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A Report From the Heart of the Board Games Industry
Ward Batty, writing for Gamasutra, attended the recent Essen International Game Days event in Germany. The beating heart of German board games culture, it's equivalent to Origins or Gen Con here in the US. Batty got to see firsthand what the future will bring for tabletop gaming - and how that might impact the videogames of tomorrow. He also offers up a few words looking back at the history of boardgames in the EU: "What distinguishes a Eurogame from a typical American board game? Unlike many American games which are net sum (you gain by taking directly from other players) in Eurogames players are generally competing against the game itself. They may compete for limited resources or the best action, but rarely do the spoils come directly from an opponent, but instead from the game itself -- usually in the form of victory points. German games are generally shorter to play, ranging from 20-90 minutes. There is usually a good social aspect to the game as well. Players are almost never eliminated from the game, for example."
For an excellent example of what the article is talking about, go buy a copy of Settlers of Catan. It's incredibly simple to play, very fast, and there is no time at which you aren't involved.
Indeed yes, we play it in the pub regularly.
But there are many reasons why this game is so good, some of them quite subtle.
1. It is self levelling. In the fact that the simple penalty structure, robbers, 7 rolls are all biased to pick on the leader by simple social engineering. This means the losers get a chance to catch up and the leader finds it harder to win.
2. As a consequence of 1, most games all ends with everybody all "about to finish" - in this respect its commanding social game as nobody is left out and its normally a rush for the end.
3. There is a strong element of trading and persuasion in the game - this further enhances to social element of play
4. Statistics. It has been wonderfully designed - from the probabilities of the cards, the probabilities of the game to present a darn good game with numerous tactics you can use to win.
5. Simple. Its a game anybody can learn in their first game and be competent on their second.
If you have not played it there are stand alone player vs. PC versions around (a fantastic DOS version which puts up a fierce challange) and multiuser 'net versions notably Sea3D.
But best of all buy a real board version and play with some friends and a few good drinks, you'll be hooked.
The board games I played as a child all suffered from the same problem, the choices to be made were important, but not as important as good luck. Obviously the worst example of this is snakes and ladders, where there are no choices at all, but Monopoly is pretty terrible on this front too as you have almost no control over where you land.
It was a refreshing change to be introduced to German style games where there is often much less random in a game (if any at all after the initial setup) so it really is down to strategy. Some of the people I play with are more interested in playing the players rather than the game directly, and with a lot of these games relying on trading or creating alliances or peace pacts this can be a vital element. My partner prefers games where other people can't mess with what you are trying to do too badly, and there are plenty of games where the players can help, not hinder, each other.
The Settlers of Catan is mentioned in the article and it is a very popular game but I think that it too suffers from too much random. There is an expansion pack that replaces the dice (worst game mechanic ever) with a set of cards in all the right ratios. I can't recommend this variant enough as it really helps promote the power of your choices over the power of the dice.