Blog Post #3: Monopoly Is The Worst Board Game To Exist (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Introduction

In this blog post, I took two formal elements and two elements of engagement from Heagney’s lists, and compared & contrasted my group game with an existing board game that I’ve played. Of course, I had to choose Settlers of Catan, my favorite board game. Then, I apply these four elements to two of my “Important Points of Game Design” from my last blog post.

Formal Elements

Formal elements are the elements that form the structure of a game. Without them, games cease to be games (Fullerton). The two formal elements I chose are ‘conflict’ and ‘resources’.

Conflict emerges from the players trying to accomplish the goals of a game within the rules and boundaries (Fullerton). In both Catan and my board game, Get Off My Island!, the conflict comes from the other players in the game, as they act as your direct opponents. In both games, the overarching conflict is that opponents are constantly looking to starve you from resources while acquiring the resources for themselves. For Catan, however, there is an additional conflict of map/territory control, while GOMI! has a conflict of the players looking to directly kill the other inhabitants of the island.

Resources in games play a similar role as resources in the real world: assets that can be used to accomplish certain goals (Fullerton). Catan has 5 resources: wood, brick, wheat, sheep, and stone. There are certain combinations of these resources that can be used to build and (directly or indirectly) reach the game’s win condition. Although GOMI! has different resources (wood, stone, and fiber), the resources can also be used to craft certain items that give an advantage to each individual player.

Elements of Engagement

The elements of engagement help the players connect emotionally to the game experience and invest them in its outcome. It gives context to the gameplay to create a meaningful and memorable experience (Fullerton). The two elements of engagement that I chose are ‘premise’ and ‘challenge’.

The premise of a game establishes the game’s action within a setting or metaphor. Without a game’s premise, lots of games would be too abstract for most players to become emotionally invested in the end result (Fullerton). In Catan, the premise is that you start with 2 small settlements, and eventually build up a huge civilization that controls a large area of land and a variety of resources, all whilst racing against other players/settlers of the land. In GOMI!, the premise of the game is that the players are stuck on an island with a limited supply of food and resources, and each player must attempt to be the last man standing. This premise gives a dramatic element to the game, and engages the player to want to complete the game’s objective.

Similar to that Goldilocks story, the challenge of a game cannot be too hard or too easy; it has to be just right. The challenges must be satisfying to complete, and require the right amount of work to create a sense of accomplishment and enjoyment (Fullerton). The challenge in Catan is the ability to acquire the correct combinations of resources for what you need. Each player needs resources, and these resources translate to roads, settlements, cities, etc. If a player has a bad start, they will have to scramble to catch up to others who are quickly building and blocking off valuable resource hexes. It is a challenge to get back into the game when being put far behind. In GOMI!, the challenge is being able to survive with limited food resources, while trying to kill the other players who are trying to kill you as well. Each player must be able to balance maintaining their health with depleting others.

Connection to My “What Makes A Game?” List

In my previous list of “What Makes A Game?” my #6 requirement was that a game needed narrative/lore for it to be a good game. I feel that my game’s premise and resources apply to the game’s narrative. Again, GOMI!’s premise is that the players are stuck on an island with a limited supply of food and resources, and each player must attempt to be the last man standing. This premise is a big part of the narrative. As for the resources, it applies to the game’s narrative because these resources can all realistically be found on an island, and they are limited in number, similar to how an island’s resources are limited.

#4 in my list firmly states that a game cannot exist without a goal in mind. The goal of being “last man standing” in GOMI! creates conflict between the players, because there can only be one person standing in the end. The challenge of this is that each player has to kill others while others attempt to kill them.