People may actually display the fact they are having fun while playing games. All sorts of fun. A recent article by Nate French, lead designer of the 2nd edition of A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, inspired me to think a little about the different ways we experience gaming. In the article French discusses the different archetype of players that play the game and how they figure into his thinking while developing the game. The article is a revisit of the one written by designer extraordinaire Eric Lang when he designed the game back in 2002 and it's a familiar idea to designers of Magic: The Gathering (it is often associated with guardian saint of game design Richard Garfield, original designer of M:tG). And I'm sure there are many more such lists that I have yet to encounter.
It struck me as interesting because many designers who run kickstarter campaigns talk about how they designed the game they wanted to play themselves. And that's obviously great. But what makes Garfield and Lang so successful is that they make games that simultaneously satisfy not just their gaming taste and not just any one gaming taste - they make games that appeal to multiple types of players at the same time. Doing that well is quite an achievement. Making a game more well-rounded means it would be played more, by more people and provide more types of fun.
Types of fun? What does that mean? I'm glad you ask. There's a great episode of the Board Game Designers Forum where Nicole Lazzaro presents her theory about the four kinds of fun we experience when we play games: easy-fun we get from exploration; hard-fun we get from mastery; serious-fun we get from having our game experience matter; and people-fun, which we get from sharing the experience with other people. It's a cool idea and I found it helpful in thinking about the different types of people who may be playing your game.
Take this as an invitation to think about the different people who play your games and the different reasons you and they have to play them. Here is my attempt to shamelessly take the idea and adapt to the world of board gaming, introducing: the people who play your board games.
It struck me as interesting because many designers who run kickstarter campaigns talk about how they designed the game they wanted to play themselves. And that's obviously great. But what makes Garfield and Lang so successful is that they make games that simultaneously satisfy not just their gaming taste and not just any one gaming taste - they make games that appeal to multiple types of players at the same time. Doing that well is quite an achievement. Making a game more well-rounded means it would be played more, by more people and provide more types of fun.
Types of fun? What does that mean? I'm glad you ask. There's a great episode of the Board Game Designers Forum where Nicole Lazzaro presents her theory about the four kinds of fun we experience when we play games: easy-fun we get from exploration; hard-fun we get from mastery; serious-fun we get from having our game experience matter; and people-fun, which we get from sharing the experience with other people. It's a cool idea and I found it helpful in thinking about the different types of people who may be playing your game.
Take this as an invitation to think about the different people who play your games and the different reasons you and they have to play them. Here is my attempt to shamelessly take the idea and adapt to the world of board gaming, introducing: the people who play your board games.
First, we have Theresa, who plays the game for its theme. Theresa is the player who cares mostly about stories - both the ones being told to us by the game, and the ones we tell each other (and the world) by playing it. Her favorite game is Pandemic Legacy but she will transform any game into a bit of legacy by telling and retelling the stories of what happened last time you've played that game. When she rolls the dice, she'll tell you what she's doing and when she gets a result - she'll explains to you why she failed. Theresa wants the rules to mean something beyond the game, and she wants to find herself within the game-world as a meaningful being (whether a better version of herself or someone else). Theresa hates abstract games and is rarely a fan of point-salad games. She has to feel like the goal is striving for is something she might otherwise be interested in: curing diseases, saving the world, taking over the world, getting a lot of money, finishing first.
Next there is Ephraim, who plays to step out of his own skin: to be someone else and to do things he normally doesn't get to do. Ephraim loves to try stuff out and see what happens - do the craziest/funniest/most aggressive/riskiest/most unexpected move. Ephraim will test the boundaries of your game and will therefore be a very useful playtester: he's just as likely to find the broken combos as he is to find the rare state of misery for which the game needs a catch-up mechanic. Theresa and Ephraim both love role-playing, but while Theresa wants the story to make sense, Ephraim will invariably create plot holes. What happens if you push the red button, he asks? And the Blue? Ephraim can ruin everybody's fun or make everybody's day. Ephraim's favorite game is Xia: Legends of a Drift System though he also loves to play simple games like Cash & Guns because they let him do stuff he doesn't normally get to (like point a foam gun at his grandma). He also loves any game that has a great deal of chaos and loves expansions that may not add anything to gameplay so long as they bring variety - the more, the better.
Allen just wants to win. There's no need to talk about her at great length, we all know her. Allen is the Alpha gamer who sees rules for what they are: constraints within which she has to work in order to get the most of whatever-it-is that you need to get to be declared the winner. Allen may play Netrunner competitively but she's just as fierce, ruthless and single-minded when playing Two Rooms and a Boom or Hey that's my fish!. She hates games with a lot of luck, or what she perceived as luck, but don't expect her to sit out on a dexterity game or a cooperative: so long as there is a clear goal, a way to achieve it and some measure of skill involved - Allen is in. And she will win.
Allen is never alone, because her spouse is often a Sammy, who doesn't care that much about the rules or winning. Sammy wants everybody to have fun: he sees games as a way to enjoy each other in a different way. That doesn't mean that he won't be into aggressive games - he might find it hilarious to attack and destroy someone just because she is a friend, or a spouse or a professional rival. Allen would hate it if the move isn't optimal, Ephraim would be bored and Theresa would be dismayed that it doesn't make sense. But Sammy doesn't care that much about these things, he just wants to play the people - whether or not it makes sense in the game-world. Sammy can hold a grudge, play to take down whoever he thinks is the best player (regardless of whether they are doing well in this game) or he could 'go soft' on a newcomer.
Lastly, don't forget Gregory. Greg plays to win, but doesn't mind if he loses while exploring a new strategy. Greg likes trying new things but not if they don't hold the potential to lead to victory. In fact, he would probably prefer to win with a weird, unknown or unlikely strategy. Greg likes a good story but only if it fits the mechanics really well. The one thing Gregory doesn't care about is whether or not the other players are people, robots or illusions of an evil demon. Greg is not playing the people, he is playing the game. More accurately, he is playing with the game - Greg is more interested in the designer's choices than in their consequences, more interested in the score track than his own score. Greg derives his enjoyment from exploring the game, figuring out what it tries to do. Greg wants to win but most of all - he wants to crack the game open and, ultimately, 'solve' it. Greg doesn't have one favorite game - games are his favorite thing, and the ranking is constantly changing. Few games stay in the same spot for a long time though one or two ultimate favorites may win a place of honor.
Real people are complex beings with mixed motivations, not caricatures - so nobody would know would be exactly an Allen or Sammy. But most people will have a bit of each with some dominant voices. Which voice is dominant can change: on some days they'll be after the win at all costs, on others they'll try something crazy to please their friends or tell a story. Yet, it's helpful to think about these categories when you're designing a game and even when you're hosting a game night. These archetypes pull in different directions - not just in the choice of the game but also in the way you teach and run it. If you're teaching Kemet to a bunch of Allens, you better make sure to go over the tiles and make sure they have a good idea of what's out there. If they're a bunch of Ephraims, you can let them discover it by themselves. Finding or making a game that can accommodate all of these different audiences is a skill - one you can get better at.
What kind of a gamer are you? And how do you prepare a game for different audiences?
Real people are complex beings with mixed motivations, not caricatures - so nobody would know would be exactly an Allen or Sammy. But most people will have a bit of each with some dominant voices. Which voice is dominant can change: on some days they'll be after the win at all costs, on others they'll try something crazy to please their friends or tell a story. Yet, it's helpful to think about these categories when you're designing a game and even when you're hosting a game night. These archetypes pull in different directions - not just in the choice of the game but also in the way you teach and run it. If you're teaching Kemet to a bunch of Allens, you better make sure to go over the tiles and make sure they have a good idea of what's out there. If they're a bunch of Ephraims, you can let them discover it by themselves. Finding or making a game that can accommodate all of these different audiences is a skill - one you can get better at.
What kind of a gamer are you? And how do you prepare a game for different audiences?
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