17 December 2013

Choices and Randomness

Chess is almost always almost no fun to play.  Overlooking the fact that "three's a party," a core problem is that Chess requires very specific skills and knowledge.  When two opponents with different skills and knowledge levels are matched together the result is very lopsided. The game is abundant in choices but lacking in randomness.  This tends to discourage new players, as the ones that are most excited to play with them are often going to beat them up on the game board.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Monopoly.  Okay, its not completely opposite, but I LOATHE Monopoly for many reason (captured very well here).  Monopoly has abundant, if boring randomness (all movement defined by rolling dice), and only a very few choices (buy property or don't buy).  There is the arranging of the BIG trades, but these are so few and far between and so painstaking to orchestrate that it is almost never fun for everyone involved.

Luckily there is an abundance of very fun games, mostly designed in the last 20 years, that fill in the spectrum between these two extremes very nicely.  Over the next several entries I will be laying out my perspective on board gaming in general as well as providing a few reviews of fun games with an explanation of what type of gaming experience they provide.  I hope this might inspire folks to play more games--and help them choose the game with the right balance of choice and randomness rather than merely choosing a game at random.


1 comment:

Unknown said...

Yeah dear, Chess and cards are most fun games to be played in free time. The thing that I like about chess is that it is a kind of exercise for brain that makes you active and these games can be played by anyone including children and adults.