order and chaos.”
In this game, the rule of punishing the player who owns the sixth card seems unpredictable, thus tending towards chaos. However after first round of experiment, we gradually realized that by paying attention to the cards already given out / calculating between the distance of numbers and the number of players / using the smallest number to get through a tough round, order does exist among hidden strategies. Such subtle balance leads to “a high replay value because the challenges and possible actions that occur while playing are different every time”, thus further making it “a game of emergence”.
- Which aspect of the board game corresponds to the gameplay in the video game? (As we all know that gameplay is a critical part of video games, so much so that understanding the game system, and surviving the game all depend on it.)
Similar to video games, board game also requires active learning. Simple as the mechanics is, we could always learn more hidden rules through different rounds of play. The more we learn, the higher chance we obtain to win the game, which just as we practiced in video games.
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